A Seasoned Fractional CMO's Approach to Marketing in Early Stages - Thibaut's Insights

Welcome to our latest edition! Today, we’re thrilled to introduce Thibaut, a French entrepreneur and co-founder of Glorious, a Singaporean B2B SaaS company revolutionizing elder care operations. With a background in engineering and marketing, Thibaut has spent six years in Singapore, navigating both startups and corporate environments. In this edition, we explore how Glorious is digitizing nursing homes and care agencies, the common mistakes founders make, and the key factors in developing effective messaging strategies. Thibaut also shares powerful insights into the challenges of breaking into a traditional industry and how patience, trust, and genuine empathy have shaped the success of Glorious in its first year.

Who is Thibaut?

Thibaut is a French entrepreneur and co-founder of Glorious. With a background in engineering, Thibaut transitioned into marketing to better address real-world problems with technology. He then began working as a fractional CMO for various startups, helping early-stage companies build marketing strategies that support their initial growth. He has lived in Singapore for six years and has extensive experience working in both startup and corporate environments across various countries.

What is Glorious?

Glorious is a B2B SaaS platform designed to digitize eldercare operations for nursing homes, home care agencies, and daycare centers. It streamlines workflows, enhances communication, and reduces administrative burdens by centralizing care plans and improving visibility. With AI-driven tools, Glorious aims to replace outdated, paper-based processes, ensuring better care outcomes while supporting caregivers in delivering high-quality service.

(At Glorious, Thibaut is always looking to talk to care organizations, care managers and caregivers. If you know someone, please reach out to Thibaut on Linkedin!)

What Are the Common Mistakes Founders Make When Starting Their Startups?

"The biggest danger for founders, I believe, is to lie to ourselves. Yeah, we're going to do this. It's going to be great. Our product generates a ton of value for our audience."

Thibaut highlights several common mistakes founders make when starting their startups:

• Not talking to users properly: Founders often focus too much on digital methods like scraping leads and sending emails, but fail to engage in deep, face-to-face conversations to truly understand customer pain points.

• Targeting too broadly: Founders sometimes target "everyone," which dilutes their efforts. It's essential to start with a specific audience before scaling.

• Avoiding direct conversations: Many founders shy away from directly approaching potential customers, which is critical for validating ideas and gathering real feedback.

• Over-relying on metrics: Founders might focus too much on positive metrics (e.g., conversion rates) while ignoring the broader feedback from users rejecting their product or service.

How Can Founders Ask the Right Questions to Find Product-Market Fit?

"The quest for PMF is really a quest of learning. You need to learn as much as you can and as fast as you can."

• Adopt a “detective mindset”: Approach conversations with users like investigating a crime scene. Stay open-minded and focus on gathering evidence through observation and unbiased questioning.

• Observe the environment: Being in a user’s environment provides valuable cues, such as their tools, workflows, and challenges. For example, noticing whether a nursing home uses paper or software can inform your marketing approach.

• Avoid leading questions: Don't ask questions that confirm your assumptions. Instead, ask open-ended questions like "What's your day like?" to allow genuine responses.

• Be patient with silence: Let awkward pauses settle, as they often lead to deeper insights.

• Don’t sell, just listen: Make it clear you're not there to sell but to understand their daily challenges, which fosters trust and leads to more candid responses.

What Are the Key Factors in Developing Messaging Strategies?

"The typical mistake is to start from a product perspective to design a messaging strategy, that’s wrong. You have to start from the people."

• Align Messaging Across All Touchpoints:

  • Consistent messaging across channels (LinkedIn, emails, websites, sales decks) builds a coherent brand narrative. Inconsistent messages confuse customers and weaken your impact, especially in B2B, where the buying process involves multiple touchpoints across a long journey.

• Trial and Error:

  • Test different messages in real-world situations to see what resonates. For example, Glorious initially focused on scheduling but pivoted after realizing it wasn’t the core problem they wanted to solve. Testing helps refine the messaging to better suit the audience.

• Focus on the Audience, Not the Product:

  • Messaging should address customer pain points, not product features. Understanding users’ challenges helps create messages that resonate deeply. For example, Glorious shifted from promoting scheduling software to emphasizing care quality, which aligned better with customer needs.

