Drop Converted Brand Cease-And-Desist Letters Into Partnership Pitches
Derrick Fung · How to Launch a Marketplace | Derrick Fung, Founder of Drop · PMF Show · Mar 8, 2024 · at 5:22
Derrick Fung, co-founder and CEO of rewards app Drop, describes how the company solved its cold-start marketplace problem by seeding brand logos without permission.
0:00 / 0:19exact quote · 19.5s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“We did get cease and desist letters. We called it communication and discussion whereby we actually reached back out and said, Hey, like or sorry, conversation and discussion. And so we said, Hey, you know, we know you sent us a cease and desist. Okay. You know, we'll remove your logo, but Hey, why don't we just do a deal? Like we're going to be driving you sales and we can prove it.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Derrick Fung
International Founders Should Launch in the US Market Immediately if Possible
“I do give founders now advice if they can launch the US right away, just do it. Because I look back and, ah, there is nothing, you know, Canada, US, like there, we learned there wasn't a big difference in the market.”
The Net Average Number of Mobile Apps Consumers Download Annually Is Zero
“The average number of apps that a consumer downloads a year is zero. They delete just as many apps as they download.”
Early Instacart Shoppers Faced Police Calls for Unauthorized In-Store Shopping
“If you look at, yeah, companies like Uber, even Instacart, you know, I met not too long ago, the early CFO of Instacart who they would get like the police called on them because the shoppers are illegally going into like a grocery store without permission and …”
Running Pre-Launch Ads Could Have Increased Drop's Early Valuation
“Maybe, maybe, you know, run ads before raising money and then use that. And, you know, maybe we would have raised more money or got a better valuation because we had more data.”
Drop Fixed Negative Margins in 2019 Following Shifts in VC Focus
“We made them because, you know, now it's like 2019 and, you know, to fundraise, there was a big focus on unit economics and payback and all of that. And I think you know, you didn't, It didn't have to be fully solved, but we needed a story. And as we were oper…”