Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
01:08:28 · Hector Serrano
[01:08:28] S1: Yeah, I think it also ties into what we were just talking about, so much AI and so much ads in companies, etcetera, And at the end of the day, it also... It ties back to everything in content creator and people. Like, at the end of day, people buy from people, people invest in people. And I think having a founder who can put his face out there, can talk on camera, you can use an ad, you can use to tell a story, it makes the company and the product feel that much more human. And, like, when you compare two products, I would much rather, like, even from my own experience, like, if I follow... I don't know. Let's say, I follow George Heaton, who's the founder of Represent. He has, a clothing brand. And then there's another ad that I see for a clothing brand. I'm much more gonna buy the product, George's product, because I know how he works. I know his routine. I know the type of person he is. I know what he stands for. I know how hard he works for his company and what he actually puts into it. And I think people really appreciate that. And, again, such a digital age, like being able to connect with the founder behind the product And you not only, like, create super fans and, like, people who already use your product but now also love you. You also bring in, like, this new group of people who have never seen your product. They don't really know who you are, and then slowly, they start to, like, like the content you're putting out. They start to buy into the mission. They start to buy into the company, and then they actually try the product. And it's like this long, like, horizon type play, or this, like, long term play that you have to make. And it's an investment because you can't just start a YouTube channel or found a lead brand and instantly start selling at people because people are just gonna switch off and be like, okay, I don't wanna be part of this anymore. But if you just give a lot of value, you overshare, you over deliver, and you just open up the doors into like what the culture is like, what you're building, people really appreciate that, and you get them to buy in and like drop their guards. And then maybe a year in, we actually, like, maybe have, like, a soft seller. Maybe we have Tanay have, hey, guys. Here's, like, some support. Thanks for getting us to a 100,000 subscribers. Just wanna drop this code, blah blah blah.
01:10:21 · Hector Serrano, Lenny Rachitsky
And then people are actually willing to support you. So I think, again, like, in this world where everyone's just trying to get, like, instant growth and everything's super fast and optimize everything from the start, these, like, channels that maybe don't have any direct correlations in the present moment end up being some of the best long term plays and also brand building plays. [01:10:39] S0: What are some of the kind of angles slash stories that seem to work well when you're doing this sort of founder like content? Is it like, here's the story of our company? Yeah. Is there anything
01:10:48 · Hector Serrano
[01:10:48] S1: So the the way we kinda thought about it at Wispr is it's like... At Wispr, honestly, at any company you're at is, like, every company is gonna have some sort of story or some sort of mission that they're building towards. For us at Wispr, it's getting to one being... 1,000,000,000 daily active users, and that's, like, everything everything we do at Wispr is to get towards that goal. And when we look at the content we make, everything needs to play back into that story, and it's almost like you're building this Netflix series where each episode is obviously gonna be different, but it all ties back into the overarching theme. And, like, whether you're, again, building in medicine or dev tools or whatever it is, there's gonna be some sort of mission that you're chasing as a company, and you wanna bring people along for that ride. And if you tie that into every episode or to every LinkedIn post, every x post, obviously, like, the formatting and the messaging is different on every platform. But if you, like, kind of tie all of this together, like, brings everyone along from... For the journey, it makes it a lot easier to grasp and also a lot easier to build off of because you're like, okay. This is the the vision. This is what we're building towards, and this is how each step actually leads us to that to that mission. It's almost like a physical representation of, like, a product road map or what's actually happening to the company and, like, showing it on on display to the world, the ups, the downs, the struggles, everything. That's kinda how we think about it at at Wispr and how I think other companies can think about it as well.
01:12:04 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[01:12:04] S0: That's awesome advice. Basically, have like a [01:12:07] S1: North Star. Like a North Star metric that you're chasing. [01:12:09] S0: Yeah. And the journey there and things you're learning, things you're discovering, things that are surprising. And we'll point people to the channel to give them a sense of what you're actually doing there. [01:12:16] S1: Yeah. It's just Tanay Kothari and, yeah, we just document everything on there. Like, the episodes, they... We we basically done everything from, like, showing how we launched our new product notetaker to Tanay going to India and doing wedding shopping and, like, also working remote and how he balances that and his relationship with Sahaj to, like, just a week in the life of a founder. We also did a whiteboard breakdown where I spoke with Tanay. It's like all these different formats that all might feel different and look different, but they end up, like, building towards this, like, bigger vision of what Wispr's building towards. [01:12:46] S0: I imagine there's already some innate interest in Wispr Flow by... When you started it. It's like a company people, when they see it Exactly. And when... So there's probably a bit of, like... You can't start that from the beginning when no one cares about what the hell Yeah. No one cares what you've learned because no one cares about your company yet.
01:12:46 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[01:12:46] S0: I imagine there's already some innate interest in Wispr Flow by... When you started it. It's like a company people, when they see it Exactly. And when... So there's probably a bit of, like... You can't start that from the beginning when no one cares about what the hell Yeah. No one cares what you've learned because no one cares about your company yet. [01:13:01] S1: I I honestly think you can start it though. Like, maybe you put us in a a bit better position, but, I mean, there's founders who don't have as brands as big as as Wispr who have found success with personal brand content. And again, it's like a gateway into the actual brand. And it's like what easier way to to make that accessible than through a person who's just telling their story and getting value. [01:13:22] S0: And so interestingly, this is just another, let's say, alpha opportunity to grow, which is the founder sharing their story in a really compelling way.
01:13:22 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[01:13:22] S0: And so interestingly, this is just another, let's say, alpha opportunity to grow, which is the founder sharing their story in a really compelling way. [01:13:30] S1: And and and you see, like, everything starts to tie in as well because the more places you show up organically and the more touch points you have with the customer, the cheaper it's going get when it comes to paid. Because what is it? I think a customer needs to... A person needs to see a piece of content of the company like seven times before they actually make a purchase. If you're able to hit them on YouTube, long form, which is a bunch of trust built up since it's a long form platform, then you're also posting Instagram reels from the founder. You're also posting on LinkedIn. Then when they get to Meta, on the first ad they see, they're gonna convert. So, like, I think these organic channels worked hand in hand with paid. Like, the more that you have activated and the more you have running, the cheaper all the conversions get across all platforms. [01:14:10] S0: And then your paid platform gets credit for that conversion. [01:14:13] S1: Exactly. A [01:14:15] S0: final thing I just want to talk through briefly. You had this awesome video where you share what the team looks like to do founder led content. I'll briefly share because I think this is really important for people. I will point to the video where you go deeper. Basically, it's a head of content, a videographer to film you, a YouTube team to package it, and a short form editor to take it and create clips. [01:14:37] S1: Yes. Exactly.