Founder GTM
The go-to-market journey a founder runs themselves, in order. Six stages, each drawing on one pillar of the library, each producing an artifact you carry into the next.
Idea
Before you build anything, decide who you are for and why they should care. This stage settles the ICP, the market you are entering, the message, and the metrics you will judge yourself by.
By the end of this stage you have an ICP, a sized market, a messaging framework, and the metrics you will run on.
How to build a competitive analysis framework
A competitive analysis framework is a repeatable way to map who you win and lose against, and why — not a one-time slide deck. The output is battlecards your reps use on live calls plus a landscape 2×2 that shows where you actually sit. Built from win/loss evidence, it tells sales what to say and product what to build.
How to run customer interviews that produce decisions
Customer interviews are structured conversations that surface why people buy, switch, or churn — in their words, not yours. Done right, ten of them tell you more than a thousand survey rows. The output is an interview guide plus a synthesis that turns transcripts into the patterns every downstream go-to-market decision inherits from.
How to build an ideal customer profile (ICP)
An ideal customer profile (ICP) is the description of the company most likely to buy fast, stay, and refer — defined by nine concrete attributes, not a vague persona. It is the single decision every other go-to-market choice inherits from. Get it wrong and every downstream dollar targets the wrong buyer.
How to size a market with TAM, SAM, and SOM
TAM, SAM, and SOM are three nested estimates of a market: everyone who has the problem, the slice you can actually sell to, and the slice you can realistically win. Sized bottom-up from real unit counts and prices, they answer whether an opportunity is worth building for. Sized top-down from a report, they are theatre.
How to write a strategic narrative for your company
A strategic narrative is the story of a change happening in the world, why it makes the old way untenable, and why your company is the answer to the new one. It is not an origin story or a mission statement. Done right, it reframes the buyer's problem so your product becomes the obvious response — the frame every message, deck, and campaign hangs on.
How to build a messaging framework that sells
A messaging framework is the ordered set of claims that turns your product into words a buyer believes — a positioning statement, a value map linking features to the pains they solve, and the headlines that carry it. Built from your ICP and the customer's own language, it is what makes every page, ad, and pitch say the same true thing.
How to set a SaaS pricing strategy that scales
A SaaS pricing strategy is three decisions, in order: the metric you charge on, the tiers you package, and the unit economics that prove it pays. Get the metric right — the thing that grows as the customer gets more value — and pricing scales with the account on its own. Get it wrong and no amount of tier-tuning fixes it.
How to choose the SaaS metrics that actually run a business
The SaaS metrics that run a business are a single north star that captures delivered value, plus one metric per funnel stage that explains it. Most dashboards track the opposite — vanity numbers that rise while the business stalls. The output is a north star and a stage map: the few numbers a decision actually turns on, and nothing else.
Pre-Launch
Turn the idea into something people can use. This stage validates the problem, scopes the smallest product that proves it, and designs the onboarding that gets a new user to value.
By the end of this stage you have a validated problem, a scoped MVP, and an onboarding and activation path.
How to run problem validation before you build
Problem validation is the work of proving a problem is real, painful, and worth paying to solve — before you write code. It replaces the founder's conviction with evidence from the people who have the problem. The output is a discovery plan and a signal grade that tells you to build, pivot, or stop.
How to scope an MVP for startups
An MVP for startups is the smallest thing you can build to learn whether your solution moves the problem — not a small version of the product you eventually want. It exists to answer one risky question with real users. The output is a scoped MVP and a concierge plan for what you fake before you build.
How to run a beta testing program
A beta testing program puts a working product in front of a chosen set of real users to learn what breaks, what confuses, and what they will actually use — before a wider launch. It is a learning phase with an exit criterion, not a soft marketing event. The output is a beta plan and a feedback loop that converts observations into decisions.
How to reduce time to value
Time to value is how long it takes a new user to reach first value — the activation milestone — from the moment they sign up. Reducing it means mapping the real path, measuring where users lose time, and removing the friction between intent and payoff. The output is a time-to-value path and a friction map that ranks what to fix first.
How to design user activation
User activation is the point where a new user first gets real value from your product — the moment that predicts whether they stay. Designing it means defining one measurable activation milestone, then the product-qualified-lead signal that says a user is ready to buy. Get the milestone wrong and every onboarding step optimizes toward the wrong finish line.
How to design user onboarding
User onboarding is the deliberate path that carries a new user from signup to their first real value. It is designed backward from the activation milestone, not forward from a feature tour. The output is a nine-step onboarding spec: the shortest sequence of steps that removes friction and gets a user to the moment that predicts retention.
Grow
Create demand and a place for it to land. This stage builds the channels, content, and site that bring the right people to you and convert them.
By the end of this stage you have a content and channel plan, a converting website, and a demand engine.
How to build a B2B content strategy
A B2B content strategy is the plan that decides which topics you publish, for which buying stage, and to move which metric. Organize it by funnel stage — top, middle, and bottom — so every piece has a job. Without that structure you produce volume that ranks for nothing and converts no one.
How to do AI search optimization (AEO/GEO)
AI search optimization is the practice of making a page easy for AI answer engines to read, quote, and attribute. It rests on three moves: answer-first structure, machine-readable schema, and a clean crawl surface including llms.txt. AI crawlers do not execute JavaScript, so content that needs JS to render does not exist to them.
Website conversion optimization for B2B
Website conversion optimization is the work of turning a visitor with intent into a next step. For B2B it rests on two page types: landing pages that match a specific intent, and comparison pages that answer the question every serious buyer asks — how you differ from the alternatives. Design each around one decision, not many.
