The Golden Message

It’s not sexy or exciting.

No one talks about it on stage.

And it is the most ignored part of most early companies.

That is the answer to “What do you do?”

Most founders answer with a list of technologies and features. “We use AI to automate customer service.” “Agents that help you…”

The issue with that is it has nothing to do with an outcome that solves a big problem.

That’s the first step. Finding a big enough problem where people will buy today.

In my first AI company we discovered this by accident. After speaking at a tech conference, they gave us a booth as payment. It was 2019 and we were using AI to create synthetic data.

People walked by the booth and asked, “What do you do?”

Our response… “We use AI to build data for other AI models.” They would say, “Cool” or “Nice” and walk on.

Then someone asked if our system could do something different. We asked “Why?” They explained their big problem. It was something we could easily solve. As a result, they paid us.

A few more people walked by and another person asked us if we could solve the same problem. “Sure,” we said after a brief conversation. They paid us too.

Not long after, a third person paid us for the same thing. The important lesson here is that no one asked to see a demo. Trust was built in the conversation. Not my talk as those that purchased did not realize I had spoke at the conference.

After that initial success, we struggled to gain new customers because we did not know how to communicate our product. Without a Golden Message we could not get a meeting, close a sale, or raise funds.

The Golden Message is the hardest part for many founders. That is because it has nothing to do with what you do and everything to do with what your customer achieves.

It’s a vision of a desired outcome. The first step toward a powerful brand. When heard by a prospective customer who has the problem you solve, it causes them to book a meeting. It differentiates you from competitors.

And it’s just one sentence.

Eventually, smart founders use the words of their customers. Until then, the starting point is based on the desired outcome using simple language.

A few examples of the Golden Message as a response to “What do you do?”:

From “We use AI to enhance sales effectiveness.”

To “Rapid revenue growth without new hires.”

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From “AI for lower cost brewing”

To “Make the same beer at half the cost.”

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From “Agentic AI to improve customer support.”

To “Turn churn into new revenue.”

Todd Moses / Sales for Founders

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