22 Comments

There is so much gold in this!! Especially in the recognition of the most critical steps needed before landing on a ‘firm’ ICP.

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Thanks so much for your feedback. I am so glad you liked it. Good luck closing deals in Q4 and beyond. You got this!

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You too (clearly! ☺️)

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Great stuffs. You mentioned crossing the chasm by Geoffrey Moore in the other comment, I am assuming your concept of early user and early customer ECP are those within Innovator & Early Adopter segments of Innovation Diffusion?

If yes, I would like to add that “beating the drum together” with EU & EC will bring the crowds from Ideal Customers Segment aka Early Majority. I would add “beating the drum” more than what you added testimonials.

Thanks for your work. Luv it.

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OMG this is such a great insight! We should do v02 of this - I learned so much since this was written - now I literally think that your job is to get your ECP promoted :D (in life or business). I also believe that they buy you more because of your product vision (future), not state of technology as it is. Thank you for your valuable contribution to the discussion. I will work on another visualisation, I promise. Please hold me accountable ;)

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This is so good! As a lawyer who’s totally unfamiliar with the world of startups, founding LitiGrit - a tech company - has had its fair share of challenges. Content like this puts a lot of things into perspective. Thank you!

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Hey, thanks so much for your feedback. I am so glad you found it useful.

When you think about it from this prism- it is simple and logical, right?

This week we will tackle LinkedIn again! Hope to see you there. Have a great week

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A lot of Early Adopters or Early Customers in your language have some common traits - open to new experiences, willingness to experiment with products to find their personal ‘product fit’ and an unending desire to stand out from the crowd.

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But there is one core difference- early customers pay for it ;)

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That's spot on and an important added trait.

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Very interesting content Maja, congratulations.

I had heard about the early customers as early adopters, but I have a doubt. I understand that, so you gave 2 examples. The first is outreach where you took a list and mandatory a demo and the other with a post on a group, inbound method.

I wanted to ask you:

- where do you get that list from? Have you done lead gen before?

- Could advertising be done or do you think that unnecessary money would be spent because there wouldn't be the direct contact you were talking about?

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Hey Matteo, thanks so much for your feedback - Clay and/or Apollo are great for building and enriching contact leads. Sure, you can do ads - if you have a cheaper, direct-response product, that would be a no-brainer. What is your product?

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So good thanks.

About my product, I have a startup and some customers but my focus is only on my personal brand.

Anyway I try to understand the reasoning behind the processes in order to then apply them to any product/service or to my personal brand as in this case.

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I am not an expert on personal branding, but here are some sweet tips on how you can grow on LinkedIn https://knowledge.gtmstrategist.com/p/why-linkedin-matters-or-not-5-strategies if it helps

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Thank you so much.

It's strange for me, as an Italian, to hear from you (who are widely followed and admired here) that you aren't an expert in personal branding.

Generally in Italy, those who have no experience (other than their own) but gain a few followers profess to be experts. :)

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you know how it is - I am Slavic - always not great not terrible :D hehe

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Great read! Any other resources you would recommend to explore the topic of ECP?

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Hey, I'm glad you liked it. Thank you for your feedback. Have you read Crossing the Chasm? I like to revisit this book again and again. Also, have you read my book? It has many examples of how to identify and attract early customers. Have a great week!

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Thank you this post was one of the first ones I read that covered the topic deeply. 2 new books on my reading list now 😊 All the best this week

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ICP vs ECP is a very powerful segregation. I wrote about a similar segregation i.e. ICMP (Ideal community member profile) vs ICP (Ideal customer profile) for community-led growth in my GTM newsletter.

Would love to have your inputs on my GTM newsletter "StartupGTM" https://startupgtm.substack.com ? And if i can feature your article in one of the upcoming issues?

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Hey, thanks for your support. Sure, you are welcome to feature whatever concepts add value to your audience. Let's go to market ✌️

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Hey Maja,

Here is the link to the newsletter where I have features your amazing article.

https://startupgtm.substack.com/p/zero-to-142-million-inside-gumroads

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