“When it comes to return on investment, I think about value. Instead of knocking doors down, we’ve turned ourselves into a magnet for right-fit customers and employees. I get LinkedIn messages saying, ‘I want to work for Loupe.’ I will never hire another recruiter. We doubled the value of the company by having a brand people understand. What is that worth to you?”

– David Nichols, CEO & Co-Founder

Loupe’s Quantum Leap

But while Loupe had always been a remarkable company on the inside, on the outside things weren’t always quite so rosy. When we met them in 2017, their growth had been stymied by an inability to reach new clientele.

“We were great engineers, people would hire us because of that. That was enough to get us through the first 10 years. But when we wanted to branch out, we’d hit these plateaus. We knew we had something special, but we weren’t good at explaining it (or the explanation took two hours). So, we had a hard time connecting with new customers.”

– DAVID NICHOLS, CEO & CO-FOUNDER

In other words, Loupe faced the all-too-familiar challenge of being the “best-kept secret” — excelling in their industry but struggling to get the word out. And David addressed it the same way many leaders do: by trying to isolate the issue into a single department.

“I needed sales, so the basic analysis was ‘Let me try to do that with salespeople.’ But we tried the traditional sales playbook hard enough for long enough and it just wasn’t working. After version five of our sales team, I thought, ‘Maybe we’re doing this in the wrong order.’”

– DAVID NICHOLS, CEO & CO-FOUNDER

Instead, we helped Loupe crystalize who they are and what makes them remarkable — leading to a new company name, brand, and website. We worked closely with their team to uncover their sources of power: a revolutionary model and a suite of unique business divisions.

“I came to Kinesis saying, ‘I need more sales, I need a new website.’ And they turned around and said, ‘Well, first you have to know who you are.’ It required a total shift in mindset. You have to focus on the foundation first – once that part is clear, everything else falls into place.”

– DAVID NICHOLS, CEO & CO-FOUNDER

And in Loupe’s case, that foundation was a singular focus on “doing cool @#$%.” Their team of engineers is inspired by revolutionary machine concepts like “Could a robot pour coffee? …Or operate a chainsaw? …Or learn dance choreography?” And rather than suppressing that curiosity in favor of more profitable enterprises, they built a company around quenching it — thereby creating a culture of affinity with their audience. (Those answers, by the way, are: Yes, yes, and just ask Katy Perry.)

“Putting a chainsaw on a robot is something we always would’ve been excited to do. But there was a time when I would’ve thought of it as a guilty pleasure, or not ‘real work.’ In working with Kinesis, we came to embrace the purpose of the company. We don’t have to wait until a client asks us to do something. If it sounds like the coolest thing ever, that’s a good enough reason. If you know who you are and what you’re about, just blast that out as loudly as possible to the world. Then, the people who relate to that are going to get sucked in and want to work with you.”

– DAVID NICHOLS, CEO & CO-FOUNDER

In refining and amplifying their identity, Loupe now attracts only the kinds of customers and employees they’d be excited to work with. As a result, they’ve effectively turned the traditional sales funnel upside-down. Rather than casting a wide net and then filtering / qualifying down to viable opportunities, they are now in the enviable position of cherry-picking the work that comes to them.

“When people could say who we were better than we could, that was shocking to me. That is what’s inside! And now outsiders can see it! They didn’t have to be here for 10 years to get it. It is possible. It takes hard work and trust in the process… but when it’s that simple and clear, it feels effortless.”

– DAVID NICHOLS, CEO & CO-FOUNDER