StartUp To ScaleUp

You cannot win a deal you're not in - so everything means nothing if people don't know you exist. The primary pillar of founder-led sales isn't the sale itself; it's the awareness playbook that precedes it. And by 'precedes' - I mean 'same time', obviously. This paradox is a feature, not a bug. If it made perfect sense, you'd be doing it wrong. 🎯 Your awareness playbook is the hardest simple playbook there is. It's Schrödinger's marketing plan – a precise science and a total crapshoot at the same time. 1️⃣ Hijack the work someone else has already done bringing your audience together. 2️⃣ Awareness is planting a million seeds, knowing only a few will sprout, but those that do will ve exponential. 3️⃣ You're looking for the tiniest cracks in the market, the smallest openings that just might, give you a moment of attention. ⏳ So to summarize, you need to be everywhere, all at once, but with purpose. You need to do the things that work, which means everything until you see what works. So everything, everywhere, always. Got it?! Awareness compounds. via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter (presented by webAI - AI that is effortless, powerful, and private) Some questions to help you think about hijacking noise 👇👇 https://lnkd.in/gNWJjVeK

The foundation of user-centricity is, shockingly, being user centric. The first 8 minutes of user life is the golden handshake. How you build is how you sell. How users arrive, onboard, and engage is not a customer success bolt-on or an afterthought, it's a foundational pillar of how you build. Every. Single. Thing. 🎯 You're not building a product, you're engineering an experience, and user-centricity is the foundation of your entire development process. 1️⃣ Conversion is a multi-step process from the second they meet you; Acquire a user, get them in the app, deliver a brilliant experience, and then solve the problem. 2️⃣ Customers let a lot slide. They know your MVP barely works, but user-centricity is a lifeline that can compensate for some of your short comings. 3️⃣ Users owe you nothing. Not their time, not their patience. Until they get value, then they owe you an equitable fee. ⏳ The Golden Handshake isn't just about the first 8 minutes - it's setting the standard for the entire relationship. Demonstrate that you understand their needs, respect their time, and are committed to their success. Is it time to revisit your first 8 minutes? via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter (presented by Deel Payroll for Global Teams) Some questions to help you think about your 8 minutes 👇👇 https://lnkd.in/gW6APtkC

AI is more paradigm-shifting than the internet. It's horse & carriage vs car. You'll still get there, just 84 days later. If Time to Market (TTM) is your metric, then you're already late. This is AI First. 🎯 AI is not a trend or a tool; it's a foundation, a pillar on which you build your business, not a feature of your business. 1️⃣ 2012 was Mobile First. 2015 was API First. 2024 is AI First - Can you imagine building anything now that doesn’t leverage AI to automate, accelerate, optimize, or create? For most StartUps, there are two approaches: ⬇️ Top Down: Optimization Integrate AI into your existing value chain to enhance and support operations, inserting where there is incremental, immediate and accretive value. ⬆️ Bottom Up: Innovation Rethink and reinvent your processes & products with AI as a foundational pillar to create entirely new ways of building, operating and engaging with the market. 2️⃣ Your competitive advantage isn’t just your tech, that's close to a commodity, it’s how effectively you can implement, scale, and leverage it. Your edge lies in the speed at which you distribute, delight & capture market share. 3️⃣ The common blockers: FOMO: You know AI is the future, but you don't know where to start. COMPETENCE: You get it, but you're not sure who to hire, who to talk to, or how to level up your AI game. LEGACY: You built your stack wrong, your data is a mess, and now you're playing catch-up. 🎯 AI is not a “just turn it on” task, it’s a forever strategic commitment. Start something. Now. via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter (presented this week by Mercury) > You should probably follow Matt Wood - he needs the followers and I need PoC credits. The AI First Workbook starts by asking a whole lot of important questions 👇👇 https://lnkd.in/gx_TqUtB

