Perplexity AI | Acquisition project

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Perplexity AI | Acquisition project

About Perplexity

Perplexity is a free AI search engine designed to revolutionise the way you discover information. Ask any question, and it searches the internet to give you an accessible, conversational, and verifiable answer. Think of Perplexity as a research partner, always on the clock, saving you valuable time by providing the precise knowledge you need.

Core value Proposition - Advantages of Using Perplexity over Search Engines:

1. Skip the links - Get a single, comprehensive answer that summarizes everything you need to know.
2. Real-time information - Data is pulled from the internet the moment you ask a question, so information is always up-to-date.
3. Reliable sources - Every answer is backed by citations from trusted news outlets, academic papers, and established blogs.
4. File analysis - Upload pdf, csv documents and search within the files asking specific questions using chat interface.
5. Perplexity Pro Search - Use it to summarise, solve complex problems with clarifying questions and interpret/ debug or generate code/ software programs.

Whether you are researching for professional projects, seeking answers to everyday questions, or exploring new topics to broaden your understanding, Perplexity is your definitive source for information.

Perplexity has 10 Lakh casual users in India. As per user research, majority of the users use it on free version and haven't showed any interest to take a Paid subscription which actually helps them unlock the true might of the product.

When compare other competitors (Google/ ChatGPT), Perplexity is in PMF stage in the Indian market.

Understanding Users

From the Macro and Micro goals designed a survey and interview questions to create list of ICPs.

Survey: https://tally.so/r/mJRLe7

User Interview questions can be found in this toggle.

What are the different topics/categories searches you have made? and what are you trying to accomplish on the Perplexity?
How many corrections/ nudges you have to make before getting ideal search results while using? how long do you take to get a satisfied answer?
How do you generally end up on perplexity chat interface? whats the task you are trying to achieve? Were you using any software/ product before ending up on perplexity, what is it?
How do you use the information/ search results generated by perplexity? What are the immediate applications/ products you interact while using or just after the use of perplexity?
Do you see any need for you to convert to a Premium plan? If you ever convert to a premium plan, what will be the scenario.

Ideal Customer Profiles of Perplexity from User Research

	ICP 1	ICP 2	ICP 3	ICP 4
Who are they?	Random searcher (Rahul)	Working Professional (Naman)	Founders/ Business Managers (Sruthi)	Student (Arjun)
Age	22-25	25-30	33-40	18-20
Gender	Male	Male	Female	Female
Location	Bangalore	Hyderabad	Mumbai	Chennai
Occupation	Junior Engineer	Software developer	Founder	College Student
Income	5 LPA	15 LPA	25 LPA	-
Relationship status	Single	Single/ In a relationship	Married	Single
Lives with	Family	Alone	Family	Friends
Where do they spend time? What are their interests?	Work: 40-50 hours per week. They spend time in parties, watching cricket and movies/ youtube.	Work: 50-80 hours per week They spend time upgrading skillset, parties and social media.	Work: 40 hours per week. Apart from being occupied by work, their interests lie in spending time with family, going out for movies, dinner.	College: 40-50 hours per week. During weekdays apart from college most time is spent on social media (Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook)
Where do they spend money?	Cricket, Movies, Sports and Food.	Rent, travel, food, family, lifestyle, fashion.	Loan EMI/Mutual funds/Savings, rent, food, lifestyle, fashion, shopping	Food, rent, lifestyle, fashion
What do they value more: Time vs. Money	Money	Money & Time	Time	Money
Did they previously used Google Search/ ChatGPT	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
How many times they search on perplexity?	once a week	1-10 times per week.	10-70 times per week	1-10 times per week.
Pain points	Rahul wants to write an official email or need quick answer which he can use to complete the task at hand. Rahul wants easy way out, as customisation without understanding concepts is very difficult. He keeps procrastinating.	Naman is on the verge of getting promoted at office. He wants all the tasks at hand to be done efficiently and almost pitch perfect. He often worries if something goes wrong and validates.	Sruthi is a founder. She lacks skills in drafting HR policies, setting up tools or processes etc. On top of it, an employee resigned, she is juggling with multiple tasks at hand. She is often stuck in the endless search results on Google.	Arjun enthusiastic student and often wonders how he can use the concept he learned today in the real world. He doesn't find the answers on the google search relevant for his needs.
What is their motivation to use the tool?	Rahul wants easy way out, as customisation without understanding concepts is very difficult.	Naman wants conviction and validation with the available resources on internet.	Sruthi wants to complete all her tasks at hand without impacting business continuity. She has limitation of time.	Arjun's curiosity.
How can Perplexity helps?	Perplexity will give customised answers to Rahul helping him complete the tasks.	Perplexity helps Naman with AI generated answer which shows multiple ways of approaching along with source references to dig deep.	Perplexity is new Sruthi's assistant in search. It gives most suitable answers/ templates which she can further develop saving her a lot of time.	Perplexity helps Arjun by giving customised answers to his query. It will also give relevant questions he might be interested in to further understand the benefits of learning a concept.
Willing to pay?	No	No	No	No

