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I jibe with the article but I disagree that marketing is something that should be pursued from Day 1. As Jessica Livingston has noted umpteen times, the first t

I jibe with the article but I disagree that marketing is something that should be pursued from Day 1. As Jessica Livingston has noted umpteen times, the first thing you need is product that delights users. Marketing activities around an idea that might not have a useful market is a bit wasteful. I don't imply that marketing is pointless at early stage but time-consuming marketing channels (blogging, social media) are best avoided at that time. A detrimental mistake that I made when I was making a product was to think that I need 'marketing' to get more (beta) users. I started writing blog articles without understanding that I needed at least a baseline of users who really desire the product. Reading about some of the SaaS successes, I think that a lot of entrepreneurs get their initial users from people they know / ads / reachout. Strong marketing effort kicks in when the product seems useful for a market and organic growth doesn't feel enough.

garysieling 10y ago
I think the marketing work that happens early is of a different character than what you'd do if you had a base of customers. I've been building a search engine for talks (https://www.findlectures.com https://www.findlectures.com), and when I demo it people often give me new language that helps the copy on the site, or ideas for features that communicate the value better.
gk1 10y ago
I agree. I've helped startups with marketing at every, and found there's more value in marketing when you (the founder) can tell the marketer what problem the product solves, and for whom. If you don't know those two things, then it's too early to be thinking about marketing.
kbos87 10y ago
100% agree. As a marketer, the first litmus test I apply in evaluating a role is the level of product market fit a company has achieved. As a marketer, I don't have the levers to get a company past that hump if they haven't on their own. My expertise is in driving scale, not finding the initial seeds of value. There are places that marketing can be done before product/market fit. If you are well funded and 100% committed to building for a certain audience, there is value in creating content and building a following. But this doesn't necessarily require marketing headcount.

garysieling 10y ago

I think the marketing work that happens early is of a different character than what you'd do if you had a base of customers. I've been building a search engine for talks (https://www.findlectures.com https://www.findlectures.com), and when I demo it people often give me new language that helps the copy on the site, or ideas for features that communicate the value better.

gk1 10y ago

I agree. I've helped startups with marketing at every, and found there's more value in marketing when you (the founder) can tell the marketer what problem the product solves, and for whom. If you don't know those two things, then it's too early to be thinking about marketing.

kbos87 10y ago

100% agree. As a marketer, the first litmus test I apply in evaluating a role is the level of product market fit a company has achieved. As a marketer, I don't have the levers to get a company past that hump if they haven't on their own. My expertise is in driving scale, not finding the initial seeds of value. There are places that marketing can be done before product/market fit. If you are well funded and 100% committed to building for a certain audience, there is value in creating content and building a following. But this doesn't necessarily require marketing headcount.