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a16z: How Crypto Startups Can "Earn the Right"

By: blockbeats|2025/02/20 11:30:03
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Original Title: Going to market with better messaging: On mission statements and more
Original Authors: Pyrs Carvolth, Maggie Hsu, a16z crypto Partners
Original Translation: Luffy, Foresight News

For founders, being able to clearly communicate the company's vision is crucial. This includes articulating the company's stance, future direction, and differentiation from competitors. At an early stage, especially for companies yet to launch a product, clarifying the company's mission may seem premature. However, a thoughtfully crafted core message can unify the team, help founders establish credibility and clear goals, and more effectively bring the product to market.

There are already many resources available on building a brand and crafting a mission statement that reflects team values. But integrating these elements can be quite challenging.

Therefore, in this article, we will focus on how to adjust and differentiate mission statements from value propositions, as well as how to refine elevator pitches (Translator's Note: An elevator pitch is a brief, concise explanation used to introduce one's company, product, or idea to others in a limited time), for purposes such as partnership relationships, sales enablement, fundraising, and more. We will also share foundational information founders need before bringing a product to market.

A brief overview of ideal customer profiles and how to use them in the crypto space

In this article, we will be using the concept of Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP). This is a well-known business development tool used to define potential customers most likely to purchase your product based on dimensions such as behavior, environment, and demographics.

Why is this important? Ideal Customer Profiles can help you understand your target audience, the "buyer" of your product, and adjust your messaging accordingly when receiving feedback. For example, a technical audience needs more technical details, while business professionals require fewer details but are more interested in the product's benefits and outcomes.

Sounds good, but in the crypto space, especially for pre-seed companies, defining ideal customer profiles can be tricky. This is because it means considering business outcomes and goals immediately while the product is still evolving. It is challenging to define ideal customer profiles when the product is not yet refined. Therefore, we encourage companies to think about their expected end users, partners, and customers, and then tailor the product launch materials to easily adapt to different customers, conversations, and contexts.

In essence, everything is about explaining in a clear and concise manner to anyone why you are developing your product.

At the same time, it is important to note that regardless of the audience, there should be one consistent piece of information, and that is the mission statement.

It All Starts with a Mission Statement

There has been much discussion on how to write a good mission statement. But at the core of a mission statement is the "why," which succinctly describes the reason for a company's existence, its goals and values, and what sets it apart. This is crucial for positioning in various aspects such as pitch decks, website copy, follow-up emails, sales conversations, and more.

Importantly, mission statements related to go-to-market strategies are not about the "how," or even the "what." They do not need to delve into the specifics of the company's business nor elaborate on detailed plans to achieve goals. Instead, mission statements outline the company's goals and help define its position in the industry. Mission statements also serve the following purposes:

1. Establish a Core Objective for the Company, Rallying the Team

An effective mission statement provides much-needed direction in times of innovation and rapid growth that may veer important goals off course, helping founders stay focused on the idealistic long-term goals set at the company's inception.

Such a core objective is particularly crucial when the market is hot and the team needs to scale. They can integrate the mission statement into interviews, onboarding training, performance evaluations, strategic planning, product roadmap feature prioritization, and marketing campaigns.

For example, Coinbase's long-standing mission has been to "promote economic freedom."

Over the years, Coinbase has gradually introduced centralized exchanges, wallets, an NFT marketplace, layer-two networks, and more. Focusing on any single project may overlook the overarching principles of this mission statement in the communication process. However, it is macro enough to keep the team focused on this principle and then integrate it into decisions about cultural values and product investments, even though some projects appear to go beyond its core business of centralized exchanges.

On the other hand, many startups aim to focus on perfecting a specific product or continuously advancing a particular technology or ecosystem. For example, Blackbird's mission is "to be a loyalty company rewarding people who love restaurants."

With this mission statement, whether it's partners, customers, or investors as the target audience, they can expect that as the product evolves, Blackbird will prioritize and meet the experiential needs of diners and restaurant operators, building loyalty and trust within a specific customer segment.

2. Set the Company Apart from Competitors

The crypto industry is still in its early stages, but it is rapidly evolving in areas such as scalability solutions and proof of stake. Additionally, the open-source nature of the crypto industry has led to many different vendors offering products that may appear very similar on the surface.

Companies in these competitive spaces need to delve deeper into their differentiation in both their product and narrative. It is essential to ensure that these points of differentiation are integrated into the mission statement. Even though a startup may still be exploring its unique selling points, identifying the impact of these differentiators early on may be as crucial as providing a feature diff chart against competitor products.

