Slides taken from the startup marketing classes I have been teaching at HEC Paris and the Startup Launchpad program since 2018. The class is taught in English to a predominantly French audience. Also, working in Paris, a good deal of the illustrations I've added are in French - apologies if ever that's an inconvenience 🙏

1. 5
REASONS WHY
ACQUIRING
YOUR FIRST LEADS
IS LIKE BEING A DUDE
TRYING TO FIND TRUE LOVE
ON Yannick Servant
March 2020

2. It happens, but it’s hard.
(success ratios between the two endeavours are likely not all too distant)

3. Note: the following slides are taken from the startup marketing classes I have been
teaching at HEC Paris and the Startup Launchpad program since 2018.
More on the Startup Launchpad: bit.ly/hec_startup_launchpad
Obviously, views expressed here are my own, not that of my employer nor HEC, etc…

4. If you’re in the game to start a business, to hire talented
people, and build something sustainable, you’re going to
want to attract a certain type of user / customer.
The kind that understands what you’re trying to do,
keeps using your product because he/she has faith in
your ability to keep making it better, and pays for it.

5. True Love = Recurring Revenue
For the sake of this presentation, let’s accept the following analogy
between dating and startups:

6. 1
2
3
4
5
There’s an imbalance between supply and demand.
You’re not in a qualitative environment.
Pickup lines have a very short lifespan.
Not all profiles are created equal.
True Love = Time x Patience x Luck

7. 1
There’s an imbalance
between supply and
demand.

8. SUPPLY DEMAND>

9. 🤔>🤪

10. 🤔>🤪
I’m a dude on Tinder I’m a woman on Tinder

11. 🤔>🤪
I’m a bank I’m a first-year HEC student

12. 🤔>🤪
I’ve added “blockchain” and
“machine learning” to the
pitch of my cocktail recipe app
I haven’t been living
under a rock

13. The imbalance is very often
quantitative.

15. >🤪
I’m a dude on
Ashley Madison
I’m a woman on
Ashley Madison
🤪 🤪
🤪🤪
🤪 🤪 🤪

16. >🤪
I’m an advertising agency
I have a 7-figure
advertising budget
🤪 🤪
🤪🤪
🤪 🤪 🤪
🤔
🤪
🤪
🤪
🤪
🤪
🤪
🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪
🤪
🤪
🤪
🤪🤪
🤪
🤪

17. The imbalance is very often
quantitative.
It’s almost always qualitative.

18. 2
You’re not in a
qualitative
environment.

19. TINDER

21. BUSINESS

22. 1. Attract potential customers
2. Engage your visitors and
convert them to leads
3 & 4. Acquire customers and
maintain them
Ehsan J.
“Growth Hacking Influencer” and
2018 Captain Obvious medallist.

24. email 1 - Sept. 6

25. email 2 - Sept. 13

26. email 3 - Sept. 20

27. email 4 - Sept. 28

28. email 5 - Oct. 8

29. Thoughts?

31. Level 2…

32. Mate, you’re actually f***ing
spamming me to let me know
you’re like, super busy.
Don’t bullshit a bullshitter

33. Level 3…

34. If Nigerian Prince scammers tried
to sell Mobile app tools, they’d
probably take a page from this
guy…

35. How did we get here…?

36. Input OutputDistribution
Content
Marketing
Amplification
Mechanism
Users / Clients /
Prospects

37. Basic Growth Hacker Mindset
(B.G.H.M.)

38. Input OutputDistribution

39. The Cold Hard Reality
(T.C.H.R.)

40. Input OutputDistribution
MY
MAGIC
MARKETING
MACHINE

41. But…
I spent forever tooling and coding and testing
and number-crunching and forecasting!!!

42. So did this guy.

43. See this as an opportunity
Being consistently creative and empathetic is hard and
takes a lot of time. But it yields a hell of a return.

44. 3 Pickup lines have a
very short lifespan.

45. TINDER

47. BUSINESS

51. The Cold Hard Reality II
(T.C.H.R.)

52. This is a book by Steven Pressfield. Read it.
(it’s short, and fun, I promise)

53. “When you understand nobody wants to read your shit, your mind
becomes powerfully concentrated. You begin to understand that
writing/reading is, above all, a transaction. The reader donates his
time and attention, which are supremely valuable commodities. In
return, you the writer must give him something worthy of his gift to
you.
When you understand that nobody wants
to read your shit, you develop empathy.
You acquire the skill that is indispensable to all artists and
entrepreneurs—the ability to switch back and forth in your
imagination between your point of view as writer/painter/seller to
the point of view of your reader/gallery-goer/customer. You learn
to ask yourself with every phrase: Is this interesting? Is it fun or
challenging or inventive? Am I giving the reader enough? Is she
bored? Is she following where I want to lead her?”
“Steven Pressfield

54. 4 Not all profiles are
created equal

55. TINDER

56. What some might call an unfair advantage

57. BUSINESS

58. Zlatan Ibrahimovic Jessica Alba Gwyneth Paltrow
Vitamin Well The Honest Company Goop

59. Their name is enough to get them their first customers.
Mine isn’t. Yours isn’t.
Like everyone else, we’re starting from the bottom.

60. What this means:
Treat every single lead, prospect, user,
customer like they’re the big deal, not you.
Making something awesome isn’t enough to
qualify you for everyone’s attention and money.

61. 5 True love = Time x
Patience x Luck

62. Time: there’s no such thing as overnight success
Patience: no client is perfect
Luck: you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take

63. Bottom line:
Treat potential users and customers like a
cheap date and you can be sure they’ll
answer in kind.
Or just not answer.

64. This is me. Hi.
medium.com/@yannickservant
linkedin.com/in/yannick-servant
twitter.com/yannickservant