Startup Catalysts & Distribution

As a startup, the number one challenge you have is getting distribution. You’ll need customers and a growing supply of them. The problem is that every other company in the world also has that same challenge. There aren’t a whole lot of distribution channels out there, so the best channels are very crowded and expensive to use effectively. If you have magic growth hacking powers, you can cast your marketing hacking spells on the usual existing channels and make it work for you. But most likely, this won’t work. Instead, I advise many founders to look for startup catalysts.

In 2009, there were full page New York Times and WSJ ads taken out that featured RunKeeper. We didn’t pay for these. We didn’t even know the ads were going to happen until they were printed. Apple’s app store was new and Apple needed to market their new platform by highlighting the apps that were on their platform. It didn’t stop there either. Icons on the doors to Apple stores, and countless press articles about these new shiny apps. The same happened with Google’s App market, Twitter’s API launch, Foursquare’s API, Facebook Open Graph launch, etc, etc, etc. We hit every single one of them.

These opportunities are startup catalysts. You need them, you should always be looking for them, and you should be preparing for them ahead of time. They don’t last long, so you need to be ready and jump when they occur. Fight the urge that tells you that a new popular platform’s API will make you “just an app” on their platform because being called “just an app” that isn’t your number one challenge. Getting distribution is your number one challenge.