February 7th and 8th I was in Long Beach for the BIL Conference. If you’ve never heard of BIL, it’s a free, open event held alongside TED. If you’ve never heard of TED, it stands for “Technology, Entertainment, and Design,” is very exclusive, very expensive, and brings in some incredibly intelligent people. Anyway, BIL is to TED as BarCamp is to FooCamp. BIL is a chance for people to experience the same caliber of conversation and idea sharing at a fraction of the cost (actually that isn’t true - you can’t divide by zero). Some great people come out for it, both to speak and as regular attendees.
One of my favorite speakers this year was Blake Mycoskie, the CEO of Toms Shoes. He spoke about the beginnings of Toms Shoes and how it immediately got traction. He said, “Doing good is good business strategy.” If you don’t know, for every pair of shoes they sell they give a pair to a needy person in Argentina. I think they have a mantra of something like “Buy one pair of shoes, make two people happy.”
The point, though, is that doing good is good business strategy - no matter what you are doing. Google has a similar mantra (”Don’t be evil”). In addition to the awesomeness of just doing good, you also create evangelists - people who believe in what you are doing and want to tell people about it. It’s a built in marketing campaign. There are always people out there who will align with what you are doing - you need to find them and connect with them. That is your best market. Too many companies when asked what their target market is answer with something like “everyone” or “whoever will buy our stuff.” Toms Shoes target market isn’t everyone, or people who wear shoes, or even people who are fanatical about shoes, it’s charitable people who want to make a difference. They hold the same ideals and want to become a partner for good. Speaking at an event like BIL, where there are hundreds of people who want to make a difference was a great fit for Blake.
Your product or service fills a need of some sort (I hope). Find the people who will be fanatical about it. They may not always be the immediate group you think of - they may not even be on your radar as you start out. But if you find them, and if you are good and not evil, you will gather evangelists. And everyone will be happy 
Here is the video Blake played at the beginning of his presentation: