How to Market Your Start-up
13 Steps to build a movement around your start-up.
The best startup founders create a story around their business. Leaders who run successful startups talk about something much more significant than themselves. Your startup needs to be on a mission to change the world. It’s not just about solving a problem. It’s about creating a future that people want to be a part of. Startups that create a movement with their stories are much more likely to get funded and succeed.
There is an infinite amount of available capital in the world, and all you need to do as a founder is tell a unique and captivating story. Don’t believe me? Without any minimum viable product or innovative tech platform, my friend recently funded the Human app with a basic landing page. How did they get funded? With a pitch deck that told a great story about creating a world free from chronic disease.
“Our mission at Human is to make healing easy for everyone. We envision a world free from chronic diseases.”
Twitch co-founder Justin Kan recently shared valuable advice on how to tell a great story with your pitch deck.
Justin Kan, the co-founder of Twitch, tweeted how founders need to create their pitch deck to secure funding for their startups.
Justin Kan’s advice on how to create a pitch deck for your startup.
A big mistake founders make is thinking that the purpose of a deck is to get people to invest.
The truth is that whoever is reading your deck is likely distracted/not interested. Your job is to stand out, and make them excited.
Figure out ways to communicate things in very simple ways — it could be through simple language, numbers, clear visualization elements, or being creative in your presentation.
Having a good framing of the problem is key. Assume that the investor you’re pitching to knows next to nothing about the industry or problem.
Effective framing helps the investor understand the problem and why your solution is important. It also helps them empathize with the user experience.
2. Find ways to present yourself as the expert who can solve the problem. Having a strong resume that sets up your credibility is very important. The ‘team’ slide is often the one that interests me the most in setting up a meeting and finding out more
Good investors will invest in founders, not companies. If you’re creating a creator-focused company, it helps if you are an expert, or content creator yourself. If you are building a deep AI company, maybe you spent years at Google or Nvidia.
In the countless decks I’ve seen, too often there are terrible team slides with names next to random logos/affiliations that have little to no relevance. Use specific bullet points for each person and why they are important and qualified to work on this idea.
3. What’s your solution? No, really…what is it? As someone who is viewing your deck (and thousands of others), I should not have to work very hard to understand your solution.
Don’t just include random screenshots of the UI without any context — this is a common theme. Instead, walk people through user journeys like value propositions.
If you can’t sum up your killer app in 1–3 bullet points, then it probably doesn’t have killer features driving it. Simplicity is your friend.
User stories are also very compelling. If I had to pitch Uber, the narrative about the difficulties of hailing a taxi in the city versus the ease of the app -> destination is simple and compelling.
4. Traction. This is important because it's the number one signifier that people are interested in your product. Even if they aren’t users, it still means they are at least curious.
Ideal metrics to include are the ones that require the least explanation as possible to the investor, and ones which honestly depict relevant growth data.
5. Vision Pitch the biggest vision that you can for your solution. ‘Here’s why this is going to change the world.’ This gets investors interested, intrigued, and understanding of the direction you’re heading.
I encourage everyone to put something in about what the world looks like in which your idea is successful. However, your vision slide has to be credible. If you want to topple Apple or Google, your team needs to be credible enough to do it.
End your pitch with your vision once you have enough social currency with the potential investor. I need to believe what you’re saying, which is established through understanding the problem, being shown the solution, and convinced that this is going to work.
13 Steps to market your startup like a grassroots movement, ready to change the world.
These 13 steps have been taken from David Sachs’ playbook with my own spin on them. David Sachs is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley who was the COO and founder of Paypal. Sachs is an authority in the startup community due to his success with investments in SaaS startups. He’s written about these 13 steps from a political campaign’s perspective in Your Startup Is a Movement.
1. Take two steps back and define a larger problem.
Elon Musk is an excellent example of a leader who talks about moving the world forward through sustainable energy. He’s built a cult following from his purposeful, innovative technology to build electric cars. This gives people a higher cause to believe in more than merely autonomous vehicles. When founders of startups can rally people to a cause, they generate earned media through PR instead of spending large budgets through paid advertising. Tesla is not the only company with little to no advertising budget. Apple and Microsoft didn’t advertise to build their reputable brand, and they used PR instead.
