Start ups, you know that early adopters are not enough to establish a strong market presence anymore - you need something more. You need early advocates. Those who not only recognize the value in your company, but tell others about it as well. Find out more inside.

1. Building
Early
Adopters
Advocates

2. The Big Idea
Early adopters have
long been entrenched
in startup culture.
They aren’t enough
today.
Instead, entrepreneurs
need to cultivate
early advocates.

3. First… let’s review the
concept of an Early Adopter

4. Published in
1991

5. “Still the bible for
entrepreneurial
marketing 15
years later
[in 2006]”
Tom Byers,
Stanford Technology
Ventures Program

7. The Chasm
The mainstream
market doesn’t
listen to early
adopters

8. Establish a Beachhead
To cross the chasm…

9. DELIVER A “Whole Product”

10. Pass The Elevator Test
Hey buddy…
Wanna buy some
software?

11. What is an early adopter?

13. I’ll scratch your back. You scratch mine.
Early Adopters Get…
• Attention
• Special pricing
• Amazing support
• Hand-holding
• Custom features
• Show-off status
Entrepreneurs Get…
• Revenue
• Real-world testing
• Use cases
• Product input
• Go-to-market feedback
• Endorsement

14. Early Adopters Get…
• Attention
• Special pricing
• Amazing support
• Hand-holding
• Custom features
• Show-off status
Entrepreneurs Get…
• Revenue
• Real-world testing
• Use cases
• Product input
• Go-to-market feedback
• Endorsement
Let’s talk about this last one
I’ll scratch your back. You scratch mine.

15. Early endorsement is much more
important today than it was in 1991.

16. THEN
Early adopters
validated
usefulness
NOW
Early advocates
validate virality

17. Ray: You know, it's just occurred to me – we really haven't had a
completely successful test of this equipment.
Peter: Why worry? Each of us is wearing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator
on his back.
Today’s Elevator Test

18. An Early
Advocate is a
Special Kind
of Early
Adopter

19. 3
Three things that make
advocates different from
adopters…

20. Adopters want
to be “unique”
Advocates want
to be “first”

21. Adopters want to
discover something
inherently valuable.
Advocates want to
brag about what
they discovered.

22. Adopters like
to tinker
Advocates want
to show off

23. The Biggest Difference Is
What You AIM For
Adopters validate
“good-enough”
Advocates fall in LOVE
with “greatness”

24. Early adopters are
great for opinions.
That is why you need
to focus on your
early advocates.
But they are lousy
for growth.

25. Some
Examples

26. 10 Early Adopters
1 was an advocate
9 were not
Enterprise
Anti-malware
Software

27. The Test
Try different ways of
registering people for trials.
Analyze by industry.
Found by cold-calling.
Didn’t network or share.
Adopted, but gave up.
Found through inbound.
Shared with internal communities.
Mobile
Surveys for
Business

28. “
Data
Movement
Software
1. Web / mobile developers
2. Cloud service providers
3. Real-time analytics
4. Data warehouses
5. Application performance monitoring
6. Telecom provisioning
7. Node.js developers
The Test
Here’s our idea.
Would you like to
learn more – and
can you bring a
colleague?
Data Warehouses

29. The key takeaway

30. Get Early Advocates.
They Love You And
Let Everyone know.
Growth.
Hacked.
Thank You!
Brian
Gladstein
@explorics
bg@explorics.com