A guide to help founders discover their customers, brand their company, and be consistent.

1. Christy Harner
Creative Principal, Binary Ventures
Getting Your First Customers
A Founder’s Guide to User Friendly Design, Branding, and Marketing

2. Binary.Ventures
www.binary.ventures | christy@binaryventures.com | Twitter: @binaryventure

3. Introduction
Phase 1: Know Thyself
• the founder
• problem solving
• what’s your style?
• naming your company
• know your weakness
Phase 2: Discover Your Users
• make no assumptions
• create personas
Phase3: Create Your Brand
• brand for your users
• brand your user experience
Phase 4: Launch Your Brand
• be consistent
• use social media
TABLE OF CONTENTS

4. introduction.

5. To first understand brands, let’s think of the “brand of you”. For example. I have many
different brands: Christy Harner the UX Designer and Filmmaker, Christina Harner the
Author, Christy the Chinese student, Mom, and Christy Harner the Boss and Co-
Founder of Binary Ventures.
Introduction

6. I began as a Cultural Studies major which allowed me to travel to places like West
Africa, India, Europe, China, and Pakistan.
In going to these places I learned a lot about people and their thought processes.
Introduction

7. Introduction
A few years later, Binary Ventures was created by my business partner, Steve Nolan,
and I as a Design and Marketing Firm with a focus on helping Startups succeed.

8. Create. Launch. Grow.
Our purpose is simple: help create, launch, and grow startups.
Introduction

9. Steve Nolan
Managing Principal
There is no better feeling than helping
entrepreneurs realize realize their dreams by
successfully launching their business, or
enabling an established company to
reinvent themselves, gain efficiencies or
mobilize their workforce by leveraging
technology. Binary is the perfect blend of
our collective passions: creativity,
technology, marketing and people.
Christy Harner
Creative Principal
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible,”
Walt Disney, one of my idols, once said.
From the day my dad introduced our
house to the internet, I couldn’t stop
designing and developing websites. I’ve
been a geek since 1998. My passion lies
in helping people who have unique and
passionate ideas for a business venture
make their dreams a reality.
Kenneth Lopez
Chief Solutions Officer
Having been raised by a family of engineers,
I first fell in love with science at an early age,
and I started coding at the age 13. Building
software is a mix between art and science,
especially because understanding the
human factor is one of the most important
keys to building a successful product. Our
team is unrivaled in talent, passion and
dedication.
Maria del Pilar
Gamarra Huanes
Chief Information Officer
One of the things I like most being a part
of Binary is that we are always learning
and testing the bounds of new technology
and its best application in the real world.
Our main focus is on constant innovation,
so we are always pushing ourselves, trying
new things and seeing how we can use
them to solve a problem or generate an
improvement in people's lives.
Introduction

10. know thyself.
Phase 1

11. the founder
Phase 1: Know Thyself
A founder can be anyone.
But the best kind of founder is one who is an
expert in their field.

12. Phase 1: Know Thyself
For example…
One of our clients is a doctor who knows
the current methods of communication for
doctors totally suck. They are either using
pagers and waiting for calls and call backs
or are completely breaking HIPAA and
texting on their personal phones. That’s
how he created his app which is HIPAA
compliant and fixes a real problem for
people who work in a medical field. He is
an expert in his field.

13. Phase 1: Know Thyself
Take Carmen, an Ebay merchant with an
100% approval rating, who is has been
selling bras and underwear for the past
five years. Carmen knows that is is a
challenge for women to find sexy and
comfortable bras in all sizes so she
created Goodie Rack - a line of lingerie
that solves the problem for the “Everyday
Woman”.
Carmen is an expert in her field.

14. what problem are you solving
Phase 1: Know Thyself

15. Jake Farmakis, Founder & CEO
of Paradine, discovered a
problem. He didn’t know where
to take clients out to dinner
when he was on business trips
in different cities.
Phase 1: Know Thyself

16. Phase 1: Know Thyself
So Jake decided to create an app that gave business men like himself more
personalized restaurant recommendations - Paradine.