• Go Deep with Message Creation:

  • Superficial messages like “we save time” lack impact. Write long-form content (2-3 pages) to explore each message in-depth. This process helps uncover more specific and unique value propositions, making your messaging stronger and more compelling.

• Develop Multiple Message Options:

  • Create 5-10 message options to allow flexibility. Testing various messages (e.g., saving time, improving satisfaction) helps you pivot quickly if one doesn’t resonate. This approach ensures you’re not locked into a single, potentially ineffective message.

• Let Customers Rank Messages:

  • Present different message options to customers and ask them to rank which resonates most. This feedback helps validate the best message and ensures your communication aligns with what your audience values.

How to Go Deep in Messaging? 

"You need to think as a detective again in order to understand their specific workflows and days, et cetera, so that you can craft proper messaging."

• Leverage the Five WHYs

  • Example: Thibaut uses the Five WHYs framework to dig deeper into the problem. For instance, when they initially focused on messaging around "saving time" for caregivers, they needed to ask "why" and dig deeper into how exactly time could be saved. This led to a better understanding of the specific tasks caregivers struggle with, such as reporting after long shifts.

• Understand the Audience

  • Example: Thibaut explains that many caregivers in the home care industry are migrant workers with limited English proficiency. They work long hours, commute between multiple homes, and struggle with completing paperwork. By talking to caregivers and understanding their daily routines, Glorious was able to develop messaging that resonates more with these challenges, such as simplifying paperwork processes.

• Use Specific Examples

  • Example: Caregivers often have 12-hour shifts with 3-4 different care visits. They are not allowed to use their phones while delivering care and must complete handwritten reports during their commute or after their shifts. This specific insight led Glorious to focus on messaging around simplifying reporting and reducing the burden of paperwork, rather than generic time-saving claims.

What Are Some of the Most Challenging Lessons in the First Year of Glorious?

"Breaking into a slow, traditional industry means you have to be patient. You can’t rush it. It’s about understanding their world and speaking to their needs."

• Crafting a Resonant Story:

  • Challenge: Crafting a compelling narrative that resonates with investors and clients proved difficult. Thibaut mentioned that even after refining the story, it sometimes didn’t connect with the audience.

  • Solution: Thibaut emphasized the importance of constant iteration. He continued refining the story until it resonated, gaining validation when clients or investors started saying, "Yeah, I get the message."

• Breaking into a Slow Industry:

  • Challenge: The elder care industry is slow to adopt new technology. Caregivers and nursing home professionals are not tech-savvy and have limited time and mental space to engage with new solutions.

  • Solution: Thibaut and his team focused on patience and persistence. They adapted their approach by ensuring that the messaging and product were simple, relevant, and aligned with the daily challenges their audience faced. They also accepted that progress would be slow and required a long-term relationship-building process.

• Building Trust:

  • Challenge: In the elder care industry, building trust is critical. Startups are often viewed suspiciously, and breaking into the market requires overcoming a lot of skepticism.

  • Solution: Thibaut and his team focused on earning trust by being transparent and genuine. They took the time to understand the industry’s specific needs and challenges. Over time, this approach led to recognition and trust, with people starting to recommend Glorious to others in the industry.

• Staying Genuine:

  • Challenge: When meeting with prospects in nursing homes, being uncomfortable around elderly patients can break trust. If a founder or team member appears uneasy, it can harm the relationship.

  • Solution: Thibaut stressed the importance of being comfortable and empathetic in the environment. He encouraged his team to genuinely care about the elderly and be comfortable in nursing home settings. Showing authenticity in these interactions helped to build strong relationships with clients.

We hope Thibaut’s experiences in building Glorious and navigating the challenges of the elder care industry have offered valuable lessons on patience, empathy, and the importance of deep customer understanding. His insights on crafting effective messaging strategies, building trust, and avoiding common startup pitfalls provide a roadmap for founders looking to break into traditional, slower-moving industries. Whether you’re in the early stages of your startup or scaling your business, Thibaut’s journey underscores the importance of persistence and genuine connection with your audience. Stay tuned and subscribe HERE for more stories and strategies from visionary entrepreneurs transforming the way we work and live.