Founders who reverse-engineer their product from the outcome they are looking to achieve, dramatically speed up time to market, build a product that solves the problem and get into traffic fast. Even founders who have validated the problem and the market stumble because they can't stop adding features outside the core. Be relentless, focus on the outcome. If it's taking too long either you're building to much or you have lost your way. 1️⃣ Time to Market is THE metric for your MVP; it's speed to revenue, feedback & market driven iterations. It demands ruthless prioritization and building backwards from a validated market outcome. 2️⃣ Outcome Driven Design requires extraordinary discipline. The ability to resist the temptation to add features, no matter how appealing, if they don't serve the core outcome. 3️⃣ ODD is rooted in Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) theory. The idea is that customers "hire" products to get a specific job done. Your MVP should be designed to be the perfect "employee" for that job. 4️⃣ Build your MVP around the ODD pillars, don't ignore the "but also" - The details that make your customer feel heard, engaged, and deliver value with the small touches and extra bits that make everything better - as long as they complement not complicate. 🎯 So before you jump into building, anchor everything in the outcome and the most seamless process to deliver that outcome. Faster market entry, reduced cost, and genuine customer satisfaction feel like compelling arguments for you to take this seriously. via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter The Outcome Driven Design workbook helps you work backwards into the Job-to-be-Done (JTBD) 👇👇

Before you write a line of code, run a smoke test to rapidly validate market demand at almost zero cost. If you can't prove your offering is valuable, nothing else matters. The MVO is non technical, no engineering; the fastest way to work out whether to move forward. A non-tech "proof of concept" - literally a smoke test - you're sending up a signal to see if anyone notices and reacts ish-positively. The MVO is non-technical, no engineering involved, fastest way to decide whether to proceed. A non-technical "proof of concept" literally a smoke test, you're sending up a signal to see if anyone responds positively (ish). 1️⃣ Risk Mitigation: As founders, our core job is to tackle three key product risks: Value Risk: Will people want this? Feasibility Risk: Can we build this? Usability Risk: Can people figure out how to use it? 2️⃣ Smoke Testing is promoting your Minimum Viable Offering (MVO) to an unacquainted audience. Simply put, set up a website and see who shows interest. 3️⃣ Some founders feel uneasy about "selling" a non-existent product, this isn't about misleading; it's about testing genuine interest and starting to build market relationships. 4️⃣ Iterating your MVO through smoke testing is the first step to mitigating product risk, the last step before building and a pathway to product-market fit. 🎯 If your smoke test doesn't work, it's you, not them. Too broad, too unclear, too something. A failed smoke test is not a failure, something didn't resonate, try again. via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter Follow Henry Latham for more product leadership content. The MVO workbook might help you get started 👇👇 https://lnkd.in/gK-KtPec

ECOSYSTEM: Accelerate customers, intelligence, features, roadmap, acquisition, retention & credibility... without a proportional increase in your sales & marketing dollars. Founder-led sales has limits. To scale effectively, you must leverage the market to extend reach, accelerate customer acquisition and access market sensing. 1️⃣ If you are bootstrapping, this is your lifesaver. If you are cash fantastic, this is your accelerator. Realize that ecosystem is more than someone else selling your stuff. 2️⃣ API-First Strategy: This isn't just about integrations that drive stickiness. It's preparing for the unknown unknowns. By building flexibility into your platform from the start, you might avoid the "we didn't build it that way" issue. 3️⃣ Equitable Value: The customer must win, whether they know it or not, then, balanced value between you and your partner. If your solution truly solves a problem, leaders will listen. 4️⃣ Partners often have the real pulse of the customer. Sometimes more than the customer as they know the data flows, process flows, use cases and how they buy. If your product truly solves a problem for their customer, you can sell under their MSA. 🎯 If you want to win, you need to build a movement, and unfortunately that requires an army of advocates. via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter brought to you this week by Deel Follow Allan Adler & Jill Rowley as your Go To Ecosystem specialists. The Ecosystem Mapping framework is a good start on how you might explore exploring 👇👇

