Function Health · B2C · health testing membership
Get the best-known expert in your field to be the face of the company
Given as an example of the approach working; no numbers
What they did
In their words
Koby Conrad - I speedran an ai app from 0 to $1m/yr in 10 months
KobySo, it's not just me. I've seen we did this at Reddit, I've seen this been done at Replicate, which is like the uh API for AI models. Just hire them as employees. Don't go to them and be like, "I'm trying to buy one post," go to them and be like, "Hey, I'm trying to change the world, and I would love for you to come and do this with me. Um I have this really cool role on our go-to-market team. I'd love for you to come and join."
KobyAnd if you do it like that, uh it's just so much more effective. And one of like the best examples of this is like Function Health, right? Um Function Health was building in uh like the functional medicine space, and what did they do? They went to the guy who literally invented the industry, is like go to Mark Hyman, who's like the godfather of like functional medicine, and they got him to like be the face of Function Health.
KobyAnd that strategy, uh where you just go find like the biggest player, and you get them on your team, and you just do whatever the hell you need to do to get them on board, that's so much more effective than like trying to spin up like 30 influencers, and tracking all of their stuff, and having all of these complicated deal structures. Um just like go find the person that's going to matter, and then like make them get them on board your mission.
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New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Hire the biggest creator in your niche as a salaried team member with equity50-100K link clicks a month from one creator; founder calls it the core of go-to-market
- Ask conferences what they'd give you for double their top sponsor packageFounder says it beats small test buys: better treatment and brand effect; no numbers
- Launch a bare-bones first version with three features, then keep improving itUgly v1 grew into the current product; no early numbers given
- Start free like Duolingo, then add a monthly paywall once AI costs pile upFree model failed: investors wanted revenue and AI costs hit hundreds of thousands
- Add a yearly plan and pre-select it on the paywallAdding annual brought some annual revenue; defaulting to it brought 'a lot more'
- Default to paying now, with a toggle to switch on the free trialMade more money than the default-annual paywall; no numbers
- Lower your prices when your users have little moneyLower prices made more money; no numbers given
- Before the paywall, promise to remind people before their free trial ends+48% revenue, +70% annual revenue, +46% trial conversions, +30% trial starts
- Build everything around the one simple thing users do every dayTimer is the most important feature; AI chat alone had poor retention
- Let the in-app AI coach follow up on its own and reply in the community4M+ messages handled in a year; users say it saved their lives
- Pitch investors with revenue growth and a future vision, not user countsFirst user-focused deck failed; the revenue-and-future deck raised post-YC
- Put in your own money, then ask people you made rich to invest$100K of own money plus ~$350K from his network after years of no funding
Tags: category-figurehead, creator-as-employee