Marketing

At Google, I helped launch Google Hotel Search. We quietly turned it on for 1% of searches with no announcement, no press release, nothing. Within a week, almost 10 million people had used the feature just by typing "hotels in New York" or a similar query in the search box.

At Amazon, we'd make a small tweak to the seller registration flow and within hours, there would be discussions across seller forums about what it meant and how to navigate the changes. No announcements needed.

I spent years building products with ready-made audiences. Marketing meant flipping a switch and watching millions of people discover what we'd built. Now I need to find my first 1000 users for Hobbes. And I'm learning that I need to develop a whole new set of muscles.

This week, I built Hobbes' landing page. I enjoyed the process of designing it, coding it, thinking through animations, optimizing performance, and most importantly, writing each word of copy. The copy needs to explain what Hobbes actually does, show how it's different from other diet apps, reflect the right brand voice, and convince someone to join a waitlist. That's a lot to ask from a few paragraphs.

I went through 8-10 iterations. As an example, my first draft of the headline read: "Hobbes: your personal nutrition coach for lasting weight loss and better health." Generic. Could describe any diet app. The current version has 4 words and it took me hours of tinkering to land on those, but they capture what I actually believe: existing solutions have failed, and Hobbes is different.

I think the page is decent now, but honestly, I have no idea if enough people will care about it to join a waitlist.

There's only one way to find out. (Best viewed on desktop)

I'd love your feedback - any bugs you spot, any ideas for improvement, or just letting me know that it's good :) You don't need to sign up - if you are receiving this email, you're already on the list.

I'm also sharing the link on LinkedIn later this week. If it resonates with you, I'd genuinely appreciate help spreading it by commenting or reposting. I'm still figuring out how to reach people beyond my immediate network.

I will share more about the product itself and the choices I made in subsequent posts. I'm also a few weeks out from starting the beta test of the app. Excited!