Lessons learned from starting Gated

Hi everyone -

I'm one of those people who started early (lemonade stand) and never stopped wanting to be an entrepreneur. I love the pace, the chaos, the opportunity, the challenge of startups... and now I'm finally a Cofounder (and CMO) at one. I was at a large tech company for 14 years but always was serving as a TechStars Startup Weekend Judge and Mentor when I could, and serve on an investment board as well. But having your hard work, your energy, and your heart all committed at the ground floor of a startup is, well, a whole new ride for me.

As I've been a fan of IH for a while... I decided it was time to give back and post a bit about MY journey. I'll try to keep it brief but if you have questions or want to know more... let me know and I'll be happy to share.

HOW WE STARTED: It was the "idea people can't believe someone hasn't thought of"... my Cofounder was tired of getting so many irrelevant sales emails. It was overwhelming. He spun up an MVP with Airtable, Zapier, and Venmo and basically said: "If you want a reply to your email, it will help me know you're serious if you donate just $2 to my favorite charity."
Just like that... Gated (https://www.gated.com/) was born. He spent nearly a year just talking with interested folks, understanding the potential market, and going about his day job. People who use it get a lot less email overwhelm. People who send emails can actually get through the clutter. And nonprofits get a new source of dollars and awareness.

WHEN I CAME ON BOARD: 1 year in, with ~50 beta users, there was beginning to be some traction and excitement around the product itself. I'm a CMO with a passion for bringing human-centric products to market and jumped at the chance to join up. At that time, we were only 2 non-technical founders, with a whole lot of runway in front of us.

A FEW THINGS WE'VE LEARNED:

• Keep the end user as the center of everything you build, when it comes to the product. You may not make everybody happy (no good product will), but if you always focus on what your user wants... you'll create something wonderful.

• Get people aligned around your mission/goal/principles, if you don't have a fully baked product yet. There's a lot marketing (strategic narrative, content creation) that can happen before you have a product that's publicly available.

• Make your users your champions. There are many strategic ways to amplify the voices of your most passionate fans. First: it doesn't hurt to ask for testimonials. Just ask. Then capture all of that great data and insight in a way that anyone on your team can use it - for social proof in product, in marketing, etc. Next: uplift your fans when they uplift YOU. Celebrate them and help them amplify what they're working on - so you create more of a team vibe, than just company/customer.

• Build cross-silo from the get-go. We've got a lot of movement at all times in both product and marketing (#startuplife)... but it's all driven around the same strategic tactics as a company, so what we're working on supports and scales with maximum impact. It's not easy to build a process where teams can talk and connect throughout the product development cycle... but it makes for happier, more connected teams.

I'm sure I have more learnings, but I don't want to bore you all. :)

Curious to see the product in action? You can email me at melissa@gated.com to see how it works.