Exponent
noun | ex-po-nent | /ikˈspōnənt,ˈekspōnənt/
- A person who believes in and promotes the truth or benefits of an idea or theory.
(e.g. I am an exponent of the concept that a future of abundance, self-determination, and peace is preferable to a future of the opposite) - A quantity representing the power to which a given number or expression is to be raised, usually expressed as a raised symbol beside the number or expression.
(e.g. xn, youexponents)
If you are here, there’s an excellent chance you’re a founder of an ambitious startup, an executive at one, or a key contributor on the tech, product, marketing, sales, recruiting, or ops side of things. And there’s a strong chance you’ve got big ambitions for yourself and your company.
In fact, a doubter, hater or other category of fear-driven person might tell you that your goals are unrealistic, idealistic, or grandiose. Some might even call them crazy.
And yet, you know deep down that your ambitions are exactly the right kind…that combination of curiosity, creativity, and relentless drive that motivated the Galileos, Mozarts, Einsteins, Edisons, and Steve Jobs-es, and Elon Musks of the world and animated their most brilliant, transformative work.
And while you are may be self-aware enough to know that you may not have Einstein’s IQ, you know that you don’t have to invent an entirely new model of physical reality to do remarkable, impactful things.
A strong, adaptable mind? Yes. A willingness to march to the beat of your own drum? Check. A high tolerance for ambiguity? Those too.
You’re on this journey because you want to live in the best possible future for yourself and the people you love. And you know the best shot you have at that future is to help create it.
Any Journey Worth Taking Is Full Of Obstacles, Pitfalls, and Risks
Some of these are easy to spot, even if they are hard to avoid. Others are far more problematic, because you never even knew they were there.
The first category of danger—your “known unknowns”—are like steep cliffs off to the side of a well-mapped trail. While failing to navigate them properly might be fatal, at least you know they where they are.
But the second category of risk—your “unknown unknowns”—are like punji stick traps placed along your route through the dense jungle: while you might have a vague sense that they’re out there, you have no idea you’re about to step into one until you and your whole team are up to your torsos in sharpened bamboo sticks.
Why I founded Exponents
Ever since I was 15 years old, I’ve believed that human civilization in the 21st century would take one of two possible trajectories: towards global abundance, self-determination, and peace OR towards profound scarcity, totalitarianism, and a persistent state of war.
I decided to do something about it.
So, In July of 2016, after running a solo consulting business focused on software startups for 4 years, I pivoted to ONLY take clients whose technologies, products, services, ideas, or philosophies aligned my mission: to do anything and everything in my power to help create the right kind of abundance for all humankind.
Specifically, I now offer my rare combination of strategic insight, world-class storytelling skills, and T-shaped marketing acumen to help the founders, leadership teams, and contributors of companies with transformative potential develop and implement the highest-leverage go-to-market strategy for their products, markets, and stages of growth.
More broadly, I have set out to turn Exponents into THE definitive resource on how to:
- Launch transformative new technologies, products, services, and ideas into the world for maximum impact
- Identify the ideal target markets and customers for every stage of the product’s development
- Develop insight into those customers’ biggest unsolved problems, unmet needs, and unfulfilled desires.
- Find, test, and scale the most profitable sources of new customers…
- Create and refine systems (across marketing, sales, and product) that turn potential customers into actual customers, and actual customers into ecstatic customers
- Disrupt the models, markets, and companies whose antiquated ways of doing things hold us all back.
- Navigate the huge operational challenges involved.
Of course, this could mean many different things. Today and in the near future, it means a blog about strategy, marketing, and building a future of abundance, an open-sourced guide to a building a peaceful, decentralized civilization called The Exponents’ Guides To The Galaxy,” and a podcast about the future of technology and humanity with the same name.
My specialties are:
- Creating story-driven go-to-market strategies that lead quickly to significant increases in revenue growth
- Writing insightful, in-depth essays that attract tens of thousands of readers each
- Architecting customer acquisition systems that converts cold traffic into paying customers
- Crafting clear, compelling, and persuasive copy that converts skeptical people into enthusiastic buyers.
- Adapting a message and story to the desires, beliefs, and goals of a specific audience (and doing so programmatically on a website)
So as I flesh out this site and develop the podcast over the coming months and years, I’m going to deep into all of those things. For now, though, here’s what I got already, and what’s coming soon:
My Best Essays (So Far)
On Go-to-Market Strategy
The Essence of Effective Competitive Strategy in 7 Steps (A Case Study of Snapchat vs. Facebook)
Why Did Google Glass’s First Version Fail? They Got Their Wrong Go-To-Market Strategy All Wrong
On Persuasive Copywriting
How Slack’s Original Product Story Sold Its Product Short
Even Marketing-Driven Companies Need Better Copy: A 2200-Word Teardown of HubSpot’s Old Homepage
On The Future Of Technology and Humanity
Digital Telepathy Is The Future Of The Human Species
Virtual Reality Could Make Us Into Better Humans (And Maybe Help Save The World
The Exponents’ Guides To The Galaxy (Coming Soon!)
The Exponents’ Guides To The Galaxy will be an open-source, always-evolving and expanding guide to dealing with the many huge business and operational challenges involved in bringing transformative technologies, products, services, and ideas into the world.
Each section combines a mix of strategy and framework with detailed step-by-step tactical walkthroughs. The intention is to support all kinds of media, starting with text, images, video, and audio, but eventually also include things like interactive product designs, interactive workflow diagrams, code samples, CAD files for 3D printable objects…you name it.
Here are the sections I’ve got planned:
- The Definitive Guide To Strategy For World-Changers and Disruptors
- Attracting Top-Notch Talent When Your Company Is Not Yet Well-Known
- Storytelling and Communication For Transformative Leaders
- 80/20 Segmentation & Personalization
- Content Marketing That Actually Delivers Results
- Persuasive Copywriting Of Nearly All Kinds
Working With Me
While all of the content on my blog is free (and will stay that way) and The Exponent’s Guide To The Galaxy will be free, offered under an open-source license, and editable/extensible by qualified contributors, I also offer a handful of workshops and consulting services.
Visit my Work With Exponents section to learn about these.
See what I did there?