Opendoor has no PR department; the official press email auto-replies with instructions to DM the CEO on X. This radical approach forces direct, unfiltered communication and ensures the CEO's authentic voice defines the company narrative, bypassing traditional media gatekeepers.

Embed engineers directly with customers to hear feedback and ship solutions, often on the same day. This radical structure eliminates layers of communication (Product Managers, Customer Success) and scales the 'founder energy' of talking to users and immediately building what they need.

The founders of billion-dollar companies like Wealthsimple and GoBolt demonstrated an insane level of focus on customer contact. This included calling every free user within 30 seconds and personally answering the 24/7 support line. This unscalable behavior generates deep customer understanding and powerful word-of-mouth.

Even after scaling past $10M ARR, Canary's founder gets back on the phone to cold call customers for every new product launch. This ensures the leadership team directly tests messaging, understands customer objections, and validates the new offering's value proposition before scaling the sales motion.

When facing a significant customer service issue with a brand you care about, bypass standard channels and email the founder or CEO. Frame your feedback constructively. High-level leaders are often disconnected from front-line issues and appreciate direct, actionable feedback, leading to white-glove service and a faster, more favorable resolution.

True product intuition isn't just from standard discovery calls. It's forged by directly engaging with customers' most urgent problems on escalation calls. This unfiltered feedback provides conviction and data-backed confidence for decision-making.

Burger King's president is personally taking customer calls for hours daily to get feedback on a new campaign. This strategy offers a powerful lesson for all brands, especially smaller ones: direct leadership contact with customers builds trust and provides invaluable, unfiltered market insights.

Feedback often gets 'massaged' and politicized as it travels up the chain of command. Effective leaders must create direct, unfiltered channels to hear from customers and front-line employees, ensuring raw data isn't sanitized before it reaches them.

Harvey's CEO found his product decisions were worse when he isolated himself to work on strategy. He realized his best product insights come from being deeply involved in sales calls 24/7. The direct feedback loop from talking to customers is more valuable for roadmap planning than any internal brainstorming session.