Cedric dlc

I find the real reasons behind user behavior, and turn them into growth

8y of business research - 4M+ user app - YC company

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

You know how many users you’re losing.

But not why.

So you keep making decisions… blind.

You check dashboards.
You see where it breaks.
But not what’s really happening.

👇 Here’s how we uncover the real reason in 10 days:

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

A B2B SaaS asked us why activation was stalling.

We sat in on real sessions, watching new users navigate the product live including whether they even understood what the new home screen was for.

6 frictions found.

Value was landing too late in the journey.

Activation simplified to 3 steps.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

A gaming platform asked us why their high-value users kept churning.

12 interviews later, we found the real signal: the decision to leave happened 18–22 days before cancellation not the day they clicked "cancel."

Result: -3% churn on high-value users in 5 weeks.

Not from a dashboard. From asking.

https://t.co/MZdz1s0VFu

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

Your dashboard tells you where users drop off.

It doesn't tell you what was going through their head the three weeks before.

You're staring at curves. Guessing.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

Stop guessing why your users leave.

Everyone's trying to reduce churn.

Almost nobody talks to the users who actually left.

Every churn case is different.

A playbook tells you what worked for someone else's users. Not yours.

Interview the people who left.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

@chddaniel If it doesn't come across too much like a scam, this is genuinely smart.

Can't wait to see the results you get from this.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

Where are people already complaining about the exact problem I solve? Then I just show up there.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

The guy selling pickaxes always makes more than the guys digging for gold.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

@byryangambrell For me it's sales.
Marketing can be fixed with better words.
Sales tells you immediately if the words were ever true.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

@wickedguro Optimizing for saves over likes. Thanks for the advice.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

@AlexTyshchenko Let me try the tool

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

I've spent 8 years listening to users for a living.

The thing I still can't explain: most big companies would rather guess than spend an hour finding out.

Everyone's racing to build faster with AI right now. Almost nobody's racing to actually understand who they're building for.

That gap used to cost you time and money. Now it costs you almost nothing to close, and most companies still won't spend the hour.

The real goldmine was never the AI. It's the 5 users nobody bothered to call.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

@spencer_gilmore 40% return rate means 60% of people already decided you weren't worth coming back to.

Chasing new customers while ignoring that ratio is filling a bucket you haven't checked for holes yet

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

@markproduct For acquisition, sure. Retention runs on the 10% you just wrote off 😉

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

@floriandarroman Interesting : why remove the content workflow instead of just letting people ignore it?
Did it actually get in people's way, or was it just dead weight nobody used?

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

When you type "N" in your search bar, is it Netflix or https://t.co/y1Zty9lb57 that comes up first?

Just curious.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

@simonsquibb You build. We get you seen.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

New business model: I'm becoming a B2B de-influencer.

I'll publicly roast every SaaS I test until it makes enough noise, then charge them to make me stop.

What do you think?

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

@adhamuxi $20K in monthly revenue. Sell that at a 2.5x multiple and you've got real money in the bank tomorrow 🤑

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

You don't have a marketing problem. You have a trust problem.

There are 7 layers of it standing between a stranger and your next sale, and most people try to skip straight to the last one.

Stole this framework from a talk I'm sitting in right now:

2/ The full stack, bottom to top:
1. Discovery
2. Short form
3. Engagement
4. Stories
5. Long form
6. Social proof
7. Proximity

3/ Layer 1, Discovery: your bio, your first post, your highlight reel. Everyone obsesses over this layer. It's also the weakest one on its own.

4/ Layer 2, Short form: reels, posts, carousels. Gets you seen. Doesn't get you trusted.

5/ Layer 3, Engagement: replying to DMs, comments, polls. First layer where you stop being a feed and start being a person.

6/ Layer 4, Stories: daily life, behind the scenes. This is where people stop watching your brand and start watching you.

7/ Layer 5, Long form: 20+ min YouTube, podcasts, lives. Nobody sits through 20 minutes of someone they don't already half-trust.

8/ Layer 6, Social proof: video testimonials, case studies. Other people vouching for you does what your own words never will.

9/ Layer 7, Proximity: IRL meetups, masterminds, events. Once someone's met you in person, the sale basically writes itself.

10/ The goal is to get your audience to layer 7 as fast as possible. Whoever climbs the stack first isn't competing anymore, they're just the only one already trusted.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

The more strong, successful people I follow on X, the weaker I feel.
And that's exactly why I keep following more of them.

Same logic as picking your friend group: you don't get better surrounded by people who confirm you're already doing fine.

[Cedric dlc @dlCedric]

My TL is all "show your July results" posts right now.

Everyone's apparently sitting on at least $5K MRR.

My July: watched a real user tell me our headline "wasn't her problem," then got the actual founder of Buffer to reply to one of my X.

Revenue: $0.

Ask me again in September.