If you’re an early-stage founder trying to figure out your go-to-market strategy, take heart. You don’t need to figure out the *best* approach before you reach product/market fit. You just have to figure out *an* approach that’s predictable and reliable. It does not have to be long-term scalable.
I was recently talking to a founder who launched his new company last month and signed up 25 customers in the first few weeks, all through word of mouth. Dude is doing $6k ARR in his first month out of the gate. And now he is thinking about spinning up a marketing engine.
My suggestion? Stick with what’s working. Flog that horse until it starts to stumble. See just how far word of mouth can take his sales, whether it’s $25k/mo or $250k/mo.
I know a lot of very smart people would respond that now is the time to start thinking about what comes next, about planning for what happens when the growth starts to falter. And I hear them. If this cat had a head of marketing, that’s exactly what I’d want them thinking about. But in a small startup, when it’s just a founder or two and a couple of engineers, you find something that works, you pin it to the wall and you move on to the next thing.
In the vast majority of cases, launching a startup is like launching a leaky boat covered in holes. You plug one and move on to the next hole and then next. When the boat is no longer sinking, THAT’S when you look around and figure out which patches to upgrade. That might be next year. That might be next week.
An early stage startup needs to be constantly thinking about what is the one singular thing that creates the most leverage for the business. Sometimes, like with fundraising, that can take months. Occasionally, you can into a sales strategy that works overnight. The wise founder constantly asks themselves, “what should I be working on today that will create the most life in my company.”