Be Wary of Solving a Small, Rare Problem - Des Traynor of Intercom

TL;DR

Intercom co-founder shares the story of how the company started, the challenges they faced along the way, and their approach to marketing and product development.

Transcript

how did you meet your co-founder and decide to get going sure so I was originally a computer science student and I started a PhD you know my PhD was an attempt to see if we could automatically measure how good a programmer is basically so put some true a variety of sort of simulated code and asked them to say what the output would be and you know w... Read More

Key Insights

• 💻 It is important to have a strong vision and purpose for your company, as it helps with hiring and keeping everyone aligned.
• 👥 Hiring senior leaders in areas where you lack expertise can be challenging and may take longer to see results.
• 🚀 Solve a big problem or a problem that occurs frequently rather than a small and rare problem.
• 💼 If charging a small amount of money, make sure the product is self-serve and frictionless for users to scale effectively.
• 🌱 It can be beneficial to enter a growing market, but make sure the problem you solve is still significant and frequent for your target customers.
• 💡 Think about the overall market landscape and what unique problem you are solving before diving into product development.
• 📈 Over the next two years, top growth initiatives for Intercom involve being more direct in marketing and linking the brand with the software product.
• 💻 Connect the dots between the Intercom brand and the software product to reinforce the value and benefits for potential customers. (Note: Some of the sentences in the input were cut off and may not make complete sense)

Questions & Answers

Q: How did the co-founder of Intercom meet his co-founder and decide to start the company?

The co-founder of Intercom met his co-founder at a coffee morning for internet professionals. They eventually decided to start the company together after working on a side project and experiencing frustrations with existing customer communication methods.

Q: What led the co-founder to start a blog instead of pursuing his PhD research?

The co-founder started a blog instead of continuing his PhD research because some of his findings were uncomfortable for universities, and he had difficulty getting access to students for his research. Additionally, the blog gave him an alternative way to publish his ideas and thoughts.

Q: How did the co-founder transition from running a design agency to starting Intercom?

The co-founder and his co-founder started a design agency and later developed a side project called Exceptional, which was a tool for detecting errors in Ruby on Rails applications. As they faced challenges with customer communication, they realized the need for a better solution and started building Intercom.

Q: How did Intercom evolve from being a tool for error handling to a comprehensive customer communication platform?

Intercom started as a tool for error handling in Ruby on Rails applications, but as the co-founders faced challenges with customer communication, they introduced new features and expanded the platform to become a comprehensive customer communication platform. The co-founders listened to user feedback and iterated on the product to add new features that addressed the needs of their customers.

Q: How did Intercom approach content marketing and building their brand?

Intercom took a content-first approach to marketing and focused on creating valuable content for their target audience. They wrote blog posts, published books, and spoke at conferences to share their expertise and attract attention. The goal was to help their audience with their problems and establish themselves as thought leaders in the industry. They used their content to educate and build relationships with their audience, rather than directly pitching their product.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The co-founder of Intercom originally started as a PhD student researching ways to measure programming skills automatically, but got bored due to discomforting findings about traditional university code marking methods.

• Joined a coffee morning for internet professionals, and met his future co-founder and wife on the same day.

• Started a design agency and eventually developed the idea for Intercom, a tool for communicating with customers, after experiencing frustrations with existing customer communication methods.