Nothing Ventured...
If you are just starting out, these few tools might be useful. Or not.
01
Agenda & Tips for a
5-minute intro pitch
AGENDA
1. Context - a single line summary of your business
2. Why you - your connection to this space and your beyond ordinary character or capability
3. Is the problem worth solving - define it, and size it
4. Are you making progress - evidence of hustle or traction, unique insight gained, initial customer reaction, ...
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TIPS
- prioritise your audience... what do they want to hear
- prioritise your immediate goal... it is NOT to sign a deal right here & now... it is to create interest in a second conversation
- which likely means reducing your content by 80%! you probably want to land just two or three messages
- 4 agenda items = 4 slides
02
Product Market Fit
Without which, your days are numbered.
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Here are a few external reads on understanding this foundational concept...
- https://longform.asmartbear.com/product-market-fit/
- http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the-pmarca-gu-2.html
03
Understand your Problem
Traction is elusive. You are going to need to pull a hundred different levers to find nirvana. But you are reading this for some shortcuts, and I think this one is often helpful. It encourages you to define your problem as one of three archetypes, and offers some suggestions based on that insight. https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/pmf-framework/
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04
Customer Discovery
(Despite what you might experience in the media) If you ask people for feedback on your idea, they will almost invariably tell you it sounds great.
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Here's how to get honest = useful feedback...
05
Referral Programs
WHY?
A highly effective, low cost means of early stage growth.
Perhaps your #1 GTM tool?
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HOW
1. Reward referrals not (just) outcomes
2. Don't mistake reward for (just) money
3. Reward the referee not (just) the referrer
4. Communicate the outcome not (just) the ask
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06 FOCUS!
There is a common metaphor of the founder as a juggler. 100’s of things to get done, working until you drop, a dozen of balls in the air at any one time. Which is true.
But there is a danger in the metaphor that we treat all these balls as equal. Yet only one (perhaps a couple) is likely existential. By which I mean - the existence of your business depends on it.
The reality is that many of those balls can be dropped (some can picked up later, you might even lose a few) without harm.
Or worse - we feel good by busying ourselves with the safe balls without even picking up the fragile one.
I think a really helpful question to ask yourself early in your journey is: what must we solve in order to survive. Or, in reverse… what will kill this business?
iIt won't be your brandname. Or your logo. Or the cost of AWS credit. Or the size of your SOM. There is a very good chance to answer has something to do with customer value.
So play around with your logo for sure, it’s fun. But not at the cost of focussing on what will kill you.
07
MARKETING FOUNDATIONS
KISS
There is a rabbit hole best explored later. Some brilliant deep work and plenty experts to guide you. But in your early days
I advise you to keep marketing strategy very very simple.
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IMO there are (only) three foundational marketing strategy considerations: define the market, segment the market and pick a target segment, position the solution.
- We are in <this> market.
- We target <this> and <this> segment/s.
- We are positioned as the most <benefit>.
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Example:
We are in the sales enablement market.
We target firms that need to be in the peloton… not in the breakaway, not in the grupetto.
We are the most SE friendly.
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Notes:
Market = customer need (transport not trains)
Targeting = any MECE means of defining customers
Positioning = ladders in the mind
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08. LMK what you'd like to read next...