In Depth

How to lower barriers to change when building and selling products — Jonah Berger’s advice for founders


Listen Later

Our guest today is Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the bestselling author of “Contagious” and “Invisible Influence.” 


Today we’re chatting about his follow-up book, “The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind.” Founders start companies to change industries and behaviors, but change is hard. Going back to chemistry, Jonah notes that catalysts don't just create change by pushing harder or exerting more energy — they remove or lower the barriers to change. (In the book Jonah offers a helpful framework about 5 specific barriers to change, called REDUCE — which stands for reactance, endowment, distance, uncertainty, and corroborating evidence.)


We focus on how founders and leaders can do that in the context of building and selling products. Jonah shares his thoughts on:

  • Whether you truly need to build a 10X better product and why a startup’s biggest competitor is actually inertia. 
  • The role of urgency in selling or getting someone to adopt a product.
  • How to apply the freemium approach in different contexts, like with physical products.
  • Techniques for negotiating price, as well as the role that identity and category creation play in persuasion and product adoption.

  • You can follow Jonah on Twitter at @j1berger. You can email us questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    In DepthBy First Round

    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8

    4.8

    57 ratings


    More shows like In Depth

    View all
    This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

    This Week in Startups

    1,272 Listeners

    a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

    a16z Podcast

    1,063 Listeners

    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

    519 Listeners

    The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

    The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

    174 Listeners

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

    2,283 Listeners

    Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

    Masters of Scale

    3,986 Listeners

    Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

    Y Combinator Startup Podcast

    224 Listeners

    Grit by Kleiner Perkins

    Grit

    187 Listeners

    The Logan Bartlett Show by by Redpoint Ventures

    The Logan Bartlett Show

    188 Listeners

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

    126 Listeners

    Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast by swyx + Alessio

    Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast

    69 Listeners

    AI and I by Dan Shipper

    AI and I

    31 Listeners

    AI + a16z by a16z

    AI + a16z

    32 Listeners

    Lightcone Podcast by Y Combinator

    Lightcone Podcast

    19 Listeners

    Training Data by Sequoia Capital

    Training Data

    44 Listeners