Late last year, Paras Chopra, founder of Wingify and my former boss, tweeted this question:
I saved it immediately, because I knew this would lead to a good discussion.
It got a couple of great answers from folks I respect.
This is from Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, partner at Upekkha, a hugely successful catalyst for early-stage Indian startups:
This reply is from Ashish Tulsian, founder and CEO of POSist, which makes restaurant management software:
Note that the first thing in common in both Ashish and Prasanna’s replies is time: investing in customer success and credibility over a long period means more antifragile, financially stable businesses. The assumption, of course, is that the product works, and solves a real problem for a certain segment. This strategy gives bootstrapped startups an edge, provided they are willing to play the long game.
The argument is solid, and makes sense.
The second thing common to both replies is brand.
This tweet is from Gagan Biyani, co-founder of Udemy, and Sprig:
This is going to be a recurring theme this decade.
But all of this also got me thinking about the inversion of Paras’s question.
What do VC backed startups do, then? Let’s assume they have less time than bootstrapped startups, and they need to grow quickly. And in a world where customer acquisition is tough and brand is a huge differentiating factor, they have to invest in it right now.
In effect, they have to blitzscale brand.
But how?
This was the question I tried to answer in my essay on how to build a super cool startup, for the SaaSBOOMi blog.
Broadly, my thesis was that startups should invest in storytelling, content, PR, events - offline and online, and lastly, social media. If you are creative and authentic, and actually have something to say and talk about that’s interesting, you can shortcut your way into building a following and a brand.
What advantage do VC backed startups here? Easy - they can hire creative talent at a premium that can help them cut through the clutter faster.
A great example is CRED’s evidently expensive campaign during the IPL. The creative team for the campaign was led by AIB’s Tanmay Bhat, and the spots featured a lineup of Bollywood stars. The campaign was well-executed, fun, and apparently super-successful for the startup, helping it increase signups by 6-7x daily during the tournament.
For SaaS, this would look very different, but you get the idea.
And can bootstrapped startups not do it too? Sure. Look at Basecamp’s launch of their email product Hey.
But perhaps for VC backed startups, creativity will become critical.
The mad men may be needed back.