The starting point
A seed-stage climate hardware company with a small team and no budget for a long agency retainer. Only one of the five models we tested named them when asked about their category.
They had two people who knew the product better than anyone could from the outside: the founder and the support lead. What they lacked was the know-how and the time.
What we did
Train the people who already know the answers
Both went through our four-week certification: how answer engines build recommendations, how to earn standing in Reddit communities, how Wikipedia's notability rules work, and how to run a review programme by the rules. They were assessed on real work in their own accounts, not on a quiz.
Run it alongside them
While they trained, we ran organic Reddit work for them, so the visibility work didn't wait for the course to finish. They watched how we did it, then started doing it themselves, under their own names.
Hand it over
At month six we handed everything over, then coached them for a quarter: two calls a month and a review of anything before it went out.
What changed
- Models naming them went from one of five to three of five.
- About six hours a week of internal time now sustains it, split between the two of them.
They no longer pay an agency, and they send us referrals.
By the numbers
| Measure | Day one | Month 6 | Month 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Models naming them (out of 5) | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Threads mentioning them | 40 | 310 | 820 |
| Posts and replies by their own team | 0 | 640 | 1,450 |
| Internal hours per week | – | 8 | 6 |
| Agency spend per month | – | Retainer | €0 |
How the six months were split
- Month 1: four-week certification for the founder and the support lead, assessed on work in their own accounts.
- Months 1–6: we ran organic Reddit work alongside them. By month four, they were writing most of it themselves.
- Month 6: handover, with a written playbook and guardrails.
- Months 7–9: coaching, two calls a month and a review of anything before it went out.
In their words
"We didn't need an agency forever. We needed to know the rules, and the confidence to post under our own names."
Founder, Climate hardware maker
What made it work
The right people were already on the payroll. A founder and a support lead answering honestly under their own names carry more weight in a community than any outside account could. We taught them the rules and got out of the way.