Your In-Person Growth Strategy
There are two types of startups — ones that can visually pick their customers out of any crowd (and talk to them) and ones that have to do a bit of filtering before they’re confident they’re physically standing in front of their customer (so that they can talk to them).
There are obviously digital ways to get in front of your customers, but the big problem with these is that they don’t work. They’re too expensive, too time-consuming, the hit rate is too low, and the feedback loop is too blurry. Plus, it’s the obvious and comfortable path. Which means it’s the one everyone will do, which means it’ll be cluttered, which means it won't work. Pass.
The highest ROI of any customer acquisition strategy for early-stage folks is always in-person. No matter the business.
A big chunk of you are probably thinking, “Well, for my business, I’ve actually got to blah blah blah,” or "How am I going to scale if blah blah blah" but after, like, 1,500 startups coming through the program since 2015, I’m yet to see one that won’t get a huge boost from finding their customers in-person. I can't think of a single successful company that couldn't answer the question, "How will you physically get in front of 20 customers this weekend?"
The founders most skeptical of the in-person path are the ones that need this the most. It’s like that old saying, “If you don’t have 20 minutes a day to meditate, then you need to meditate for 40 minutes a day.”
Like all uncomfortable things, the way to make them happen is a script. To remove the unknowns, because that’s what keeps you from taking action.
Let's get into it.
The Process
During the earliest days of Tacklebox, we had a startup that targeted couples with kids under 5. Data shows happiness in a marriage plummets by something like 80% the second you have a kid, and our founder thought a big part of this was because date nights disappear. It's hard to plan when you're exhausted, it's easier to just stay in and watch Netflix, so, that's what you do. And you're unhappy.
To help, our founder built a “Date Wingman.” A service that planned and booked creative dates for couples with young kids. They’d even coordinate with a list of babysitters who were pre-approved by the couple when finding a night.
Early on, the founder realized she could see her customers in the wild — they were just the couples walking around with kids under five — so she built an in-person strategy for interviews and, eventually, customer acquisition.
Each weekend she’d walk into Prospect Park in Brooklyn and approach every couple with young kids. She opened with the stat about how happiness in the marriage dropped, then ask when the last date night had been. During the early days, this shaped into a customer interview. Later on, it became a pitch — why don’t I book your next date night?
When couples were hesitant, she jumped on it — What was the risk? How could she mitigate it? Was it the sitter? Time? Money?
She ended by handing the couples a card with a link to her landing page, which was just a short survey where couples could pick a few days, the sorts of things they liked to do on dates, and input their location. The whole thing took under a minute.
When people signed up, the founder sent along a few sample itineraries, each with a big button that said “book.”
Her park days consistently yielded 10-15 conversations, and all her first customers came from these interactions — they anchored the business.
This strategy is the one we employ at Tacklebox, and it has three pillars — the Filter, the Script, and the Media.
Part 1: The Filter
When you can see your customers, the filter is much easier. It’s all about where they are at any given moment. Where is there high density and ease of interaction?
For the folks that can’t see their customers, you’ll need to find them. Here are some approaches that’ve worked:
Event Targeting: Identify events, conferences, or meetups where your target audience clusters. For example, if you're building financial software for small business owners, attend small business expos or industry-specific gatherings.
Location-Based Filters: Choose locations where your demographic is likely to be over-represented. A startup selling enterprise HR software might set up near office buildings housing tech companies during lunch hours.
Partner Filtering: Leverage existing businesses that already serve your customers. A startup building productivity tools for remote workers could partner with co-working spaces to host a free workshop, instantly filtering for their target audience.
I hit a brick wall during the early days of Tacklebox trying to find potential customers. Anyone could have a startup idea, and while there were lots of startup conferences and events, these were usually focused on people further ahead than where I was targeting.
So, after a bunch of interviews, I found General Assembly. Lots of people interested in starting companies in NYC began by taking classes there. So, I pitched them a class I’d teach — 30 Days from Idea to Decision. I ended up teaching it 50 or 60 times, an experience that both shaped our early approach and set us up with our first 20–30 startups. Plus, I got paid to do it.
The key is creating situations where the probability of engaging your actual customers increases dramatically.
Part 2: The Script
The script is based on Tacklebox marketing principles, and leads with problem language.
If our founder had walked around like a car salesman saying, “Hey! I’ll plan a date for you!” the customer won’t be interested. People hate being sold to. But, leading with, “Hey there! I guess this is what date nights look like for parents now, huh?” Then, “I actually started a business around this — my husband and I were struggling a bit after our first kid, and I saw a stat that happiness in a marriage drops by…a huge reason is parents don’t go on dates.”
This is clumsy language, but you get what I mean. Lead with the problem to grab attention, then move into how you're solving it.
Your solution should always sound a bit counterintuitive — this ensures it’s memorable: “At first, we thought we just didn’t have time for dates. But, on a whim, we hired a virtual assistant to plan us a date per week. And it was incredible. It turns out the mental load of planning was the blocker. And, one date night a week dramatically improved our marriage to the point that we started a business around it.”
And, finally, the swap: “So, instead of our customers trying to find the time to pick a place, schedule, book a sitter, etc. — we take all that off your plate. We learn what you like, and then you just show up.”
The Script has three parts:
Problem Language
Solution - ideally counterintuitive
The Swap - what you’re taking off their plate
The beauty of this approach is how testable each piece is. You can try different iterations of problem language or the swap throughout the day and see, in real-time, how they land with customers.
The instant feedback loop for in-person contact is the most powerful part, so A/B test language and get immediate results.
Ideally, you start with a few hypotheses around each of these parts of the script. Plan out versions that test each hypothesis. So, if one hypothesis was that the babysitter was the thing holding couples back, test language around that. Lean into it as the key swap — we coordinate a sitter — and get the real-time reaction. Ask follow-ups. Learn how important it is. Then, try a different problem with the next customer.
The Media
The Media is what you show up to the park (or wherever) with.
There’s usually a physical item and a digital item.
The physical item might be an index card or a flier. It shouldn’t be a generic business card. It should have the three pieces of the script on it — problem language, solution language, and the swap.
Founders will often make two or three versions of these cards if they’re testing out a few different problems/solutions/swaps. Keep them in different pockets and hand out the one that corresponds to what you were testing with the customer.
The digital part of the media is usually a landing page or a form. It should be a simple page that reiterates problem/solution/swap and collects information - a great tool for this is Tally. You can even use a QR code that takes people directly to a specific Tally form, so that you can match the forms to various tests.
The End
The big takeaway is to figure out where your customers are and get in front of them in-person, with a plan. Script out what you’ll say, be prepared with ways to collect interested customers, and test out problem, solution, and the swap. Those are the building blocks to your business
There is no higher ROI activity early on.