17. what’s your style?
Phase 1: Know Thyself

18. [Funny/Witty]
[YOUThFUL]
Phase 1: Know Thyself

19. [HIPSTER]
[CLEAN/
PERSONAL]
Phase 1: Know Thyself

20. Phase 1: Know Thyself
_ Cutting Edge
_ Corporate
_ Refined
_ High Tech
_ Traditional
_ Elegant
_ Trendy
_ SILLY
_ Sophisticated
_ Flowing
_ Spontaneous
_ Relaxed/Casual
_ Bold
_ Fun
_ Friendly
_ Graphic
While your brand may not exactly
line up with your personal style. It
is helpful for you to know
aesthetically what you like and
dislike before trying to develop
your product.

21. [NAME HERE]
naming your
brand
Phase 1: Know Thyself

22. Phase 1: Know Thyself
The name of the brand is
extremely important. It needs to
reflect the company and be
easily recognized and
remembered. At first, FitRaise
came to us as Sociersize. Since
it’s both a fitness app and
focused on raising your heart
rate, we decided FitRaise was
much more appropriate.

23. Phase 1: Know Thyself
Once a client came to me with his Technology
Readiness Levels product named Derwent. I asked
him how he came upon the name and he said it
was a river in the UK near where he grew up. Now,
it is fine and good to have a name that means
something to you, I’ve had people come in try to
name their product after their dog, mom, you name
it, but we also need it to mean something to the
user. Unfortunately I had to let him know that
Derwent didn’t fit the bill.

24. Phase 1: Know Thyself
He decided he also had this bridge, The Iron
Bridge, near his childhood home that meant
something to him. Since the concept of
bridging went with the product we were
developing, we decided it would be more
relevant to the user.

25. know your
weakness
Phase 1: Know Thyself

26. www.blastfromthepastantiqueboutique.com
Phase 1: Know Thyself
Sometimes we need help formulating ideas.
Sometimes the ideas come to us and we
need help reining them in. For example, I once
had a client who had, what he considered, a
stroke of genius. If I had not stepped in, his
Antique Shop’s website would have been
located at:

27. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell
Phase 1: Know Thyself
When you do decide to bring someone like a design on board, keep in mind
that they are the expert in their field like you are in yours. This humorous, and,
unfortunately, too relatable, comic demonstrates what happens when founders
try to take over designs.

28. Phase 1: Know Thyself

29. Phase 1: Know Thyself

30. Phase 1: Know Thyself

31. Phase 1: Know Thyself

32. Phase 1: Know Thyself

33. http://www.nateshivar.com/486/99-designs-review-with-pros-cons-of-crowdsourced-logo-design/
PROS
1. Super-affordable ($100-800)
2. Fast, easy to implement
3. Choice
4. Trustworthy and branded
5. Multiple perspectives
CONS
1. Lack of Unique Designs
2. No relationship or integration
3. Choice
4. Not local
5. Lack of file-types
Phase 1: Know Thyself
If you’re not ready for a designer, resources like 99 designs can be very helpful.

34. Remember: Know your strengths and your
weaknesses, and let the professionals do their job.

35. discover your users.
Phase 2

36. Phase 2: Discover Your Users
Make no assumptions when discovering your users. You may think you know all
about who will be using your product, but, without doing research, you will wasting
efforts on someone who may or may not actually be a user.

37. Phase 2: Discover Your Users
At Binary Ventures we use a program called Hubspot. The service helps us track all
analytics, keep our personas in mind, and make sure we are following the proper inbound
methodology in order to acquire the people we are after.

38. Phase 2: Discover Your Users
NO JOB NORMANHUMAN RESOURCES HANNAH
Here are two personas we made for one of our clients that is a Video Cover Letter
service - Human Resources Hannah and No Job Norman.