What are users trying to do on Perplexity?

Regular search for clarification, preparation of work documents on the interested topics of the user.

Stay informed without the noise. Pro Search consolidates news from multiple angles, giving you a balanced view of current events.

Academic research

Perplexity Pro search is the ultimate research assistant for students and academics. It digs through academic databases, runs simulations, and performs data analysis to tailor its findings, providing summarized papers and curated sources. Its the smartest way to research.

Professional research

Pro search can pinpoint case laws for attorneys, summarize trend analysis for marketers, and debug code for developers—and that’s just the start. Whatever your profession, Pro Search can help you make more informed decisions.

Code interpretation

Pro Search is a powerful tool for developers and programmers. It can debug code, run simulations, and provide detailed explanations for complex programming concepts. Whether you're tackling a tricky bug or optimizing your code, Pro Search has you covered.

Finding information in long documents or summarising documents.

Effortlessly upload pdf, csv documents, images and search within the files asking specific questions using chat interface.

Users can accomplish all the above with their choice of latest AI models(GPT-4 Omni, Claude 3 Sonnet/Opus, Sonar Large 32k, open source models) available in the market under the same plan.

The search results are generated from various sources and gets tagged with the link of sources. Perplexity users generally verifies the information using the source links before using them in the critical tasks.

User Journey start from the below screen

ICP Prioritisation framework

	Value to user	Ease of Adoption	Frequency	Appetite to pay	CAC
ICP 1 (Random searcher)	Low	Medium	Low	Low	High
ICP 2 (Working Professional)	High	Very High✅	Medium	Medium	Low✅
ICP 3 (Business Managers)	Very High✅	High	High✅	High✅	Medium✅
ICP 4 (Student)	Medium	Medium	Medium	Low	High

Prioritisation Reasoning:

Assumption:

Since this is an acquisition project, not focusing much on monetisation and product is available in freemium model.

Based on above framework, considering high frequency usage, high appetite to pay, low CAC and high ease of adoption; narrowing it down to two ICPs:

ICP-2: Working Professional
- Continued search and ease of achieving outcomes may lead to a habit and potentially pays when ICP graduates. This ICP can not perceive intangible benefits. Have low appetite to pay until it is proven that they can make more money in one way or other.
ICP-3: Founders/ Business Managers
- Great use-case. Founders or mangers are focused on Immediate outcome.Mostly use freemium model until the they exceed the limits.Have appetite to pay. Higher chance to get converted.

Let's understand Search & Competition:

People / Users use Search engines in various use cases and can be broadly categorized into 5 categories:

Explain me these search intents.

Informational search intent - Intent of the user to locate a particular information snippet that satisfies a knowledge need that they are struggling with. There is a recognized need, with no clear solution.
Navigational search intent - User already knows the brand and they’re trying to locate something related to it on the web.
Transactional search intent - Intent of the user demonstrates a desire to obtain something other than information which is typically a web-mediated transaction.
Commercial search intent - User wants to complete a web-mediated transaction and they are already, for instance, brand-aware of one or two organizations in the space, but they are also seeking information about these brands.
Localized search intent and other niche segments - User is seeking information about the brand, for instance – whether they have a shop that is offline, how they can contact the team.

75 - 80% of all search queries on Google falls under Information search intent. [Perplexity Potential market]

Perplexity is a AI search engine designed to revolutionise the way you discover information.

Perplexity competes with search engines in the informational search intent category along with other AI chatbots in the similar space.

