Do the Unscalable to Get Customers to Lobby For You
Deliver a painful manual experience so good that customers complain to the regulator, not to you
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
When a barrier (regulation, incumbent process) blocks a 10x experience, do the expensive, unscalable version first and make it excellent enough that customers become advocates who pressure the gatekeeper on your behalf. Wise met Singapore customers face-to-face for a year, delivering a sleek but painful process, so that customers lobbied the government — leading to the world's first eKYC license and a genuine 10x experience that then drove word-of-mouth.
Origin
Nilan Peiris at Wise, describing the Singapore market entry; conceptually related to the startup maxim 'do things that don't scale'.
Core principles
- 01A manual, unscalable version can unlock a structural change no amount of arguing would
- 02Deliver the painful process so well that customers care enough to act
- 03Channel customer frustration at the true gatekeeper, not at you
- 04Patience and management air-cover are required through the 'this is going nowhere' phase
- 05The payoff is a 10x experience that produces advocacy off the back of it
How to run it
- 1
Accept the painful requirement to enter
When the regulator or incumbent imposes an unscalable requirement (Singapore demanded meeting every customer face-to-face), agree to it rather than walking away.
- 2
Do the unscalable thing excellently
Send a small team, open a temporary office, and give customers a sleek, high-touch version of the painful process so the pain is visible but the service is impressive.
Watch out It is deliberately expensive and customers will hate the friction — that reaction is the fuel, not a failure.
- 3
Redirect the complaint to the gatekeeper
Get customers to complain to the government/regulator rather than to you, converting their frustration into political pressure for change.
- 4
Persist through the lobbying window, then reap the 10x
Sustain a year of lobbying and unscalable work until the barrier falls, unlocking the scalable 10x experience that drives advocacy.
Pro tip Recognize and culturally reward the team grinding on something that 'feels like it's going nowhere' right up until it suddenly changes.
In the wild
Singapore's regulator granted a license only if Wise met every customer face-to-face. Wise opened an office and verified customers in person — sleek but expensive and disliked — then got those customers to complain to the government. After a year of lobbying, Wise won the world's first eKYC license.
→ Customers could verify by taking a selfie of their ID — a 10x-better onboarding experience that led to advocacy and word-of-mouth off the back of it.
Common mistakes
Walking away from a market because the requirement doesn't scale
The unscalable requirement is the opening; refusing it forfeits both the market and the chance to force the structural change that becomes a moat.
Absorbing customer frustration instead of channeling it
If customers complain to you, nothing changes; the leverage comes from directing that frustration at the gatekeeper who can actually remove the barrier.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders entering regulated or incumbent-controlled markets where a structural barrier blocks the 10x experience
Not ideal for
Markets with no gatekeeper to pressure, or teams without the patience and capital to sustain a year of unscalable, loss-making work
From the transcript
“you have to physically meet every single customer a great face to face”
“we got the customers not to complain to us but to complain to the government”
“it took a year of lobbying and a year of like building like doing something unscalable effectively before we got the world's first ekyc license…”
“that's what I call a 10x better experience than anyone else in the market and that led to advocacy and word of mouth off the…”
From the episode
How to drive word of mouth
Nilan Peiris (CPO of Wise)