Every Startup Needs a Coconut

What’s yours?

Greg Isenberg

Aug 14, 2024

Sometimes in startups, you've gotta embrace the crazy.

Back in 2017, I was neck-deep in building Islands, a Discord competitor. We were getting traction, but something was bugging me.

In a sea of chat apps, how do you stand out?

That's when it hit me: Sound.

Every app out there was silent. Mute. Boring.

We had a chance to be different. To be memorable.

So we did something that probably sounds insane to most "rational" founders: We hired an indie musician living the artsy life in Montreal and told him to go wild.

The next day, I get this text: "Bought, opened and emptied three coconuts for recording last night lol".

the wild things we do for product/market fit

This madman had gone to the local grocery store, bought actual coconuts, and smashed them together to create our notification sound. And he did it in a sea of pillows. Not exactly

And you know what? Our users went nuts for it (pun intended). This madman was a legend.

Here's the thing:

In startups, it's easy to get caught up in the big picture. The grand vision. The hockey stick growth.

But sometimes, it's the tiny details that make all the difference.

This is called the "1mm Rule":

​ Nikita Bier says it best:

"After building social apps for a decade, my biggest learning has been that when you're launching a rocketship and you're off by 1mm, you'll miss the moon & land in space.

Details and timing matters"

The smallest details can be the difference between hitting escape velocity and burning up on re-entry.

Think about it:

• ​ Nomad List(Peter Levels): The tiny detail: A real-time chat showing where nomads are logging in from. This small feature created a sense of global community and FOMO.

• ​ Gumroad (Sahil Lavingia): The nuance: The ability to sell with just a link. No need for a website or complex setup. This seemingly small simplification opened e-commerce to creators.

• ​ Baremetrics (Josh Pigford): The small piece: The "Panic Button" feature. This tiny addition let users quickly hide their dashboard when someone walked by, addressing a real anxiety of founders.

• ​ Carrd (AJ): The detail: The "Publish" button that turns green and wiggles when you make changes. This small animation gives instant, satisfying feedback to users.

• ​ Indie Hackers(Courtland Allen): The nuance: Product milestones on profiles. This tiny feature gamified progress and kept founders motivated.

• ​ Notion: The small touch: The ability to add emojis to page titles. This seemingly frivolous feature made organization fun and visually scannable.

• ​ Superhuman: The detail: The "Undo Send" feature with a custom duration. This small addition gave users a sense of control and reduced email anxiety.

• ​ Loom: The nuance: The bubble video of the speaker in the corner. This small touch made videos feel more personal and engaging.

• ​ Calendly: The tiny feature: Time zone auto-detection. This small automation eliminated a major point of friction in scheduling.

• ​ Todoist: The detail: Karma points for completing tasks. This small gamification element kept users coming back and feeling accomplished.

• And us? We got people talking because of coconuts.

In a world where every app looks the same, sounds the same, feels the same - it's these tiny, seemingly insignificant details that can set you apart.

So here's my challenge to you:

What's your coconut?

What small, possibly crazy detail can you obsess over that will make your users fall in love with your product? And make you the anti-Amazon, the anti-Google, the anti-whomever.

​

You inject soul and word-of-mouth by these little features.

So, the wild things we do for product/market fit, yeah, sometimes they are worth it.

Find it. Pursue it. Perfect it.