Competitors of Perplexity AI are

1. Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo etc. (Informational search intent)
2. ChatGPT, Claude etc. (AI search with Chat interfaces)

Why Perplexity over competitors:

1. Skip the links and pain of finding information navigating through multiple links and search pages unlike traditional search engines.
2. Answers are backed by real-time information, and reliable sources unlike chatGPT where the models are not trained on current information and hard to verify the answers.
3. Ability to choose advanced AI models based on users preference.
4. Effortlessly upload files—including PDFs, CSVs, and images—and explore their contents using cutting-edge AI models like GPT-4 Omni and Claude 3.

In comparison to Google and ChatGPT user numbers, Perplexity Pro membership is in PMF stage

Market Size Calculations

Fact: Google has 92% market share across the world with 2 trillion searches annually as at 2024.

For the below calculations, Starting assumption is Google have 100% market share of search

How many users use search in India?	Calculation	Validation
Annual searches on google	2 trillion	source
India's market share	7%
Average searches per user per day (3-5 searches) Let's assume 3 are with Informational search intent	3	source
Indian users for search (TAM)	=(world wide searches per year * India market share)/ average searches per day per user =(2,000,000,000,000 *0.07)/3 = ~127 million users =~12.7 crore users	Interestingly, this number is almost same as english speaking individuals in india. source

Market size calculations

Secondary search sources referred for market size calculations

As per lightbox a venture capital firm, It is estimated that there are 5 crore white collar workforce in india. (Assuming Founders and Business Managers come under this segment.)

As per ministry of Education, there are 3.85 crore students enrolled for higher education(Undergraduates+ Post graduates + Researchers).

The above sources are used to calculate SAM and SOM numbers.

	TAM	SAM	SOM
Total search users in India	12.7 crores (Search users)	=5 + 3.85 crores =8.85 crores (Founders/ Business owners + White collar + Higher education)	2.05 crores (who are serious about adding new skills, need precise answers or see value in search - White collar professionals who paid to get up-skilled)
Casual users who wants to save time in searches using chat interfaces (guesstimate) Freemium users	= 5%* search users =63.5 Lakhs	= 5%* (Founders + White collar + Higher education) =44.25 Lakhs	= 5%* (who are serious about adding new skills, need precise answers or see value in search ) =10.25 Lakhs
Users who are aggressive in their career or researcher's or student's. Top 1% is ambitious with their goals and go to any extent to achieve their goals or climb the corporate ladder using AI.	1% of search users	1% of (Founders + White collar + Higher education)	1% of (who are serious about adding new skills, need structured/ precise answers or see value in search )
Top 1 % Ambitious users in number Willing to pay and converts to Paid user	12.7 Lakhs	8.85 Lakhs	2.05 Lakhs
Market share of Perplexity Lets assume 20%. Great AI model and great value to users, well known after chatGPT	=12.7 * 0.2 = 2.54 lakhs	=8.85* 0.2 1.77 lakhs	=2.05 *0.2 =0.41 Lakhs
Potential Opportunity - Monthly Current premium plan price is 20$ 0r 1600 Rupees per month	=2.54 Lakhs * 1600 = 40.64 Crore Rupees	=1.77 Lakhs * 1600 =28.32 Crore Rupees	= 0.41 Lakhs * 1600 = 6.56 Crore Rupees
Annualised Market Opportunity in India (B2C segment)	= 40.64 *12 =487.2 Crores	=28.32 *12 =339.84 Crores	= 6.56 12 =78.72 Crore Rupees*

TAM

SAM

SOM

Total search users in India

12.7 crores

(Search users)

=5 + 3.85 crores

=8.85 crores

(Founders/
Business owners

+ White collar +
Higher education)

2.05 crores

(who are serious about
adding new skills, need
precise answers or see
value in search -

White collar professionals
who paid to get up-skilled)

Casual users who wants to
save time in searches using

chat interfaces (guesstimate)

Freemium users

= 5%* search users

=63.5 Lakhs

= 5%* (Founders +
White collar +
Higher education)

=44.25 Lakhs

= 5%* (who are serious

about adding new skills,

need precise answers or

see value in search )

=10.25 Lakhs

Users who are aggressive
in their career or researcher's

or student's.

