LUCID: A New Way of Thinking (Interview with Aaron Weller)
This is how Aaron Weller, an experienced Australian entrepreneur, explains his thought process when it came to choosing the right domain to establish his brand. His story is motivating to say the least, and we are very proud to have him here with us.
Aaron will share a few extremely useful tips for all young startups looking for first hand advice from a pro. He is also sharing his branding model, so tune in to find out what makes Lucid Smart Pill so great, and how this entrepreneur has managed to build and sell several startups already.
But first, a proper introduction is in order!
You are one of the people that founded the Crucial Cloud Hosting company, the Miss Amara rug company, your Angel List profile says that you are currently investing in 10 different companies. All in all, you are an exemplary modern-day entrepreneur! So tell us, what gave you the idea to invest & found Lucid?
Lucid Smart Pill was born out of challenges I experienced when building and selling several startups. It’s a fast paced environment, always demanding, and you need to perform mentally no matter the circumstances. Part of my ethos is I was always looking for ways to improve and optimize my performance, and along the way I tried many things that worked (eating healthy, regular exercise, etc.) and that didn’t work (energy drinks, extended use of caffeine, etc.).
During this journey, I came across a combination of nutraceutical compounds that had a profound impact on my focus, motivation, and mental agility. People around me (other business owners, friends, and colleagues) started to ask me what I was taking, and when I explained they asked to try. That’s when something unexpected happened, they kept hounding me for more! This is when I realized there was a big unmet demand for a product like Lucid, and people really needed it.
Your investments are all one success after another. Is there anything that separates you from your peers? What’s the formula of your success?
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It’s always a high-risk proposition investing in startups, but having gone through the process of founding and then selling a startup I have a good understanding of what’s required. I’m always looking for ways to support new founders and help businesses achieve their big goals, so I really enjoy giving back and helping & investing.
There are a few key things I look at when deciding to invest in a startup:
Team: Is the right team in place? This is above all the most important part, as without the right team that’s able to execute they won’t go anywhere. The business can always pivot to a new idea if the team is good. I look for the right areas in the business covered, previous experience, and great team dynamics.
Problem/Idea: Is the problem the startup is solving real, and a big enough pain point? If I’ve experienced the pain myself that’s a big plus.
Market: How big is the total addressable market? It has to be a big opportunity, and not too small.
Competitors: What is the competitor landscape like? I want to make sure they are one of the first to market, or have some kind of defensible advantage.
Basically, with this many successful projects under your belt, one could say that you are a brand-building machine. How do you differentiate and build a recognizable brand these days?
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When we first started Lucid, we identified the importance of having the perfect domain name, as we are 100% an online business. We required something that was short, easily remembered, and encompassed our brand… Lucid + me ties to the individual and how our customers are striving to reach their full potential. [/su_quote]
That’s a great question, and the exact process really varies from business to business!
Lucid Smart Pill is much more than just a company selling a smart pill product, we exist to inspire everyone to achieve their full potential, and we call this betterment. One of the ways we are achieving this is through selling the Lucid Smart Pill. What this means is we’ve created a brand with something that people aspire to and want to be a part of. There are a lot of things that go into making this work, including the right company foundations, branding, our content and its distribution, as well as the experience we create with customers on every interaction.
The first step was making sure we had the right foundations as a business, closely aligned and linked with the brand we are creating.
Problem – What is the pain point people are experiencing? The driving factor why they must have a product like yours. At Lucid our problem is: Technology is changing the way we work, computers are replacing “doing jobs”, and people are looking for ways to improve their mental performance. Existing options are either illegal, or aren’t effective.
Purpose & Values – What does the company stand for internally and externally? I love Simon Sinek’s explanation of this.
Our purpose is we exist to inspire people to reach their full potential, and we call this betterment. Our values are up on our about us page.
Brand Personality – What emotions do we want people to feel when exposed to our brand? We have identified these to be: trust, clarity, strength, positivity, illuminated, motivated.
Once we had the foundations in place, the next step to building a recognizable brand was easy. Lucid is a brand new product in a brand new product category, so we identified that we would have a big task ahead of us in educating customers, building trust, and also building brand recognition at the same time.
We are doing this now through creating outstanding content (articles, infographics, etc.) around our concept of betterment, and then promoting the content through paid media to drive trust, brand recognition, customer interaction, and actual sales.
We’re thrilled that you’ve decided to use a .me domain for your new company. Can you tell us which factors influenced this decision?
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When we first started Lucid we identified the importance of having the perfect domain name as we are 100% an online business. We required something that was short, easily remembered, and encompassed our brand. Due to the sheer number of domains registered, this was a challenge!
However, when we came across the availability of lucid.me, it fit our requirements perfectly. It was short, memorable, and embodies what Lucid stands for as a company and brand, betterment. Lucid + me ties to the individual and how our customers are striving to reach their full potential.
Tell us more about Lucid. What are your goals, what are you hoping to get from this project? Where do you see this company a year from today?
Having just launched Lucid two and a half months ago after a year of product development, our short-term focus is to get Lucid Smart Pill into the hands of as many people globally as possible.
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Long term we have big goals for Lucid, we sit in a very exciting fast-growing new category (cognitive enhancers). We believe that the cognitive enhancement space will be larger than the energy drink space in the near future, and we want be the market leader. In addition to being a leader in this category, we believe we can further inspire people to reach their full potential through a range of other products, such as: personalized nutrition & supplementation based upon personal genome makeup, and tight integration with technology which enables measuring mental performance and optimize on a day to day basis.
Who are your targeted customers? Who is this product intended for? Also, have there been any unexpected revelations regarding their target group and their perception of your product?
Lucid is currently targeting knowledge workers who want to improve their performance & productivity. This includes professionals, business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives. However, in the long term, we believe Lucid has mass market appeal, just like energy drinks and coffee.
Since our launch two and a half months ago, we’ve been surprised by the breadth of customers who are purchasing, their positive reception of Lucid, and their willingness to try Lucid with less education than we initially expected. Feedback from users of our product have also been extremely positive, with a lot of users getting a big benefit from using Lucid.
We love the Founder’s Focus Hacks section. Can you tell us more about your branding strategy? What is the message that you would like to send out to your target group?
Our branding and marketing strategy is centered around three key objectives: generate awareness, educate customers, and build brand trust. To achieve these, we are educating consumers on betterment and it’s benefits through content, amplifying via paid media, and generating leads and nurturing them.
Our key message towards consumers is this:
We exist to inspire everyone to achieve their full potential.
We call this BETTERMENT.
Technological and Health + Wellness advances are giving us the opportunity to focus on bettering ourselves and others resulting in enhanced performance and experience at work and in life.
Lucid Smart Pill is starting to cause a lot of commotion on social media. Are you satisfied with the response that you are getting at the moment?
We are ecstatic with the response so far on social media, we are getting a lot of user interaction, and building a great community of users with the goal of reaching their full potential. Since launch we’ve gotten a lot of learnings on our content, and are tweaking and continue to build our content and social strategy around these learnings.