View this as an early branding opportunity. Focus on what makes you as a founder unique, what makes your team unique, what makes your company unique, and what makes your product vision unique. Even companies offering very similar products may have vastly different styles, and partners and customers, in comparing competitors, will ultimately consider these factors. Why not help them draw these conclusions and enable them to share these insights internally in your own words and advocate for your product?

For example, Towns Co. (a company reinventing local community building on the internet) quickly established a different way of thinking about social networks that no longer emphasizes the vast global community but rather focuses on creating intimate, thoughtfully curated, and more localized gathering spaces.

3. Refocus During Market Shifts

A mission statement is not set in stone. Consumer attitudes change, products pivot, and companies embark on new initiatives. Founders will inevitably encounter situations where the company's growth extends beyond the scope of the mission statement.

While it's crucial for the team to adapt to changes and communicate the company's direction to the market, the mission statement should remain flexible enough to accommodate necessary strategic shifts while still reflecting the unique vision.

Mission statements that embody what keeps the founder up at night and the problems they are solving for users are the ones that will stand out in a noisy market and stand the test of time. This is better than an overemphasis on a declaration that caters to temporary market whims, as the latter will eventually confuse the internal team.

Summing Up

When planning your messaging roadmap, start by drafting your mission statement and then build more specific value propositions on top of that (which we will discuss below). Every company is different, but here are some general guidelines:

Should dos:

Make a distinction between focusing on the long-term vision and competitors, starting from a macro perspective, focusing on fundamental principles and benefits rather than products or features Seek input from co-founders or employees from different functional departments By considering the following questions, use information dissemination as an early branding practice: What changes will my company bring about? As a company, what do we value, and why?

Avoid:

Getting lost in the weeds of product and feature specifications Conveying different mission statements to different audiences Writing a "generic" statement that applies to any company in your industry

Similarly, every company has unique needs and must evaluate its approach. However, once the mission statement is set, you can move on to crafting a value proposition.

Best Practices for Value Proposition

At some point, a startup needs to shift focus from describing the core mission to helping customers understand why they should care about the company's product. If the mission statement explains the "why," the value proposition explains the "what" and "how," based on the mission, outlining the key benefits of the product or service in concise, customer-centric language.

The value proposition is crucial in promoting your product and will appear in your marketing and sales materials, serving the following purposes:

1. Provide contextual information using meaningful, tailored language

Cryptocurrency products often need to define new terms during promotion; it is essential to explain new terms using language and concepts familiar to customers.

Using common industry terms is necessary, with the goal always being to avoid alienating the target audience. For example, an audience familiar with the cryptocurrency space will be familiar with abbreviations like DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). If the value proposition spells it out in full or explains its meaning in detail, they may become disinterested. Conversely, if the value proposition does not explain the overall concept, this may lead to disinterest among a broader audience that still needs introductory guidance.

Determining which terms are appropriate and which are not is actually quite challenging. Many founders believe, "My audience is smart; they will understand." But the reality is that people have different ways of using and understanding jargon. If you are unsure about which terms are viable, do not make subjective judgments. You can always survey your audience or simply take the time to explain and reach a consensus.

For example, Alchemy company states that their Node API allows customers to "connect to top L1 or L2, with their RPC infrastructure processing over 30 billion requests per week, achieving 99.9% uptime." Here, there is no need to explain what L1 or L2 is, or even spell out RPC in full. Their customers, likely developers and engineers in the cryptocurrency space, probably use these terms frequently and do not need further explanation. Furthermore, despite these value propositions involving some details, they still align with the company's mission statement (a complete Web3 developer platform).

2. Focus on the Core: How the Product Makes Customers' Lives Easier

When crafting value propositions for potential customers and partners, be sure to describe the tangible benefits of the collaboration rather than just technical specifications. For example...

· Alchemy: Introducing a reliable enterprise-grade scaling solution, immediately reaching millions of developers

· Base: A secure, low-cost, developer-friendly Ethereum Layer 2 network

· Solana: Leveraging Solana's high throughput, low fees, and minimal environmental impact to meet your enterprise's specific needs

All these value propositions position the product from the perspective of enhancing user efficiency, i.e., how they help customers achieve their goals faster or better than before.

For products targeting a completely new audience, describing how to do things better when something has never been done quite the same way before can be more challenging. In this scenario, founders may wish to compare the product's benefits to adjacent existing fields or even abstract some of the technology to make it more easily understood by the audience.

For consumers, the Blackbird company removed specific crypto jargon, firmly positioning it in the restaurant loyalty space. For example, they also described their points as "universal reward currency" that people can spend at participating restaurants. For diners who have not been exposed to the crypto space, this is much clearer than terms like "restricted-transfer token." Importantly, it taps into the needs of food enthusiasts who love dining out, leveraging their existing behavior rather than requiring them to adopt new ways of behaving.

