🎯 For CreateOS specifically: Your acquisition priority is not the landing-page prompt (though ship it — see Move 1 below). It's getting onto the OpenAI Agents SDK default provider list (E2B, Modal, Daytona, Cloudflare, Vercel are there; CreateOS is not). One BD win with Karan Sharma at OpenAI = more distribution than a year of content marketing. See CreateOS - BD Targets for the named contact path and CreateOS - 30-60-90 Plan for the week-by-week. The Bolt-style landing-page wedge matters but is the secondary move, not the primary one.
Thesis
Win acquisition by giving visitors a reason to try before they sign up, plus a believable reason to trust you before they pay.
Situation
Visitors land on your homepage with a vague intent ("can this build my idea?"). They leave if: 1. They can't try anything without signing up. 2. They can't see any proof the product works. 3. The landing page looks like every other AI tool.
The fix is three levers — pre-signup trial, social proof, and brand distinctiveness — plus one capture play (competitive imports).
✅ The 3 moves to make
1. Install a pre-signup prompt box on the landing page
Do: place a full-size prompt input on the homepage. When the user submits, gate to signup — their idea travels with them through the signup wall and lands them in a pre-filled new project. No "trial", no "watch a demo" — just the product.
Why: Replit and Anything.com both do this. It converts "visitor evaluating a product" into "user with their idea already typed." Psychologically, abandoning that typed idea feels like loss. Activation multiplies.
How:
- Hero headline (what this is) + subhead (for whom) + prompt box (try it).
- Placeholder suggests the first move: "Describe your app idea…"
- Submit → signup → land inside a ready-to-run project with the prompt pre-applied.
Risk: Users expect instant results. Make sure the agent's first response is < 10 seconds. A pre-signup wow moment that dies in a loading state is worse than no pre-signup moment.
2. Seed the prompt with example chips + a template carousel
Do: below the prompt, show: - 3-5 example prompts as clickable pills (e.g., "Quarterly review presentation", "Beginner running tracker"). - A template carousel of output types ("Website", "Mobile", "Slides", "3D Game", "Data viz").
Why: The blank canvas is the #1 abandonment cause. Replit gives both. Anything.com gives neither — a missed activation lever.
How: Rotate example prompts with a refresh button so the page feels alive. Templates should deep-link into new projects with a preset.
Risk: Too many templates → paralysis. Keep it to 5-8, not 30.
3. Show enterprise logos + one competitor-import wedge
Do: one logo strip below the fold (real customers only) + first-party docs/landing for "Import from [direct competitor]" for 1-2 peers.
Why: Replit shows 8 logos (Google, Microsoft, Stripe, PayPal, SoFi, Zillow, Plaid, Gusto). This converts enterprise procurement and validates the product to makers. Replit also named-imports from Bolt/Lovable/Figma/GitHub — an aggressive capture play competitors haven't matched.
How: Even one logo is better than none. Name-import from the competitor your early users most churn from. Advertise it (3-min migration, with agent assistance).
Risk: Named imports validate the competitor's brand too. Only do this if your retention beats theirs — otherwise you're advertising a better tool.
❌ The 3 things to avoid
❌ Utility-only, forgettable landing page
Every AI tool has an "AI for [X]" landing page. Distinct brand imagery (e.g., Anything.com's CRT-in-flowers aesthetic) is memorable; stock SaaS illustrations are invisible. Pick one visual identity and commit.
❌ Hiding capabilities in product, not marketing them
Anything.com has a full code editor and Figma import — both invisible from their marketing. Users don't discover what isn't advertised. If you have the feature, put it in the nav, on the landing, in the prompt toolbar.
❌ No pre-signup activation path
If "Create account" is the only CTA above the fold, you've pre-filtered visitors to committed users. Most visitors are browsing. Let them try.
How to measure
| Metric | What to watch | Target range |
|---|---|---|
| Landing → prompt-submit rate | % of visitors who type into the prompt | 25-40% |
| Prompt-submit → signup-complete | % who finish signup after submitting | 50-70% |
| Signup → first successful generation | < 30s from signup to "agent ran" | 80%+ |
| Named-competitor-import usage | how many signups come via "Import from X" | 5-15% of signups in 90 days |
| Logo-strip view → trust signal | Brand survey: "I trust this product" | ≥ 60% among hot traffic |