Disruption is in my blood, why I joined a potential Unicorn

Why did you join another startup? I get this (and related) question a lot. Just over 6-months ago I joined the team at Smart Vision Labs (a 2 year old startup with a team of 15) to run the marketing team. It just so happened this was the same time the business was going through a major pivot in its business model. Although I had a few other job offers to consider, I took the plunge and joined what might be one of my biggest marketing challenges to date. (Given my previous challenges, marketing disruptive startups in online education, HR Tech, and even a social media app, that is saying quite a lot.) Sometimes you just know the opportunity is right for you, and in this case that is what happened. The CEO and I clicked during the interviews, the company had a mission worth taking on — and who doesn’t love bringing a disruptive company to the market? (Yeah, I know those being disrupted don’t care for it that much — but isn’t that the point?)

After joining Smart Vision Labs to promote the telehealth / telemedicine platform I started putting all the “traditional” marketing tactics and strategies in place. We had a plan and executed it well. Early results showed good traction with 20% month-over-month growth during the first few months. I guess we were onto something…

After being given the official title of CMO this month (don’t pop the champagne just yet as we are still a small team) I realized I had to up my game once again. It was time to take another step back in order to take 2–5 steps forward and propel the company to the next level. This post is part of that process.

Disruptive startups are in my blood

You know the kid in the back of the room constantly disrupting the class? Well that was me. Playing by the rules and following the leader were not for me so naturally I gravitated to start ups, where you get to do “your thing” without a lot of oversight. Finding disruptive businesses gets my energy going to look for ways to break through the bureaucracy. The work is almost more rewarding than titles or salary (notice I said “almost”).

Before jumping into more details, it helps to know a bit about me. I have been called a growth hacker, a marketing maestro, and all the traditional marketing titles, too. If I can test, measure and learn from a tool or tactic, I will try it. I am always looking for a new marketing opportunity to grow a business, or an angle or tool to help leverage the business to faster growth. I tell everyone we have no budget, but that if we can make something work, we will invest. I have used all the media channels that exist today (and some that didn’t make the cut!) and run teams from 1–10 people. For me it is not about the tactic but about solving a problem and putting the puzzle pieces together — and yes, I love traditional puzzles, too.

What were Smart Vision Labs marketing objectives?

As a B-B-C business model our marketing is immediately more complex than any of the traditional direct B-B or B-C models. Without distribution we can’t market to consumers, so our first step was getting partners to offer our 5-Minute Smart Vision Exam in their optical stores. Marketing helps support the sales efforts (think lead generation, sales support materials and conferences etc) and the new partners (merchandising, local marketing, grass roots efforts, etc.).

SVL’s technology is disrupting the traditional eye exam business by providing consumers the ability to take vision exams for glasses without having to see a doctor (or deal with the headaches of finding, scheduling and waiting to see one). The test takes 5-minutes or less and consumers control their prescription once it is issued by the telehealth doctor within 24 hours

The next challenge was to educate the market about our product and the Brand and to direct them to where we our partners were. Part of this education was reaching people who either don’t think about their eyes or have easy access to a doctor and explaining to them the importance of eye exams and the convenience of Smart Vision Exams. Easier said than done. We use all the “standard” go to market media sources common in today’s marketing tool kit.

Our objectives remain the same today as they did when I started. Grow our distribution network and bring consumers to those points of service. Of course both have grown and evolved a bit, but the channels are basically the same, although we now know a few more details that we didn’t 6 months ago. Knowledge is power and we are using this information to grow.

Marketing Challenges

As expected when you disrupt an industry, especially a long standing and politically entrenched one with a strong protective lobby, the incumbents are going to push back. They will say some “unpleasant” things about the company in the press, on social media, and within the industry as they try to use fear to defend their position. Of course, that just gets us fired up even more. While we don’t want to battle the establishment, since we believe we have a larger problem of access to solve, we will defend our product/service. We know these fear and intimidation tactics have worked in the past but times are changing and consumers don’t want to be told what they can’t do. This is especially true when there are better alternatives which just so happen to favor the consumer. Can you hear the FTC talking about consumer rights?

Telehealth and telemedicine are new areas and each state has their own health regulations as to who can prescribe glasses and how. The eyecare industry is complex. (Thanks again lobbyists!) New rules and regulations are being proposed and they vary by state. Seeing clearly through this regulation takes time and resources. If your state doesn’t allow telemedicine, you can probably thank some lobbyist or doctor group who wanted to protect their business over your welfare and ability to choose. Thanks to some of our current partners, though, we have a strong plan on how to address specific issues and respond as new bills are proposed.

Marketing SVL Goals and Objectives

This is not a secret. Our goal is to be the #1 resource for all things related to eye care and vision exams! You will know we have been successful when you start asking for a Smart Vision Eye Exam and see our technology in your local store. While we started with a single distribution plan, we still have a number of untapped channels to explore. You will see us in some familiar, important retailers soon. A great partner network helps us grow and we are aggressively growing our pipeline of optical partners. The marketing we have put in place has led to a company that looks nothing like the company I joined. We are now a direct response / digital marketing company with all the tools and tactics needed to grow a business online and through distribution.

As the saying goes, “Startups are always raising money.” We are using our marketing toolkit to attract interest from the VC industry and have been getting them excited about our growth and future potential. Our investors are even getting in on some of the content marketing efforts and our senior leadership team remains active across social media spreading the word.

As a market, vision correction is a profitable one worth pursuing. $22 billion is lost annually in the United States from uncorrected vision. There are 114 million eye exams given every year, taking into account both first time consumers and repeat customers who need prescriptions updated to account for changes in their vision. There are 40,000 ODs in the US and another 20,000 MDs who have to serve this need — and that’s just in the US. Globally, 60% of the world’s population needs vision correction that can be solved by glasses or contact lenses.

OD and MDs are not getting to everyone. We are going to expand the pie and provide more opportunities to everyone. Those who work with us will prosper and we have already started to drive business to our partners who are seeing 500% ROI on the partnership. The potential pie is large and we want to expand it for everyone. We launched a new program inviting the industry to get behind the telehealth revolution. We are not going to let the protectionists prevent us from succeeding, since there are many practitioners who we consider to be visionaries in the industry and who want to be part of the change.

While our org chart depicts a small marketing team, I believe our entire company plays a role in marketing our product and service. Our team is proud. Our product is the best on the market and getting better daily. Most of our major partnerships have come from inbound inquiries, and I credit the team and all of their online efforts for helping us make the deals flow. We are going to get noisier as we ramp up. Yes, content and social media marketing works, but everyone can help promote and market our business. As we grow, our current team and our marketing partners will prosper.

What is next for SVL marketing

“Failure is not an option.” The team is pushing forward full steam ahead. As a startup we have aggressive growth goals and we intend to do what it takes to make them happen. We will close our series B financing and our immediate challenge will be how to continue to build our team without derailing the culture of grit we have created. Yes, marketing will have more to spend on consumer awareness and lead generation, but as noted earlier, everyone will be held to account for ROI. Our channel marketing strategies will expand and we will get more aggressive with our culture of data and analytics — all while continuing to look for targets where we can disrupt the status quo and grab market share.

If a startup can take a marketing lesson from the recent presidential election, it would be to not to underestimate disruption marketing. Let the games…continue.

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