From Pandemic Pivot to Product-Market Fit When Paul Archer launched Duel at the start of the pandemic, no one knew what brand advocacy even was. Now, he's helping some of the world's biggest companies build communities - not just customers.

When Paul Archer co-founded Duel in March 2020, the world was in chaos - and so was the marketing industry. "Trying to sell a product to a market that didn't yet exist? Even tougher," he says. At the time, few understood what "brand advocacy" meant, let alone why it might matter more than traditional sales tactics. But Archer saw something others didn't: a shift in how people connect with brands. "I've always believed that if companies focused on building brand advocacy - the act of supporting or recommending a brand - instead of just driving sales, the world would be a better place.

The pandemic pivot
Launching a tech platform to promote an unfamiliar concept would be difficult under any circumstances. Doing so as COVID-19 hit was brutal. "But the pandemic accelerated a shift in how brands approached growth - expensive ads and influencers weren't enough anymore, people craved authentic connections," Archer says. "And so all of a sudden we weren't just selling software; we were selling a mindset shift." That shift became Duel's opportunity. "During the pandemic, we saw that everyone, regardless of follower count, became an influencer to someone," Archer explains. "This opened up a massive opportunity."

After testing the idea, they realised they were uniquely positioned to "create powerful communities of creators and ambassadors and empower brands to drive their own organic growth through them." That realisation led to a key pivot - one that helped Duel become the only platform capable of supporting brand advocacy at global scale. "The journey wasn't always smooth, but by staying focused on the problem, embracing first principles... and listening to feedback, we found our product-market fit."

Harder in the UK
For Archer, one of the starkest lessons came from comparing start-up environments. "That securing funding is hard. Much harder than it is in the US," he says. "Everything you read from the US doesn't necessarily translate in the UK and it can be a huge distraction." He believes early-stage UK founders are better off staying lean. "If I were to do it again, I would focus much more on aggressively finding product-market fit with the smallest possible team in the early days, and spend much less time fundraising."

Fall in love with the problem
Looking back, Archer is clear on what he'd tell any founder just starting out: obsess over the problem, not the product. "If I could go back and tell myself one thing, it would be this: Don't just focus on your product, focus on the problem you're solving," he says. "Your success depends on whether you're solving a problem people actually care about. And you only deeply understand this by spending as much time with your customer as you possibly can."

His final takeaway? Stay flexible - and stay true to what matters. "Be ready to pivot. Things change. Markets change. Your idea will evolve. And that's okay. Embrace the changes and stay flexible. "Most importantly, never lose sight of your mission. If you truly care about what you're doing, that passion will shine through and pull people toward you."