2. Know the problem inside out.
Successful startups delve deeper into the problems they aim to solve. They do this by looking at the user experience, the human factor. You need a better story than facts or statistics that scratch the surface. If you can talk about a problem that reveals insightful information unknown to most people, then everyone will trust that you have the solution. How you build your story entirely relies on the way, you frame the problem. This is what Justin Kan describes as key when you develop your pitch deck to generate credibility.
Christopher Lochhead unpacks this best in his podcast about framing the problem, not the solution.
3. Change the status quo.
Your competitor should be as tall and strong as Goliath. Startups that gain attention defy the status quo by attacking problems that we all agree need to be tackled, like fossil fuels (Tesla). As a startup, you may have competitors or try to disrupt incumbents, but there are much larger issues to tackle if you can look outside of the corporate world. This is where you can build a grassroots movement by engineering technology that will create value for people with a unique proposition.
Six years ago, the former CEO of Patagonia, Rosia Marcario, led an initiative to use business solutions to help with the environmental crisis. This is an excellent example of how existing organizations can create a groundswell with their consumers by addressing real-world issues aligned with their brand equity.
4. Redefine the category.
If you create or redefine a category, people will believe you’re the leader of it. Tripadvisor, Expedia, and many other websites had served up small business offerings well before Brian Chesky created experiences for Airbnb. But he has redefined what small business services are. When people talk about the potential market of experiences that can be tapped, everyone thinks of Brian Chesky, CEO and founder of Airbnb. I don’t even think there ever was a market that captured or even existed for experiences before Brian Chesky launched it through Airbnb in 2016!
5. Choose the right people to build a strong foundation.
Georgia Vidler, the founder of Human app, has framed her problem and articulated their category. Now they’re on the hunt for engineers to build their app. You don’t need to hire the top engineers in tech to create a great team. We can teach people skills, but attitudes aren’t easily changed. A trusted team that all agree on the direction and ethos of the company will create a better incubation environment to build out your product than a team that might be divided by big egos.
6. Start at the grassroots of communities.
People are driven to form communities within their neighborhoods, at work, at school, and in social spheres. Humans need to connect with communities. Hence why you should tap into communities rather than focus on audience segmentation, age groups, or the creation of rich personas. Start by tapping into the power of communities. At the grassroots level, use testimonials from your community. It is the nature of communities to support each other, and there is no stronger testimony for your startup than one from your customer.
Customer testimonials create the best credibility for your startup, and word of mouth is still the strongest wrench in a marketer’s toolbox. Today’s multifaceted influencers have been born from word-of-mouth marketing. Social media platforms simply provide digitized versions of traditional word-of-mouth marketing. It has and always will remain the most powerful marketing strategy when executed correctly.
7. Make a statement.
Influential founders of startups release news updates that combine products, customers, milestones, and partnerships. If you want the world’s attention, then go bold. Create a fantasy that is unimaginable and most likely unreachable in our lifetime. You don’t need to look far to see that the best storytellers take us to colonies on Mars (Elon Musk), interconnected space travel for future generations (Jeff Bezos), or the Metaverse (Mark Zuckerburg).
These startup founders are more like magicians that wave wands to create an extraordinary impact to remind us of larger-than-life issues they aim to solve. But if you scratch the surface, they’re just pulling at your attention by breaking through the clutter of noise in the world to keep front of mind. As per my friend’s brilliant startup, the Human app wants to eradicate chronic disease from our world. This is a statement of behemoth proportions but a great mission to get behind.
8. Make real-world connections.
Create launch events, seminars, or breakfast presentations inviting internal and external people for pivotal announcements around your startup. It could be industry-focused roundups or important product releases. Do not underestimate real-world connections. Billion-dollar startups aren’t born through virtual connections. Sorry, Zoom!
Founders doubt themselves all the time. If people have come to work at your startup, they already believe in your mission, so push doubt off the cliff, don’t turn back, and motivate internal and external people through events. Create gravitas around your startup.