Visionary founders die trying to educate the market. Intelligent founders understand it's a choice whether to CREATE or CAPTURE customers. It's not about innovation; it's about terrain management aka Blue Ocean vs Red Ocean. First mover advantage is a myth. You're better off building within an existing market where you know the players and can fight like hell to steal market share. 1️⃣ The great thing about a Red Ocean... People are actively searching for solutions to their problems, and they're willing to pay for them. 2️⃣ The great thing about a Red Ocean... You don't have to convince people they have a problem; you just have to convince them that your solution is the best. 3️⃣ If you buy into the Blue Ocean strategy, but lack the capital & time to spend educating customers, it's weirdly easier to enter via a Blue Ocean trojan horse. (Start in the Red Ocean to gain traction, then execute a switcheroo) 4️⃣ You don't need to win, you just need to get a slice. Be the most frugal, smartest, leanest, most ambitious, toughest fighter. Every dollar spent on product or growth must deliver outsized returns. It takes extraordinary discipline to be this lean. 🎯 Bootstrapping in a Red Ocean isn't for everyone or every idea. Some ideas require capital, just be hyper-aware of your capability to make that happen. The worst would be to not build anything at all. via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter The ERRC framework is a good starting point, and it's grounded in truth 👇👇 https://lnkd.in/gMGwY5V8

Before you write a line of code, engage the market - not to confirm your biases but to discover whitespaces, signals, & the magical something that makes your solution "desirable, viable and buyable". Founders fall into the trap of hiding behind their computer screens, doing everything but actually speaking to prospects. A survey is not ICP engagement. 1️⃣ Early days you have to catch your customers by hand. Relentless outreach, more calls, more follow-ups. There is no cheat code, spray and pray doesn't work; it’s you, doing the work, one prospect at a time. 2️⃣ So many founders start building their product or rolling out new features without taking the idea on a roadshow. Continuously validate assumptions, refine your messaging until you get to something that works, then never stop. 3️⃣ This is a game, with guidelines, opponents, players, stadiums, rules, partners, referees and an audience. More hunger games than beach volleyball. 🎯 The key for most founders is just getting going, figuring out how many steps lie between a call and a close, developing a playbook to follow, and building a cadence. via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter This is the 5:5:5 methodology for getting on with it. 👇👇 https://lnkd.in/gac5Gzs8

If your app crashes overnight, what’s your move? Transparency with every customer, hope it slides under the radar, pretend it was isolated to a select few!? Welcome to core values. Urgh... 1️⃣ Believing culture, values, and principles are the outcomes of growth is a rookie (and arrogant) mistake. They are the foundation of it. Values = Velocity. 2️⃣ Having, knowing, and choosing when to lean into or step back from these values defines your path. They are your company’s ethical OKRs. 3️⃣ Every disruptor needs a code, even pirates. Your values are not just guidelines but the basis of every decision, ensuring you navigate with purpose. 🎯 Learn from the titans: Amazon, PWC, and Walmart. This workbook includes their principles and asks some challenging questions to help you create your own. via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter This workbook might help you think about thinking 👇👇 https://lnkd.in/g8CP-6HM

When founders struggle to connect w/ customers, it's obviously your messaging, your product, your strategy. Not the prospect. A result of random acts of marketing, prayer, and doing too much, too moderately, too broadly. 1️⃣ Everything starts with building your (ICP) Ideal Customer Profile. Laser focus on the one person with the authority, capability and pain your solution solves. 2️⃣ Defining your ICP also means recognizing who it isn't (for now) - long sales cycles, critical integrations or demands outside your current capabilities are mid to long term targets. 3️⃣ Your ICP is a person, not a logo: You don't have time to differentiate between the ICP and buyer persona (who pulls the trigger), they merge into one champion. 🎯 It's about understanding your target so deeply that your message not only resonates but also viscerally triggers a response (conversion). via StartUp To ScaleUp newsletter This workbook might help you think about thinking 👇👇