From: aidotengineer
Starting a new company, especially an AI startup, presents unique hurdles in establishing brand awareness and gaining user traction. Mounir Mouawad, co-founder of Porsche AI, shares insights from his journey, highlighting the significant differences from his prior roles in big tech companies like Stripe, Google, and Amazon [00:00:16].
Challenges in Building Awareness
The process of building brand awareness and traction for a new startup from scratch is described as the “toughest part” of the journey [00:07:59]. Key challenges include:
- Lack of Scaffolding Startups operate without the existing outreach, awareness, traffic, and adoption infrastructure that large corporations possess [00:08:11].
- Signal vs. Noise in AI The AI space is characterized by “full-on hype and meme wars,” making it difficult to discern genuine signal from noise [00:08:25].
- No Brand Advantage Unlike launching a product at a large company like Stripe, where a simple tweet from leadership can generate instant awareness [00:09:09], a new startup lacks the built-in brand association and established marketing channels [00:09:38]. This feels like playing a game without any boosters or power-ups [00:08:41].
Strategies for Gaining Traction
Despite these challenges, Mounir Mouawad identifies several strategies and learnings that have been crucial for Porsche AI:
- Leveraging Influential Voices
- People Follow People: Individuals are more likely to follow other people than brands [00:09:04].
- Finding Advocates: It’s essential to identify and collaborate with credible voices and advocates within the industry who can speak on behalf of the startup [00:09:23]. These individuals act as “force multipliers” by using their platforms to promote the product [00:09:28].
- Strategic Partnerships
- Finding Allies: Seek out other startups at similar stages, or those slightly ahead, that have an interest and see synergy in the startup’s operating space [00:09:49].
- Collaborative Marketing: Engage in partnering, cross-marketing, and cross-selling initiatives [00:09:58].
- Integration Channels: Getting the product listed in the integration documentation of other companies (e.g., Browser Base) can be a significant channel for driving traffic to the startup’s website or GitHub repository [00:10:04].
Learning Curve
Building awareness and traction has been the steepest learning curve for Mounir Mouawad [00:09:56]. While challenging, it is also where the most significant learning occurs [00:08:03]. The iterative process of putting products out and observing user reactions is key in discovering user problems and discovery in AI startups [00:03:55].