Invest in Marketing from Day 1

Marketing isn’t polish - it’s discovery.

Wait to invest in it until you ramp and you’re likely too late already.

Too many founders get this wrong.

Ramp takes time - if you don’t start early enough, you may not have enough time.

Instead, start from Day 1 and use marketing to figure out who cares, what they care about, and where they pay attention, all while you build.

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CAVEAT: We spend all of our time in B2B AI - this insight comes from Paul Veugen, Founder of Detail - a consumer / prosumer startup. While not everything is applicable to B2B startups, many of the insights are.

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Here's the math that kills too many startups:

You need 20% monthly growth to go from $10k to $1M ARR in 12 months (which is slow in today’s world).

That’s very hard to do without the help of marketing.

However, marketing channels take 60-90 days to show signal.

Your best content won't perform until month 5 at least.

So if you start marketing with 12 months runway left, you're likely already dead.

Many of those who succeed start to invest in marketing before they have a product.

Sounds insane.

But marketing isn't just selling. Early marketing is product research that builds an audience.

Every blog post teaches you what problems matter. Every video reveals what language resonates. Every tweet shows you where attention lives.

Most founders won't do this.

Too many say they're too busy building. They'll wait for the "right time." They'll bet everything on product being so good it markets itself.

However, distribution is EVERYTHING!

Even the most perfect products need months to build momentum.

Often, the audience you build while building is worth more than the product - because when the first product fails, the audience lets you try again.

While you build features, build an audience. While you search for product-market fit, warm up the channels that will make it matter.

Early marketing isn't about selling your product. It’s buying cheap lessons.

A post costs two hours but can teach you what a hundred customer interviews couldn't.

Start now.

Not because you need customers today, but because you need to know how to get them tomorrow.

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Enjoyed reading this?

Then check out my conversation on the focal podcast with serial founder (and prolific investor) Paul Veugen, the now founder and CEO of Detail.

Youtube | Apple Podcast | Spotify

Recently started a company or thinking about it?

At focal, we’re technical, AI native builders’ first choice for their first check.

We lead their first round at the very start with up to $1M. Often before they even write their first line of code.

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