Top 1% is ambitious with
their goals and go to any extent
to achieve their goals or climb
the corporate ladder using AI.

1% of search users

1% of (Founders +
White collar +
Higher education)

1% of (who are serious
about adding new skills,

need structured/ precise

answers or see value in

search )

Top 1 %
Ambitious users in number
Willing to pay and
converts to Paid user

12.7 Lakhs

8.85 Lakhs

2.05 Lakhs

Market share of Perplexity
Lets assume 20%.

Great AI model and great
value to users,

well known after chatGPT

=12.7 * 0.2

= 2.54 lakhs

=8.85* 0.2

1.77 lakhs

=2.05 *0.2

=0.41 Lakhs

Potential Opportunity - Monthly

Current premium plan price is
20$ 0r 1600 Rupees per month

=2.54 Lakhs * 1600

= 40.64 Crore Rupees

=1.77 Lakhs * 1600

=28.32 Crore Rupees

= 0.41 Lakhs * 1600

= 6.56 Crore Rupees

Annualised Market Opportunity
in India
(B2C segment)

= 40.64 *12

=487.2 Crores

=28.32 *12

=339.84 Crores

= 6.56 *12

=78.72 Crore Rupees

The Market size calculations were very conservative. The market opportunity is 78.72 Crore Rupees per year from the B2C segment.

As the product is highly scalable at no cost, Perplexity has huge upside post cracking the top 1% of SOM. The top 1 % are always inspiration to others and can cause mass adoption later.

How to reach top 1% of Working professionals and Students/ Researchers who are serious to achieve their goals with the help of AI search assistant. Top 1% will be the early adopter of Perplexity subscription model.

What is the core message communicated to the top 1% ambitious workforce and students?

Customised Core value proposition for all 4 ICPs

Students

Ever feel stuck going through endless search results for your projects? Meet Perplexity, your study buddy that gets you straight answers.

Perplexity’s Perks for Students:

Skip the Links: Get one comprehensive answer summarizing everything you need.
Real-time Info: Always up-to-date, straight from the internet.
Reliable Sources: Trustworthy citations from news, academic papers, and blogs.
File Analysis: Upload study materials or text books as PDFs and CSVs and search within using a chat interface.
Pro Search: Summarize concepts, solve complex problems, and even debug code.

Phd/ Researchers

Drowning in Research Papers? Tired of sifting through countless links for your research?

Meet Perplexity, your academic sidekick that gives you clear, direct answers.

Why is Perplexity AI perfect for Researchers:

Skip the Links: Get one detailed answer, no more endless searches.
Real-time Info: Up-to-date data, right when you need it.
Reliable Sources: Answers backed by top news, academic papers, and blogs.
File Analysis: Upload PDFs and CSVs, then search within them using a chat interface.
Pro Search: Summarize research, solve complex problems, and even debug code.

Working professionals

Tired of Unproductive Searches? Fed up with endless searching for the right info?

Meet Perplexity, your ultimate productivity booster.

How can perplexity help you:

Skip the Links: Get one comprehensive answer, no more scrolling.
Real-time Info: Always up-to-date, pulled straight from the internet.
Reliable Sources: Trustworthy answers backed by top news and blogs.
File Analysis: Upload PDFs, CSVs, and search within them via chat.
Pro Search: Summarize data, solve complex problems, debug code, and more.

Founders or Business managers

Struggling with Document Prep and Emails? As a business owner or manager, do you find yourself overwhelmed with writing tasks? Meet Perplexity, your ultimate writing assistant designed to streamline your work.

Perplexity gives you a single, comprehensive answer instead of making you sift through endless links. It’s always up-to-date, pulling real-time info directly from the web and backing it up with reliable sources like top news outlets, academic papers, and established blogs.

Got PDFs or CSVs to analyze? Just upload them and search within the files using a simple chat interface. Whether you need to summarize complex data, solve tough problems, or even debug code, Perplexity Pro Search has you covered.

Transform your document preparation, copywriting, and email writing for sales and employee communication with Perplexity. It's the perfect tool for startup founders and business owners in India to boost productivity and stay ahead!

What stage Perplexity is in?

Though Perplexity have 10 Lakh users in india, users are predominately casual.

