Has this guy heard of spacemacs? At least for people familiar with vi bindings, it can get their foot in the door with a more IDE-like experience quicker while retaining and emphasing the unique advantages of emacs as a platform. I think for a lot of users, getting that taste of the tool's capability early on is what motivates them to embrace the platform as a whole, even if they don't stick with a heavy, general purpose emacs "distribution" in the long run.