3. Helping Founders Improve Efficiency

Especially in the early stages of the product lifecycle, having a clear list of value propositions can help founders quickly see how conversations with customers, investors, suppliers, potential hires, and other stakeholders are unfolding. Additionally, the team can adapt this list for sales enablement and marketing, including the company website, social media, GitHub code repositories, sales decks, etc.

Good value propositions will adhere to the core principles mentioned above. They can make products and services more explicit, enhance customer understanding of the company and its developed products, and make early conversations more efficient.

Here are some suggestions for crafting value propositions:

Do's:

Choose language that resonates with the customers

Get feedback on value propositions from customers, employees, and other stakeholders, but ensure the information is relevant to your product

Reuse value propositions in sales enablement and marketing materials

Link benefits to the mission statement, helping internal teams like product, design, and sales

Avoid Doing:

Writing overly broad or lengthy mission statements Overusing jargon, especially to audiences that may not understand it Attempting to cover multiple audiences with one mission statement

Once mission statements are established, you may consider combining them with your value propositions to create an elevator pitch.

Crafting the Perfect Elevator Pitch

You may have heard of the "elevator pitch," which is a brief speech you can use to sell your product or company during a short elevator ride. An elevator pitch succinctly conveys what your company is, why it matters, and how it works. Most founders have practiced extensively for pitches to investors, and some can even recite it from memory, but diving into it here is still necessary as it's vital. It will also be seen throughout your marketing materials.

First off, the earlier you start thinking about your elevator pitch, the better. Founders must continuously assess their ability to bring their product to market and articulate the core points of their company clearly. Their pitch should not only establish a brand for the company but also for the founders, showing who they are, what they are building, and why they are the right person to be building that product.

The elevator pitch can also save time. Founders can deliver their pitch in under a minute, and if delivered well, can discern whether they are speaking to the right person. This is useful for establishing partnerships, making sales, securing funding, and also for receiving immediate feedback. For instance, founders can promptly assess if their pitch is effective and decide if they need to tweak their messaging.

Like the mission statement and value propositions, the elevator pitch is also a reflection of the company's values and culture and will evolve over time. Therefore, it's a good practice to regularly review and update it to ensure alignment among co-founders, employees, and external company supporters.

Lastly, here are some suggestions for crafting the perfect elevator pitch:

Do's:

Practice your pitch at events and conferences within and outside the crypto field Receive feedback from both crypto advocates and critics A/B test your pitch with different targets to refine your delivery

Avoid Doing:

Undermining your pitch effectiveness at the last minute due to lack of preparation Using the exact same pitch for different audiences: Tailor your pitch based on who you are speaking to, e.g., a tech decision-maker versus a business decision-maker

Integrating the Above: The Four Essential Elements of Information Delivery

All of this information should be integrated into several different documents. Here are some foundational pieces of content that each team should have before launching a go-to-market campaign:

· Standard Introduction Paragraph: This introductory paragraph can borrow heavily from the elevator pitch and should be something the founder is ready to deliver verbally and in writing, to be included in the website's "About Us" section and introductory emails.

· One-Pager Overview: A single-page overview of the company, including some potential use cases. Include information from the elevator pitch, mission statement, and value proposition, as well as any pertinent data or proof points such as customer growth metrics, uptime statistics, or key partnerships. This one-pager overview can be sent as pre-reading material before meetings and can also be included in follow-up emails if stakeholders request more information.

· Business Pitch Deck: This is different from an investment or pitch deck and may actually be two to three decks tailored to different ideal customer profiles. Each version of the pitch deck should have information adjusted accordingly and should all include a slide discussing next steps. Note: Founders are often recommended to present this pitch deck live with stakeholders rather than send it in advance, as the conversation will guide the optimal flow of slides and key points on each slide.

· Company Website: Early-stage companies sometimes rely solely on a GitHub repository rather than a website for their go-to-market efforts. The website should combine company information with key assets such as developer documentation and case studies, which can be very helpful in various conversations. While these bullet points and case studies can be shared ad hoc, having all content integrated can facilitate better partner and customer discussions.

With a multitude of ideas flowing and the founder staying focused on iterating the product, determining the direction of information delivery can be challenging. Nevertheless, starting to think about it early is still crucial. Founders who do so will have more valuable materials at their disposal for conversations with investors, customers, and potential partners.

A company with effective information delivery will also have a key advantage in this noisy industry: being able to provide tangible articulations of everything from the product roadmap to hiring, to aspects of work culture and values. Do not skip this step.

Original Article Link

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