diff --git a/core/client/app/styles/layouts/flow.css b/core/client/app/styles/layouts/flow.css
index 7dfd7d1ca5..f55eb30dd3 100644
--- a/core/client/app/styles/layouts/flow.css
+++ b/core/client/app/styles/layouts/flow.css
@@ -384,6 +384,16 @@
     line-height: 1.4em;
 }
 
+.gh-flow-invite textarea {
+    background: url(img/invite-placeholder.png) 8px 10px no-repeat;
+    background-size: 202px 48px;
+    box-shadow: none; /* Remove some default styling for Firefox (required attribute) */
+}
+
+.gh-flow-invite textarea:valid {
+    background: none;
+}
+
 @media (max-width: 460px) {
     .gh-flow-content .gh-flow-invite label i {
         display: none;
diff --git a/core/client/app/templates/setup/three.hbs b/core/client/app/templates/setup/three.hbs
index 1cf977e60a..49af9a8b0c 100644
--- a/core/client/app/templates/setup/three.hbs
+++ b/core/client/app/templates/setup/three.hbs
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
     <form class="gh-flow-invite">
         <label>Enter one email address per line, we’ll handle the rest! <i class="icon-mail"></i></label>
-        {{textarea class="gh-input" name="users" placeholder="john@example.com" value=users}}
+        {{textarea class="gh-input" name="users" value=users required="required"}}
     </form>
 
     <button {{action 'invite'}} class="btn btn-default btn-lg btn-block {{buttonClass}}">
diff --git a/core/client/public/assets/img/invite-placeholder.png b/core/client/public/assets/img/invite-placeholder.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..269e16e8c0
Binary files /dev/null and b/core/client/public/assets/img/invite-placeholder.png differ