The Advantage of Not Marketing

Pandora CTO Tom Conrad invites start-ups to “be genuine”. Rather than investing in marketing, Pandora simply asks its users to a coffee. In lieu of a form letter, new users – all 50,000 of them daily – receive an automated email with the founder’s true email address, and their feedback is requested. This personal touch, rather than mass PR blitzes and glitzy launch parties, says Conrad, has been instrumental in the company’s word-of-mouth growth.