Authenticity, Community, and Nuanced Growth Strategies for Creators and Businesses

Key Quotes

"community is work and effort and intentionality um building a community as a founder is different than building community as a creator there are similarities but i think it would be a mistake to assume it's it's one for one and so there have been things that have definitely i've learned along the way in terms of building a community around my art and music as popula moose and then building community around a product and and you know a platform for creators"

Jack Conte emphasizes that building a community requires deliberate effort and is distinct for founders versus creators. He learned this distinction through his experiences with his band, Popula Moose, and later with Patreon. Conte suggests that founders must be intentional and recognize the unique challenges and approaches needed for each role.

"you know the internet has really shifted away from the follower model and it's shifted into an interest based model that's hyper focused on discovery and the net impact of that is people who don't have a million followers can upload a tiktok video and get 10 million views um and and that is more available and accessible now to anyone with a with an internet connection and a phone than it has been ever in the history of creativity"

Jack Conte observes that the internet's focus has shifted from follower counts to interest-based discovery. This change, he explains, makes it easier for individuals without large followings to achieve viral reach on platforms like TikTok. Conte highlights that this accessibility to broad audiences is unprecedented in the history of creative endeavors.

"the most important part i think to just remember like what you're talking about is finding product market fit and the right strategy i found the right strategy for finding product market fit is actually no strategy at all it's speed of iteration like your intuition is actually going to be right in some areas and wrong in some areas and what matters most is getting through the mistakes so that you iterate your way to product market fit as quickly as possible"

Jack Conte advises that the key to finding product-market fit is rapid iteration rather than a rigid strategy. He suggests that founders should embrace their intuition, acknowledge that mistakes are inevitable, and focus on learning from them quickly. Conte believes that speed in iterating through errors is the most effective way to achieve product-market fit.

"there are brands out there coffee brands from places as small as evansville or you know roughly the same size like fayetteville arkansas you know onx coffee is is is you know for people who know coffee major brand gold standard gold standard and part because i think they've won a bunch of barista competitions and then they opened up a training center um but i don't think too many coffee brands are trying to focus on couples and and weddings and so there really is an opportunity here to tap into the wedding gift world"

Guy Raz points out the crowded nature of the coffee market, citing examples like Onyx Coffee as established brands. However, Raz identifies a unique opportunity for a coffee company to differentiate itself by targeting the wedding gift market. He suggests that focusing on couples and weddings offers a less saturated niche within the broader coffee industry.

"working with schools is very difficult and i say this as somebody who has a children's business we make kids podcasts wow in the world we've even have a line of toys that we've released this year and they're all over you know shops and amazon right and it's still hard to get into schools because there's so much red tape so that's the bad news the good news is that there are a lot of other ways to reach parents and also to reach other educational programs that might not be so boxed in with schools"

Jack Conte shares that entering the school system as a business is challenging due to significant red tape, even for those with experience in children's products. He advises Melissa that while direct school sales are difficult, there are alternative avenues to reach parents and other educational programs. Conte suggests exploring these less restrictive channels as a more viable strategy.

"the way that they sold into the company was by getting the employees to use the product first oh that's very interesting right as a as a ceo or as a head of engineering or a cto if you notice all your teammates are using figma for their designs and they're asking to switch to figma there's bottom's up pressure for the management team or the buyer of the product to to then use your product and do a deal with with you the seller"

Jack Conte explains a "bottom-up" sales strategy, using Figma as an example, where product adoption begins with individual employees. He notes that when team members widely use a product and advocate for it, it creates pressure on management to approve and purchase that product. Conte highlights this approach as an effective method for enterprise sales.

"rather than cross indexing a bunch of different disparate opinions if i could go back in time i'd tell myself figure out what you want to do what kind of company you want to build what kind of culture you want to have where you think the business needs to go and pursue that rather than kind of finding the path of least resistance between 15 different opinions and making sure that everybody's happy with where we're going and trying to operate through consensus using my own internal conviction as a north star for my decision making"

Jack Conte reflects that if he could go back in time, he would advise his younger self to rely more on internal conviction rather than seeking consensus from numerous opinions when starting Patreon. He suggests that founders should define their vision for the company, culture, and direction, and use that as a guiding principle for decision-making, especially in challenging situations. Conte believes this would have led to a faster shift towards decisive leadership.