Casual users are experiencing the core value proposition and pro features with a limit of 5 searches per day.

Though users are experiencing core value proposition of AI assisted search, with rationing of searches (5 Pro searches limit), customer is not experiencing the success of his/ her task at hand.

As per my user research, users are rarely using the product and doesn't want to upgrade to the paid service where they can truly experience the value of AI assisted search.

To further strengthen the product for the needs of Indian users, we are considering Perplexity Pro membership is in PMF stage. As there is some level of Product Market fit with Casual users, the goal is to find out potential power users and figure out PMF for Pro version of the product.

Perplexity is in between PMF stage and early stage. There are 10 Lakh casual users of the product in India but as per user research there is no clear evidence that users are deriving value out of it. ICPs are not able to use the full blown version of the product because of paywall. Because it's a software product, it won't cost company a lot to offer free trails to some of the core ICPs to observe the behaviour and usage of potential power users.

Jobs to be done at this stage:

Find Micro communities of potential power users and offer them free trails to observe and to estimate the value generated for the user on the product.
Create a habit of using perplexity with a core Business owners/ Working Professional ICP so that they experience success and integrates the product into their routine.
(Offer 3 months/ 1 year free trail, adopting to new search interface takes users a long time)
(Users already aware and perceive there is value in using AI assisted search because of PR and Media around them, but user is unsure how it will help him/ her personally as he haven't seen a real use case.)

How to find Core ICPs - Business Owners & White collar Professionals?

Hypothesis:

Search was always been free in the consumer market. With rate limits of the Pro search and features of Perplexity, users are not experiencing customer success of their task in hand. Given free trails of pro membership to ICPs, User will experience true value of Perplexity's AI Assisted search saving time and improving efficiency.

Strategy:

Acquiring first set of power users with free trails.

Giving ICPs unlimited pro access in the form of Free trails and measure the customer success over period of one day vs week vs month vs quarter. Getting consistent feedback on usability, features and add ons to make the product integrated into their information discovery routine.

We as a product getting a lot of feedback from the casual users but not so much from the pro subscription users in Indian market. The below experiments are focused upon acquiring users for pro subscription via free trails of 3 months for Business communities and 1 year for Working professionals.

Looking for Cheaper, somewhat faster and highest quality feedback with the below experiments.

Cheaper - I am giving platform credit for the users.
Quality Feedback - Feedback, User behaviour and customer success with consistent touch points
Somewhat faster - over period of one day vs week vs month vs quarter.

Experiment 1: Give 3 month free access of Pro subscription to SME business owners/ startup founders of micro business communities.(50-100 free trails)

Mostly community members/ managers agree to try out Pro as they are casual users of such technologies.

Prioritised active business owner communities are:

1. 1. 1. SLP (Startup Leadership Program) - Hyderabad Community - I am a member
    2. CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) - Mumbai & Delhi Community -Some of my friends are members
    3. NAASCOM - Bangalore Community - Some of my friends are members

Reason to give 3 month free access is the users have high appetite to pay if they derive value out of a product. Also, Business Owners/ managers are the ICPs who can derive most value out of the product.

Marketing message to be tested with Business owners/ Managers:

Struggling with Document Prep and Emails? As a business owner or manager, do you find yourself overwhelmed with writing tasks? Meet Perplexity, your ultimate writing assistant designed to streamline your work.

Approach: Approaching the community through existing member

Example: Step by step process for BNI Hyderabad community.

- Identify 5-10 community members in the group. Community member proudly associate themselves in Linkedin.
- Identify 1 - 3 individuals with highest adoption of AI Search Assistant adoption. Can be identified by going through their industry, interest, posts and likes/ comments which are publicly available on Linkedin.
- Send connection requests to 1-3 people with a 200 character note offering free trail to Perplexity pro membership for a year.
  
  Below is the personalised note while sending the connection request.
  Hi <Name>,
  I am Jashwanth, works for Perplexity, an AI assisted search engine.
  On your profile, we have noticed you have tremendous interest in upcoming AI technologies.
  We would like to offer you a free trail of Perplexity Pro for a year.
  