9. Connect with your community.
It’s never been easier to connect with the world through online communities. Connect with people through Slack, Facebook, Reddit, or any forum that drives community building on their platform. Tribes are built upon connected people in one way or another, led by a leader with an extraordinary idea. Founders need to act like politicians stepping onto a podium to debate their vision unflinchingly. Seth Godin wrote a book about the importance of Tribes. One of the best books marketers should read.
10. Stand up for your ethos.
We live in a diverse world where we sometimes feel the need to step back from fights to disarm angry mobs. You should fight for your startup’s mission unabated. Pick battles with larger companies polluting our environment, offering underpaid jobs, and not standing up for equality. There are many companies out there that need to be disrupted, taken down, and liquidated. They no longer serve a purpose in our new paradigm of equality, innovative green technologies, valued employees, and forward thinkers. Break ground by unpacking old structures that need to be abolished to help define what your startup’s solution is. Be a visionary.
11. Focus on value to drive advocacy.
Today’s world is more accepting than at any time in history. We have a long way to go, but human rights, an individual’s right to have a voice, equality on multiple fronts, and fights for minorities are being discussed. These discussions are meaningful because it moves our world forward. Creativity is sourced from diversity. Different beliefs, different values, different opinions create a world where innovation thrives. Without this accepted chaos, then community values would look like the cold Siberian arctic. Desolate.
Startups that mirror their core values by stepping up onto the world stage provide infinite value. Incumbent businesses are being disrupted because they are led by old-school thinkers who lack the mindset to drive real change. Just like any brand, your startup will have a mission statement, north star, or ethos that causes an emotive response from their audience.
Don’t slack off to sit on the sidelines when the world calls for larger-than-life voices to drive value. Netflix stood up to the plate with black lives matter, Tweeting, “We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators, and talent to speak up.” Airbnb offered 20,000 refugees free housing. These startups aligned their core immutable brand values to stand up to critical real-world issues. And the result was consumer advocacy amplified by the media attention these startups received.
Don’t traverse your core startup values to speak up on matters beyond your brand. The world will see right through fake missions like that of Theranos. If you don’t have a voice, then create one. But make it true.
12. Drive your narrative.
People can become overwhelmed by having to share their personal stories. We have all been asked hard questions at one point or another like “tell me about yourself.” You need to strip away all the different aspects and layers of your startup to clearly define why it will create value. It’s essential to have a valid underlying reason for your startup to exist so that it has a solid foundation. A clear vision also provides you with confidence that will influence people to believe in your startup’s mission.
Tap into influencers to help drive your business. Work with public relations to create unique, captivating stories. Don’t rely on others to amplify your story. We live in a connected world with platforms like Substack, Medium, Kickstarter, and social media channels to tell your story.
Do not be mistaken.
People want to be taken on your startup’s journey.
13. Never lose your true north.
I want to call these 13 steps “the 13 immutable laws of marketing your startup”. But that is an embellishment of the truth. These are valuable steps to develop your startup’s narrative and gain traction. Stay grounded to your true north. Any business that doesn’t derive value has no reason for existence. Use this pdf to evaluate what your True North strategy is. Don’t use combustive, ostentatious, flamboyant language to describe your strong value proposition!
Takeaways
Your startup needs a story that doesn’t sound like you’re starting a typical business. The best way to achieve this is to think about a larger mission statement than the organization or startup you want to create.
People today, just like my friend, are receiving million-dollar investments from simply providing a pitch deck that tells a compelling story. Justin Kan’s advice on creating a pitch deck should be taken seriously because of his success, including the sale of Twitch to Amazon for $970 million in 2014.
If you’re looking for startup funding, align your idea to my 13 immutable laws to market your startup! Build your own robust framework around it. Develop a grassroots movement around your startup’s north star. Act like a politician by talking to something much larger than yourself, be a visionary by unpacking what the world needs through innovative technology, and be a leader of a tribe to nurture a community that fundamentally has values worth fighting for.
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Thank you for reading,
Rick Govic