39. Phase 2: Discover Your Users
Once we have our personas we can
make sure that everything we do for
that brand reaches one of those
personas. The website has a recruiter
and a job searcher clearly visible on
the home screen. In addition we send
this worksheet to anyone who may be
creating content, like a blog, for the
company.

40. Remember: Make no assumptions about your users
and create personas to help guide your content.
Remember: Make no assumptions about your users
and create personas to help guide your content.

41. create your brand.
Phase 3

42. so you’ve discovered your users.
build your brand for them.
Phase 3: Create Your Brand

43. Phase 3: Create Your Brand
One client, SpendBoss, is a way for office
administrators to track how much spending
is being done on office items such as paper
towels, plastic cups, etc. The client wanted
us to create a brand with a Mad Men feel.

44. BOSSY
SNARKY
PROFESSIONAL
CLEVER
Phase 3: Create Your Brand

45. Phase 3: Create Your Brand
However, we realized that we may have over shot. We didn’t keep in mind that the
majority of our users were female and we needed to be designing for them.

46. Marketing Material
Name Creation
Promotional Video
Social Media
User Experience
Website
Branding
Design
Development
Identity Package
Logo
Market Research
Phase 3: Create Your Brand
So spendboss was reborn into something more relatable for it’s largely
female customer base.

47. brand your user experience
Phase 3: Create Your Brand

48. Phase 3: Create Your Brand
Remember the businessman, Jake,
from Phase 1? We made sure that
everything that was created for
Paradine used the same fonts, colors,
and kept the user in mind. This gives
your brand a consistent voice.

49. Phase 3: Create Your Brand

50. Remember: build your brand for your users and keep
in mind to brand your user experience.

51. launch your brand.
Phase 4

52. be anal consistent
Phase 4: Launch Your Brand

53. Phase 4: Launch Your Brand
I cannot stress enough how important
it is to be true to your brand. You and
your team worked hard developing a
color pallet and voice - use them in
everything you do.

54. engage your followers
on social media
Phase 4: Launch Your Brand

55. A story is at its best when its not
intrusive, when it brings value to a
platform’s consumers, and when it
fits in as a natural step along the
customer’s path to making a purchase.
The perfect story is spun from your
intimate knowledge of your history,
your competition’s history, and
increasingly, what you see going on in
the world and what you discover your
customers want to talk about.
Phase 4: Launch Your Brand
Recommended
Read

56. Phase 4: Launch Your Brand
1. Is the post entertaining, provocative or surprising?
2. Is the photo striking and high quality?
3. Is the logo visible?
4. Is this interesting in any way, to anyone?
5. Are we asking too much of the person consuming
the content?

57. Phase 4: Launch Your Brand
This is a great example of a brand using Facebook.

58. Phase 4: Launch Your Brand
1. Is it to the point?
2. Is the hashtag unique and memorable?
3. Does the voice sound authentic?
4. Will it resonate with the Twitter audience?

59. Phase 4: Launch Your Brand
1. Does my picture feed the consumer dream?
2. Did I give my boards clever, creative titles?
3. Have I included a price when appropriate?
4. Does every photo include a hyperlink?

60. Phase 4: Launch Your Brand
1. The photo (fun, colorful, simple)
2. The copy
3. The board
GOOD
CHOBANI: REACHING THE HEART OF ITS USERS

61. nurture your followers
Phase 4: Launch Your Brand
You did a great job of acquiring the right
people. But make sure to nurture them in
order to keep them around. Interact with
them on social media, send them
content you think they would enjoy, make
them happy that they are in your grasp!

62. Remember: be consistent with your band and engage
and nurture your social media followers.

63. Create. Launch. Grow.

64. Christy Harner
Creative Principal, Binary Ventures
www.binary.ventures
christy@binaryventures.com
Twitter: @christyharner / @binaryventure
Instagram: binary_ventures