  Are you interested to avail the trail?
- At least one individual out of 3 accept the connection request and will be open to chat. If not, reach out more individuals.
- Give community member a discount code to avail the service only with their official company email id. Inform him/her that the coupon code only applicable for two licenses for each company. Example of discount code: BNI-HYD-SPECIAL
- Community member uses it to avail the trail. Users can subscribe without card details as the total amount is 0 $, it will avoid any friction during signup.
- Reach out to the community member after 3 days, get feedback.
- Find out "What does the whole community thinks when receive free trail?"
- Inform the community member that, he/ she can share the Promotional code with other member of BNI-Hyderabad community with 100 trials.
- Suggest him to share the coupon code with Community or introduce the community manager.
- If introduced to community manager, community manager see the value as the request came from the community member. Offer him the code for 100 trials for top users/ interest. If he negotiates discount should be applicable for all users. Just agree to it. Ask for the list of company names and domains part of the group to white label them.
- Community member/ Community manager will share the Promotional discount with community members.
- Other members will avail the Trails.

Metrics to track

Number of companies availed the offer.
Percentage of companies availed the trial.
Number of AI assisted searches made.
Number of Pro features used.
Most used Pro features
Usage of features over period.
Natural Frequency of the user
NPS score
Success Metric - Are they using Pro search? (Yes/ No) as the rate limit is 5 for casual users. Pro users should at least use 3x of casual users.
Success Metric - How many users paid to use the product post the free trail vs users availed the free trailed? ( at least 40%)

Same process will be repeated to CII - Mumbai & Delhi Community and NAASCOM - Bangalore Community and usage metrics will be tracked.

Other communities to target in the future. Association lists

Experiment 2: Give 1 year free access to pro membership to working professionals part of learning communities/ online schools. (Offer for current batch)

Mostly community members/ managers agree to try out Pro as they are casual users of such technologies.

Prioritised learning communities/ online schools are:

1. 1. 1. Scaler - Programming skills - My friend is a member
    2. GrowthX - Growth/ Product Management skills - I am a member
    3. Mesa - Business Administration skills - Can be accessed via friend of a friend

These online schools are focused on their member growth and success in their professional careers. Often they have member benefit programs where they collate discounts/ offers of various B2C brands and show them as extra added value for the community members. The goals of learning community and Perplexity are aligned in this engagement.

Reason to give one year access is these working professionals have low appetite to pay if 3 month free access is given. we might be disrupting the habit forming phase.

Marketing message to be tested with the Working Professionals who are up-skilling in the above learning communities:

Boost Your Productivity with Perplexity

Are you tired of unproductive searches and endless scrolling for the right information? Meet Perplexity, your ultimate productivity booster tailored for working professionals.

Why Perplexity?

Skip the Links: Receive one comprehensive answer without the hassle of sifting through multiple links.
Real-time Info: Always up-to-date, Perplexity pulls the latest information directly from the internet.
Reliable Sources: Trustworthy answers backed by top news outlets and blogs.
File Analysis: Upload and search within PDFs, CSVs, and more via chat.
Pro Search: Summarize data, solve complex problems, debug code, and beyond.

Approaching the community with community manager

Example: Step by step process for online schools/ communities.

Identify Founders & community managers of the online school. Easy to find over Linkedin.
Send connection requests with a 200 character note offering free trail to Perplexity pro membership for a year for their community members .

Below is the personalised note while sending the connection request.
Hi <Name>,
I am Jashwanth, works for Perplexity, an AI assisted search engine.
You are building an awesome community <in their segment>. We would like add extra value to learners/ working professional in your community through an exclusive one year free trail of Perplexity Pro worth $200 or 16,000 Rupees.

Are you interested partner with us to avail the trail for you members?
Email
Subject: Boost Your Member Productivity with Perplexity
Body:
Empower your community members with Perplexity and watch their productivity soar. Let’s enhance their work experience with precise, instant answers and seamless file analysis.

We would like add extra value to learners/ working professional in your community through an exclusive one year free trail of Perplexity Pro worth $200 or 16,000 Rupees.

Does your members resonate with AI assisted search engine?
Let us know if your are interested.

Regards,
Official Perplexity signature
As the offer is a great value add to their community members, we hear excitement to partner with us. Maintain the excitement with partner.
Create a discount code for the community. <CommunityName>-VIR-SPECIAL. Example: GROWTHX-VIR-SPECIAL
Request community manager to announce the exclusive benefit to the whole community with email and other communication channels with the Promotional code.

