Written By: Janine Kick
Recently, a newsletter from NFX (one I always take the time to read in full and highly recommend) landed in my inbox with the same title as this article. The article is worth a full read. While we hear from our investor network that they’re continuing to invest and are actively deploying capital at the seed stage, what is tipping them over the edge is growth more than ever.
Just what you wanted to hear, right? I’m here to make your life easy!
The article talks about finding your ‘white hot center’ as in a core customer base that’s loving your product so much they’re attracting more and more users to your platform. This differs from product-market-fit in that, “When you look for a white hot center, you don’t change your product. You are searching through your metrics, comments, and customer feedback for a batch of outliers – a niche group of users who already love what you’ve already built. Then you double down on them. You’re feeding the white hot center that’s already here. This will make it grow.”
To state the obvious, it’s based on data and then to maintain your white hot center it comes down to your ability to continue to “feed the beast”.
How does one identify their white hot center? The key to massive growth is knowing where it should come from… There’s two ways to look at it.
- Look for Irregularities
A ‘blip’ in the system if you will, an irregularity that kicks off the entire process. Although
there are liquidity metrics to look for; it’s your ability to pursue the positive outlier.
- Lower CAC
- High Retention
- High Willingness to Pay
- High Ratings
- Press & Social Mentions
- Virality
Say you have a subset of customers that are coming on your platform multiple times a
day and are willing to attend in person, meet-ups. They post about this across social
platforms and things take off as your ‘normal’ user pulls on their energy and begins to mimic your ‘superusers’ behavior. That’s your white hot center.
- Find the Non-Transactor
Who in your customer base is now transacting in the space that they weren’t able to before? Who has the most to gain here?
Uber was not designed to create a new type of transaction for taxi drivers, it created a white hot center around car owners.
You need to ask yourself who has everything to gain and nothing to lose by using this platform? Who should be transacting today but isn’t? Find the users that only see the upside in utilizing your product.
Now, let it burn!
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