Circle

Objective: Design the ambassador program mechanics needed to reach 25 ambassadors: who qualifies, what they receive, the activation ladder from first yes to active advocate, the definition of "active", and the first outreach message. Buyers are growth and marketing leaders at startups and AI-forward brands. Anchor the work to the "Agents are doing the marketing work now" narrative where it fits honestly.
Advocate pool: Growth & marketing leaders at seed–Series B startups (~142k globally; ~31k reachable in US/EU)
Perception to lean on: people already associate us with "brand intelligence as an API".
TIERS (each entered by doing something, not by applying)
  1. Signal — entered by: ran three planning cycles, or posted publicly about a result.
     Gets: private Slack channel with the team, early roadmap visibility, name on the site.
     Time cost: ~15 min/month.
  2. Operator — entered by: shipped a real outcome and is willing to show the numbers.
     Gets: unreleased Adveron intelligence for their category, direct line to the founders, co-authored teardown on our blog with their byline.
     Time cost: ~1 hour/month.
  3. Council — entered by: sustained Operator activity for a quarter, by invitation only.
     Gets: a vote on roadmap sequencing, a stage at our events, first access to the agent-experiment results before publication.
     Time cost: ~2 hours/month, quarterly call.
ACTIVATION LOOP
  trigger: user hits a real result in mos (goal met, experiment decided)
  → prompt: in-product nudge offering to turn the run into a shareable teardown, pre-drafted from their own data
  → act: they publish it with disclosure
  → reward: we amplify it from the founder account and credit them by name; the publish event advances their tier
  → repeat: next result re-enters the loop; dormancy after 90 days moves them down a tier quietly, no email.
INCENTIVES WE ARE DELIBERATELY NOT USING: discount codes, revenue share, merch as a primary reward. This audience trades on credibility; paying them for enthusiasm devalues the endorsement and creates disclosure problems.
MEASUREMENT AND KILL CRITERIA: track active ambassadors, referral signups, and advocacy mentions monthly. If after one quarter fewer than 8 people reach Operator, or referral signups stay under 5% of total, the loop is broken — fix the trigger before adding incentives.
Missing inputs: no share-of-voice data on named existing customers, and no category advocacy benchmarks (data gaps recorded). Tier thresholds are therefore judgment calls, not calibrated numbers.

CANDIDATE PROFILES (in priority order)
  1. Growth & marketing leaders at seed–Series B startups — pain we solved: Market research is a two-week project they never start. Look for: has run cycles in mos, posts publicly, answers questions in Lenny's Newsletter + community.
  2. Agency operators & fractional CMOs — pain we solved: Junior output quality varies more than clients tolerate. Look for: has run cycles in mos, posts publicly, answers questions in X (agency + fractional CMO circles).
  Red flags: has never used the product beyond signup; asks about compensation before access; audience is other vendors rather than practitioners.
RECRUITING SCRIPTS (send unedited, one-to-one, from a founder)
  Script A — someone who posted about a result:
    "Saw your post about brand intelligence as an API — the part about what didn't work is the part I care about. We're putting together a small group of people who use mos for real and will say so honestly, including when it's wrong. You'd get the unreleased intelligence for your category and a direct line to us. No contract, no approval over what you write. Want in?"
  Script B — a quiet heavy user:
    "You've run more cycles than almost anyone and I've never heard you say a word about it publicly, which I respect. Standing offer: I'll turn any of your runs into a draft teardown using your own numbers, you edit or bin it. Interested?"
  Reference line available from perception data: ""mos is what I keep trying to build in Notion and failing at: goals, agents, and results in one loop." — fractional CMO"
ACTIVATION CADENCE
  Week 0: personal invite, access granted same day.
  Week 1: onboarding call — 20 minutes, we ask what they want to prove, not what they'll post.
  Week 2–3: first co-created artifact (teardown, thread, or talk), drafted by us from their data, published by them.
  Monthly: one intelligence drop for their category, one ask (max), one amplification of something they made.
  Quarterly: Council call — roadmap sequencing and what the agent experiments found.
  Dormancy: no activity in 90 days → quiet tier move, no reactivation email campaign.
Objective this serves: Design the ambassador program mechanics needed to reach 25 ambassadors: who qualifies, what they receive, the activation ladder from first yes to active advocate, the definition of "active", and the first outreach message. Buyers are growth and marketing leaders at startups and AI-forward brands. Anchor the work to the "Agents are doing the marketing work now" narrative where it fits honestly.