Serving a Global Market from Your Garage - By Sangeet Paul Choudary #PNCamp, Pune

1. Serving a Global Market
from your Garage
Sangeet Paul Choudary
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

2. A few examples
Startups can be lonely celebrations

3. A startup...
is an obscure entity with
the potential for nonlinear growth
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

4. Bumps and Engines
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

5. Getting growth right
PR Bumps + Viral Engine
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

6. Hacking the PR Bump
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

7. Rule 1:
Think of the Journalist as a
Customer
They’re interested in a good story, not in you.
Counterintuitive works
HARO?
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

8. Rule 2:
Twitter is the new backstage pass
Sneak into their conversations with interesting nuggets
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

9. Rule 3:
Recursive PR
Understand the PR Food Chain and feed the Plankton!
Who reads Who!
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

10. Rule 4:
Catch the Newbie
The busier and more secure a person, the less he needs you!
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

11. Rule 5:
Sister Concerns
Same brands but lower editorial constraints
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

12. Rule 6:
Contributor Networks
You don’t need to be the editor’s friend!
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

13. Rule 7:
Be the Page One Celebrity
Own your Google SERP
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

14. Rule 8:
Hack the Hackers: Reddit and HN
Secure a contributor post
Build a voting ring
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

15. Rule 9:
User-generated PR
Users using your product in unusual ways, make the best stories
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

16. Rule 10:
Straight from the horse’s mouth
No one will tell your stories unless you do
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

17. Go from product-first to audience-first while telling stories!
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

19. In summary...
Think of the stories you’ll tell
Knock on the easy gates - get social
proof - knock on the hard ones
Break into conversations and
show them something new
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

20. Designing the Viral Engine
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

21. Viral = Invites?
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

22. Not quite!
Build the
product
Slap on an
invite loop
World
domination
We think of growth divorced from product experience
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

23. Lazy execution brings in lazy users
DailyMotion
Washington Post
Digg
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING
The Guardian

24. Air
Droplets
That
Sneezing
Guy
TARGET
How Diseases Spread
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

25. Recipient
Motivations
External Network
Seeds
Sender
Motivations
How Products Spread
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

26. Ingredient 1:
Viral Seeds
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

27. Viral Seed
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

28. (A project)
(A slideshow)
(Q/A)
(A deal)
Viral
Seeds
(A survey)
(A product listing)
(A lesson)
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING
(A folder)

29. Ingredient 2:
External Network
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

30. User-generated growth leverages a network
where users are already connected
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

31. Social networks with
explicit relationships
Networks with implicit
relationships
Networks of exchange
Contact list integration
Blogosphere
Choose the
right
network
Add value to
the network
Be
First-tonetwork
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

32. AirBnB on
CraigsList
Relevant
Activity
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

33. LinkedIn on
OutLook
Relevant
Connections
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

34. Etsy on
Pinterest
Relevant
Format
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

35. Ingredient 3:
Sender Motivations
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

36. Why Users Spread The
Word?
FAME
FUN
Selfexpression
>
Selfpromotion
FORTUNE
>
Inorganic
Incentives
+
Doesn’t distract user from product usage
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

37. YouTube,
Instagram
MOTIVATION
VIRAL
ACTION
Show the world
how creative I
am
Tell the world
about your
creations
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

38. KickStarter,
Change.Org
MOTIVATION
VIRAL
ACTION
Gather support
for my cause
Tell the world
about your
cause
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

39. SurveyMonkey
SkillShare
MOTIVATION
VIRAL
ACTION
Get others to
take some
action
Reach out to
inform them
about the action
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

40. Ingredient 4:
Recipient Motivations
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

41. PITCH
SHOW
vs.
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING
TELL

42. CALL TO ACTION
Clear CTA at
the end of
Pitch
P.S. I love you. Get your free email
at Hotmail
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

43. HACKS ARE BORN TO
DIE...
TRUE DESIGN
ENDURES!
SOURCE: PLATFORM THINKING

44. THANK YOU!
FOR MORE,
VISIT PLATFORM THINKING