5 ms·

Why top startups are getting radically personal

16 points by nate 13y ago

katiehurst 13y ago
I think personal emails are a nice touch, but I wonder what happens if a venture is acquired, sold or even passed on. I remember a friend who worked for a popular publication in town going through a legal battle over her Twitter account. At the time, companies did not have the naming conventions they do now (@NPRxxxx or @CNNxxxx) that drew the line between personal and professional accounts. When she left the publication, her Twitter account went with her and the publication felt that, since those followers came from her work at the publication, they were owned by them. Now, if your venture fails, absolutely that personal email connection is incredibly invaluable. I just wonder if in other instances it would end up biting you in the ass.
- nate 13y ago
  Ah, that raises a good point. When I left my first company Inkling (http://inklingmarkets.com http://inklingmarkets.com) to run what became Draft (http://draftin.com http://draftin.com) full time, I realized I didn't have my own "brand". People know me through Inkling. Especially when it came to writing. All this writing that I was really proud of was on the Inkling blog. And now I don't work there anymore. No one even knows that writing exists. Your friend obviously ran into a problem with this approach, but I predict it's more frequent that we create assets like company blogs and Twitter accounts that get thrown away as we move through life and our projects and we don't build anything up for the long term. You can definitely balance this. Today I make sure I spend a lot more time on building up assets that directly reflect me: my blog Ninjas and Robots (http://ninjasandrobots.com http://ninjasandrobots.com) and my Twitter account. But I still have a Draft Twitter account I use to do some "corporate" messaging.
  - jdbernard 13y ago
    Having spent most of my career thus far building cool things I can't really talk about in detail this hits home.
nsxwolf 13y ago
I don't read these. I know I'm not really being contacted by Random Founder from the Bay Area when I see one.
- vitd 13y ago
  Same here. I'm probably in the minority, but when I see founders in their own marketing, it creeps me out. I mean, it's one thing to have a picture of the founder saying, "Joe Shmoe - founder and CEO". But when they're actually speaking in ads or sign letters to me, it just seems so forced, and often egotistical. Leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
  - AnimalMuppet 13y ago
    Depends on how it's done. Is it the founder, but writing CorporateSpeak? Or is he/she writing like a human being? The Cluetrain Manifesto should still be required reading, especially for a startup.
- nate 13y ago
  You should read mine then, because there not from the Bay. There from Chicago! :) In all seriousness, I definitely understand your point. But, the personal touch mentioned in the article isn't meant to trick people into thinking I'm directly sending them a note. The personal part is about letting my customers know who I am. That Draft is a product run by one person who is just trying make a living by fixing problems I keep running into every day. What I find strange are the emails I get from "companies" who communicate like they are a 100 person company who have been in business for 10 years, when really it's just a one or two folks in their living room and they started 30 days ago. When you own up to being what you really are in these emails and blog posts about your company, really great things happen. For example: I have new acquaintances on places like Twitter fighting to get my name and product in front of their friends. They go to bat for me because they know a lot more about what I'm going through to keep this company going than if I was a fake Big Time Co. whose pretends to be flush with cash and doesn't need any help. Or, when bugs and problems happen, I have a lot more loyalty from my users sticking with me to get things solved. If I was an anonymous corporation, they'd have moved onto the next anonymous corporation.
Argorak 13y ago
While I generally say that I don't give a lot about people writing me business letters as persons, I tend to remember them better. Joel -> Buffer is a connection I have. It still kind of creeps me out, because I don't have a personal attachment to Joel, but I instantly know who is writing there. That isn't really news, though, but a valid and tried strategy. e.g. in Germany, there is a company that famously has all spots spoken by the boss himself since the 90s. They are horrible and defy all rules of a good radio spot, but they stick and are very successful. The company is suddenly attached to a persona that I can just recall immediately. Let's troll the (southern)-germans: "Seitenbacher Müsli" (you've got it in your head, do you?)
fleitz 13y ago
Because they started thinking about marketing rather than trying to sell stuff because it has more X. Most top startups aren't tech companies but branding/advertising companies. Part of their branding is being a 'startup' or 'tech company'. Holy fuck, draft lets you make documents in which you can undo changes?!?!?!?! This changes everything! What a technological marvel.

