💬 Anonymous Smack Talk, But Professionally (Expect More of These Soon).

This is The Level Ups. Modern business news for the future business leader (in plain-Jane English).

Private forums are not new, but they’re on a big come-up. Who doesn’t love a place to talk smack? Big tech employees. That’s who.

• Blind: the forum for big tech employees.

• How this business model works.

• Why you should do the same for your business.

Let’s get into it.

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes & 40 seconds.

Blind: The Forum For Employees at Big Tech Companies

For a long time, there was always a concept of "the room." It's the meeting after the meeting where all the significant decisions are made, where the big players talk about what matters in private. Usually, we just see the outcome, not the conversation.

Some companies are flipping the script and giving employees "a room" of their own.

Blind calls itself an “anonymous professional network.”

It’s part of what makes Blind feel less cringe than LinkedIn. People don’t feel like they’ll lose their job for saying the wrong thing since it’s anonymous.

You can sign up like any other online platform but must use your work email. This helps confirm you actually work where you say you do (since you have to verify your email).

Then, enter any username you want (again, it’s anonymous).

They take this to the next level by forcing you to sign up to read the content, adding exclusivity to the business, which is proven to work.

Then, it’s essentially a forum to share ideas, insights, and otherwise private information in an anonymous setting.

Some of the more interesting threads so far (you may have to signup to read them all, but this gives you the idea):

• “This has gone too far, he needs to cancel Metaverse” - it’s received comments from hundreds of people who work at Meta.

• “Which area of recruiting pays the best”

• “Twitter U-Turn….Telling fired employees to come back !! 🤣🤣🤣🤣” - ignore the username “bigboss99,” this person confirmed they’re in the industry.

Expect more businesses like this to appear online soon. They’re cheap to make, easy to run, and have a proven business (more on this later).

How The Business Model Works:

Blind currently has another division called “Blind Talent.” It’s a natural extension of having tech employees gathered on one forum.

Helping these big companies hire is big business. Recruiting and talent overall is a $151B industry in the US alone. Even a tiny piece of this pie is life changing.

But how did blind spot an opportunity like this? I’ll show you.

Anytime you have a huge platform that serves many audiences, specializing the same thing (pretty much) for one specific audience works. This is often referred to as “niching down” from a big audience to a smaller, more focused one.

Examples:

• Reddit. There’s a subreddit (forum) for pretty much everything. Blind is an example of re-creating Reddit but for one specific audience (big tech employees).

• Indeed. Job platform for pretty much any job in any industry. Blind talent is an example of niching this down to focus on a job platform specialized for big tech.

• Glassdoor: Where employees can go to review their experience anonymously. Blind has this built into their platform for tech employees who often leave reviews.

• Morning Brew: The OG business newsletter. They started niching down their own business before anyone else stole the idea with HR Brew, Emerging Tech Brew, and more.

Any platform that caters to a broad audience (assuming it has a big user base) can be niched down. If we’re talking about billions of dollars, you can always niche it down to something smaller.

Do The Same For Your Business:

The formula is very straightforward. Here’s how it works.

Whatever industry you’re in, take a business model with a broad audience and niche it down as an add-on to your business based on the industry your business serves the most.

Suppose you’re a marketing agency that serves real estate developers. In that case, you could take a page out of Morning Brew’s book and create your own newsletter for real estate marketing. You can then flip this to add revenue from a job board (Indeed), advertising (Morning Brew), or a forum (Reddit).

Examples:

• Newletter: “Private marketing datasets based on $10M of ad-spend in 2022, only for real estate developers. sign up here.”

• Job Board: “Where the real estate industry finds new talent.”

You get the idea. Bonus points if you make it about your particular city/region (provided it’s big enough).

No, it won’t be as big as the original. It doesn’t need to be. Again, a small piece of billions of dollars is worth it.

Is It Worth It?

So, how do you know it will work and not end up a total flop?

These companies are already spending money on the more general option. If a real estate developer is using (and spending money on) Indeed, why wouldn’t they use “Indeed for real estate developers?”

I know what you’re thinking.

If it’s so good, why don’t more people do this?

Because making these moves when it’s not your industry is harsh. Imagine not being in the real estate industry but trying to create a job board for real estate developers.

Who’s going to take you seriously? You have no credibility in that industry. Authority matters. And getting there quickly takes a lot of time and money.

The barrier of entry is higher because someone new would have to start from scratch. A commitment most aren’t willing to make.

But that’s why it might make sense for you. If it’s easy for you and hard for competitors to pop up, chances are there won’t be many copycats.

If you decide to do something like this let me know. I’d love to help you crush it.

Thanks for reading!

Darwin