Core Message:
Boost Your Productivity with Perplexity

Are you tired of unproductive searches and endless scrolling for the right information? Meet Perplexity, your ultimate productivity booster tailored for working professionals.

Why Perplexity?

- - Skip the Links: Receive one comprehensive answer without the hassle of sifting through multiple links.
  - Real-time Info: Always up-to-date, Perplexity pulls the latest information directly from the internet.
  - Reliable Sources: Trustworthy answers backed by top news outlets and blogs.
  - File Analysis: Upload and search within PDFs, CSVs, and more via chat.
  - Pro Search: Summarize data, solve complex problems, debug code, and beyond.
Members will avail the Promotion from the Perplexity pro membership workflow as shown below. Users can subscribe without card details as the total amount is 0$, it will avoid any friction during signup.
Suggest him to share the coupon code with Community or introduce the community manager.
Ask for the list of email ids part of the group to white label them. If not shared, Its fine. Ask for the community size.
Other members will avail the Trails.
Reach out to members availed trial for feedback after 1 month.

Metrics to track

Number of members availed the offer.
Percentage of members availed the trial.
Number of AI assisted searches made.
Number of Pro features used.
Most used Pro features
Usage of features over period.
Natural Frequency of member/ learner
NPS score
Success Metric - Are they using Pro search? (Yes/ No) as the rate limit is 5 for casual users. Pro users should at least use 3x of casual users.
Success Metric - How many users paid to use the product post the free trail vs users availed the free trailed? ( at least 25%)

More or less the above process can be repeated with colleges/ research institutes, startups associated with Startup Incubators/ Accelerators/ VC firms, Research oriented companies and jobs like legal associates. etc to acquire some more ICPs.

Experiment 3: Offer 3 month free trail to upcoming influencers (Business owners/ Working professionals) to help them with video scripts or content in their creative process. (10-20 influencers)

(This is not a collaboration or for influencer marketing - Mostly influencer agree to try out Pro as they are casual users)

Approach: Directly reach out the creators/ influencers on Linkedin

Identify top upcoming 10 content creators of who does/ post research oriented work for community education.
The topics chosen are Technology, Programming, Business case studies.
Identify 5 upcoming creators each on Linkedin and Youtube. Creators are listed in the below table

Platform	Topic	Linkedin Profile
Youtube	Business case studies	linkedin.com/company/the-think-school/?originalSubdomain=in
Linkedin	Technology	https://www.linkedin.com/in/amol-kapoor2107/

Offer them one year free trail to associate them in their cause of educating their audience.
Core value proposition tested with the creators/ researchers are

Drowning in Research Papers? Tired of going through countless links for your research?

Meet Perplexity, your research sidekick that gives you clear, direct answers along with the sources.

Why is Perplexity AI perfect for Researchers like you:

Skip the Links: Get one detailed answer, no more endless searches.

Real-time Info: Up-to-date data, right when you need it.

Reliable Sources: Answers backed by top news, academic papers, and blogs.

File Analysis: Upload PDFs and CSVs, then search within them using a chat interface.

Pro Search: Summarize research, solve complex problems, and even debug code.

As the offer is extremely valuable to their work, they will avail the pro membership with promotional code.

Metrics to track

Number of creators availed the offer.
Percentage of creators availed the trial.
Number of AI assisted searches made.
Number of Pro features used.
Most used Pro features
Usage of features over period.
Natural Frequency of Creator
NPS score
Success Metric - Are they using Pro search? (Yes/ No) as the rate limit is 5 for casual users. Pro users should at least use 3x of casual users.
Success Metric - How many users paid to use the product post the free trail vs users availed the free trailed? ( at least 50%)

With the Above 3 experiments focus on acquiring limited but quality ICPs - Working professionals, Business owners/ managers who are estimated to turn into power users of the product.

These experiments will help Perplexity to update the marketing message with actual usage patterns/ feedback and build new features on top of core value proposition to make the users integrate the product in their professional and personal lives.

At the end of 3 months based on the ICP usage, we should be able to align and nail our marketing message and further experiment with channels which help us with user acquisition for Perplexity Pro membership and do multiple experiments across acquisition channels.

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