16 points by nate 13y ago

I think personal emails are a nice touch, but I wonder what happens if a venture is acquired, sold or even passed on. I remember a friend who worked for a popular publication in town going through a legal battle over her Twitter account. At the time, companies did not have the naming conventions they do now (@NPRxxxx or @CNNxxxx) that drew the line between personal and professional accounts. When she left the publication, her Twitter account went with her and the publication felt that, since those followers came from her work at the publication, they were owned by them. Now, if your venture fails, absolutely that personal email connection is incredibly invaluable. I just wonder if in other instances it would end up biting you in the ass.

nate 13y ago
Ah, that raises a good point. When I left my first company Inkling (http://inklingmarkets.com http://inklingmarkets.com) to run what became Draft (http://draftin.com http://draftin.com) full time, I realized I didn't have my own "brand". People know me through Inkling. Especially when it came to writing. All this writing that I was really proud of was on the Inkling blog. And now I don't work there anymore. No one even knows that writing exists. Your friend obviously ran into a problem with this approach, but I predict it's more frequent that we create assets like company blogs and Twitter accounts that get thrown away as we move through life and our projects and we don't build anything up for the long term. You can definitely balance this. Today I make sure I spend a lot more time on building up assets that directly reflect me: my blog Ninjas and Robots (http://ninjasandrobots.com http://ninjasandrobots.com) and my Twitter account. But I still have a Draft Twitter account I use to do some "corporate" messaging.
- jdbernard 13y ago
  Having spent most of my career thus far building cool things I can't really talk about in detail this hits home.

nsxwolf 13y ago

I don't read these. I know I'm not really being contacted by Random Founder from the Bay Area when I see one.

vitd 13y ago
Same here. I'm probably in the minority, but when I see founders in their own marketing, it creeps me out. I mean, it's one thing to have a picture of the founder saying, "Joe Shmoe - founder and CEO". But when they're actually speaking in ads or sign letters to me, it just seems so forced, and often egotistical. Leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
- AnimalMuppet 13y ago
  Depends on how it's done. Is it the founder, but writing CorporateSpeak? Or is he/she writing like a human being? The Cluetrain Manifesto should still be required reading, especially for a startup.
nate 13y ago
You should read mine then, because there not from the Bay. There from Chicago! :) In all seriousness, I definitely understand your point. But, the personal touch mentioned in the article isn't meant to trick people into thinking I'm directly sending them a note. The personal part is about letting my customers know who I am. That Draft is a product run by one person who is just trying make a living by fixing problems I keep running into every day. What I find strange are the emails I get from "companies" who communicate like they are a 100 person company who have been in business for 10 years, when really it's just a one or two folks in their living room and they started 30 days ago. When you own up to being what you really are in these emails and blog posts about your company, really great things happen. For example: I have new acquaintances on places like Twitter fighting to get my name and product in front of their friends. They go to bat for me because they know a lot more about what I'm going through to keep this company going than if I was a fake Big Time Co. whose pretends to be flush with cash and doesn't need any help. Or, when bugs and problems happen, I have a lot more loyalty from my users sticking with me to get things solved. If I was an anonymous corporation, they'd have moved onto the next anonymous corporation.

Argorak 13y ago

While I generally say that I don't give a lot about people writing me business letters as persons, I tend to remember them better. Joel -> Buffer is a connection I have. It still kind of creeps me out, because I don't have a personal attachment to Joel, but I instantly know who is writing there. That isn't really news, though, but a valid and tried strategy. e.g. in Germany, there is a company that famously has all spots spoken by the boss himself since the 90s. They are horrible and defy all rules of a good radio spot, but they stick and are very successful. The company is suddenly attached to a persona that I can just recall immediately. Let's troll the (southern)-germans: "Seitenbacher Müsli" (you've got it in your head, do you?)

fleitz 13y ago

Because they started thinking about marketing rather than trying to sell stuff because it has more X. Most top startups aren't tech companies but branding/advertising companies. Part of their branding is being a 'startup' or 'tech company'. Holy fuck, draft lets you make documents in which you can undo changes?!?!?!?! This changes everything! What a technological marvel.