Growth Strategy for Startups: Start strong, get the fundamentals right

Making the leap from initial traction to a scalable engine for growth can be intimidating. That's precisely why it’s critical to start with the fundamentals to set yourself up for success. Without this, you’re unanchored, running blind and chasing your tail comparing your stats to benchmark Series A growth rates without the right context.

In my experience advising startups, I’ve seen extremes at all ends - often with good intentions but without a clear strategy. 

• Scenario 1: The business is off to a good start with a small, but highly engaged user base - courtesy the founder’s network and initial buzz from the launch coverage on TechCrunch. The founder wanted to stay lean & assumed a healthy rate of referrals via this initial cohort would suffice, but that hasn’t taken off. Acquisition is low and there are limited upsell/cross-sell opportunities with existing users. 
• Scenario 2: The founder goes in 100% on organic or inbound channels (SEO, email, content) because he/she read somewhere that it’s “free”, but is frustrated at the slow pace of growth. 
• Scenario 3: The founder invests 100% of the budget in performance marketing. He/she is overjoyed with quick scale and healthy ROI initially with a high intent audience (the joys and perils of last click attribution, #IYKYK), but the bottom of the funnel is now dried up and CAC is creeping upwards. 

So how does one avoid these pitfalls? 

Make sure you have an integrated understanding of your business goals & financial expectations,  product, market context & user behavior so you can <span class="richtext-line-highlight">transition from product - market fit to product - market - GTM channel fit.</span>

These are the 3 considerations  to structure your thought process and align your GTM strategy.

1. Validate Foundations and Readiness:

1. Do we have an in-depth understanding of our Ideal customer profile (ICP)?  
2. Do we have a vetted core value proposition? 
3. Most importantly, do we have clear evidence of Product Market Fit with our core users before we invest in scaling? 
4. How big (+ accurate) is the Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM)?

2. Set Business Goals:

1. Where do we need to get to? What is our target growth rate? 
2. Break down outputs (revenue / LTV) to inputs 
3. What budget [+ other capabilities] do we need to deliver these goals? 

[Bonus] What does the unit economics of our business look like? 

3. Assess Go-to-Market Motions & Opportunities:

1. What routes / motions are best suited for the nature of our business: Product led, Sales led or Marketing Led [or a combination]?

Note: These are intentionally broad and almost existential in the early stages of your journey. Think of it as a jumping off point vs. the end state.

Now that you understand the big picture, go deeper on Validating Foundations & Setting Goals or jump head to Go-to-Market motions.