Create a Gravity Well
For yourself or your business
WAND is an ‘Uber for cleaning’ application I’ll have been running for about 3 years come this summer. Through that time, we’ve built up a team of 7 people working on the company and over 130 cleaning providers in 2 markets.
Recently on a Zoom roundtable for business owners, I was asked how we find and retain good talent. I replied that we create a Gravity Well for our business to pull in good people.
What’s a Gravity Well?
A gravity well is the effected radius of the pull of gravity from objects. If an object has a large amount of mass, it may be said that it has a deep gravity well. Another object in space that falls into a deep gravity well from a massive object will have to exert much more energy to escape it’s pull than an object with less mass that might only alter it’s course.
When we started WAND, our gravity well was very small. I was the asteroid in the graphic above. Over time, I learned to do things that created a deeper gravity well to help people discover our business.
Asteroid
I met our first full time programmer posting questions in a Discord server.
He was the guy who’d always hop in to explain what I was asking about or offer to hop on a call. Eventually, he, not I, asked that he get involved in the business and I was thrilled to say yes.
Moon
I met our CTO during a 30 minute presentation on the company.
Early in 2019, I went on a string of pitches to get the word out about the business. At one for One Million Cups in downtown St. Louis, I met who would turn out to be our CTO as well as a key connection to winning a $20,000 grant that was crucial in our early stage.
Planet
We met a team member who’s currently helping us prep to launch in our 3rd market and dozens of cleaning providers by maintaining a narrative online.
I post company updates semi-consistently to our native blog for the company. I then share those same updates on sites like IndieHackers, Angel’s List, in groups like Visualize Value and even like this create more breadth at the top of the funnel that prospective individuals can fall into. Aside from cleaning providers applying on our website and new customers trying the app, most recently we had a motivated individual reach out in Seattle to help out with some remote work. We agreed to compensate for value created and now, a few months later, he’s taken the initiative to be a key player in launching us in that market, and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.
The individuals who made the biggest impact on WAND found us, not vice versa. I started thinking about our business as a gravity well after hearing Vance Crowe describe the concept outside of physics in a speech.
Even these newsletters are an effort to increase Benjamin Anderson’s gravity well.
Are you doing anything to increase yours?
You might be surprised who finds you when you do.
Next week, I’m going to explain how your car’s engine works in a post no longer than this.
Be well.
-Benjamin Anderson