Many of today’s startups are making the exact same messaging mistake I made a few years ago. Here’s the messaging test that failed to attract developers and (hopefully) you can learn from. At ScraperAPI we had messaging centered around managing proxies and CAPTCHAs. But that wasn’t what people were buying our product for. What they were buying was the major pain point ScraperAPI solved - being able to scrape any page with a simple API call. This is the exact same mistake AI startups are making today with talking too much about LLMs and not enough about the things customers actually care about. tl;dr: Messaging should focus on the benefits, not the implementation or features.
This is so true! I've spoken to many early AI startups that put out highly technical content (starting from their website). After doing my own research, I rephrase their offering and value proposition. I usually phrase it as a question, like "I may be completely off, but is this what you guys do?" I constantly hear a version of "wow, that was very well put, yes that is exactly what we do!" Unless every single one of your ICPs, buyers, employees, investors, advocates, website visitors and other stakeholders are highly technical, drop the big words and focus on the benefits!
Tim Schumacher
1mo
Agree! Btw, how do you like the new and current ScraperAPI web site in this regard? ScraperAPI.com
Godwin Josh
1mo
Focusing on benefits over features is key to truly resonating with customers. Take OpenAI's success they highlight the creative potential of their models, not just the technical details. How can AI startups use this principle to empower individuals and solve real-world problems?
Li Si Wong
1mo
Agree Dan N. . In fact one should always start with crafting the benefits ahead of the actual engineering. It helps guide the work.
Answering "what's working" with HockeyStack | Onetime JFrog, Aerospike, Deepgram
1molots of technical founders rotate towards features because they are so close to it and it's what they built, so they want to make sure none of the cool stuff gets lost. talking about pain -> benefit -> value sounds like marketing fluff to them and talking about features seems more technical and is what resonates largely with ICs and users. so establishing ICP (clarity on buying vs influencer committee) alongside your motion (SLG tops down, PLG bottoms up, blended) should drive the front and center message.