How to build an inbound marketing funnel
Inbound marketing earns attention with content people seek out, then converts that attention into a next step. The work is a funnel: attract, engage, convert. Its failure mode is attracting well and converting nothing — traffic with no path to a next step. Build the conversion plan alongside the content, not after it.
How to build lifecycle marketing nurture sequences
Lifecycle marketing sends the right message to a contact based on where they are in their relationship with you, not on a calendar. The deliverable is a set of nurture sequences — one per lifecycle stage — each with a job and an exit. Done well, it moves people forward. Done as a blast, it teaches them to unsubscribe.
How to build a paid acquisition plan
Paid acquisition is buying attention from people who match your ICP and moving them to a next step. It works when you treat channels as hypotheses to test, not budgets to defend. Build a channel plan and a test matrix so each spend has a hypothesis, a metric, and a kill criterion before the first dollar goes out.
How to build a B2B PR strategy
A B2B PR strategy earns third-party attention on a predictable cadence, and pairs it with events where you meet buyers directly. PR is credibility you do not control; events are relationships you do. Both fail as one-off stunts and work as a rhythm. The deliverable is a PR cadence and an event plan tied to real business moments.
How to build a B2B social media strategy
A B2B social media strategy decides where you show up, what you say, and how you listen. It splits into three parts: a social plan for presence, a community plan for belonging, and a monitoring spec for hearing what is said about you. Social broadcasts; community compounds. Most teams do the first and skip the other two.
How to choose a customer acquisition model
A customer acquisition model is how a stranger becomes a paying customer — freemium, free trial, sales-led, or a hybrid. The choice is not taste; it follows from your product's time-to-value, your price, and how buyers buy in your market. Pick the model those three point to, and the rest of go-to-market inherits it.
How to design viral loops (and measure K-factor)
A viral loop is a path where using the product produces new users, who repeat it. Its health is the K-factor — the number of new users each user brings. When K is above one, growth compounds without spend; below one, the loop amplifies other channels instead. Design the loop into the product; do not bolt a referral form onto the side.
Acquire
Turn interest into revenue. This stage covers founder-led selling, a repeatable sales process, qualification, and the outbound motion that fills the top of it.
By the end of this stage you have your first customers, a defined sales process, and a qualification standard.
How to build a market entry strategy for a new country
A market entry strategy is your plan for selling in a new country: which market to enter, how to reach buyers there, and what to localize first. The mistake is treating a new country as more of the same demand. It is a new market with its own buyers, rules, and language, and it must be earned again from scratch.
Founder led sales: how to get your first 10 customers
Founder led sales is the founder selling the product directly, before there is a sales team, to learn what makes people buy. Your first ten customers are not a revenue goal — they are a research project. The plan names who you contact, what you say, and what you must learn from each conversation.
How to run outbound sales that gets replies
Outbound sales is you starting the conversation with buyers who have not raised their hand. It works when the targeting is narrow and the message is specific. The deliverable is two things: written criteria for who belongs on the list, and the sequence copy that reaches them across a few coordinated touches.
What is MEDDIC — the qualification framework, letter by letter
MEDDIC is a sales qualification framework built from six things you must learn about a deal: Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, and Champion. It tells you whether a deal is real before you invest in it. The deliverable is a scorecard that rates each deal on all six.
How to design a sales process with clear stages
A sales process is the repeatable set of stages a deal moves through, from first contact to closed. Each stage is defined by what the buyer has done, not by what the seller hopes. A good process makes deals predictable and forecasts honest. The deliverable is the named stages and the exit criteria for each.
How to build channel partnerships that actually sell
Channel partnerships are agreements where another company helps sell or deliver your product to their customers. They work when both sides gain and the partner already reaches your buyer. Most fail from being signed and forgotten. The deliverable is a shortlist of partners ranked by fit and by what each side gains.
Distribute
Keep the customers you won and grow the ones worth growing. This stage builds retention, time-to-value, and the expansion motion that lifts net revenue retention.
By the end of this stage you have a retention playbook, a faster time to value, and an expansion motion.
How to improve customer retention
Customer retention is the share of customers who stay with you across a period, and improving it means finding the accounts likely to leave before they do and giving each a defined save action. The reliable method is a churn-risk model built from your own account data plus a playbook that assigns one intervention to each risk tier.
How to grow net revenue retention with expansion revenue
Net revenue retention is the share of last period's revenue you still hold this period after churn, downgrades, and expansion. Growing it means defining the signals that mark an account ready to expand, acting on each with a specific offer, and running a structured win-back for the accounts that left. The output is expansion triggers plus a win-back sequence.
Scale
Build the operations that let the engine run without you holding it together. This stage covers the tech stack, the data, and the compliance work enterprise deals demand.
By the end of this stage you have a fit-for-stage tech stack and the compliance posture to sell upmarket.
How to choose a sales tech stack by ICP and stage
A sales tech stack is the set of tools your go-to-market team uses to find, win, and keep customers. Choosing one well means matching each tool to the job your motion actually needs at your current stage — not buying the category leader by reflex. The output is a stack recommendation mapped to your ICP and stage.
How to handle SaaS compliance for enterprise deals
SaaS compliance is the set of security and data-protection practices you can prove to a buyer's security team — most often through SOC 2 and GDPR. It gates enterprise deals: no proof, no signature. Handling it means treating the security review as a sales stage and preparing evidence early. The output is a SOC 2 and GDPR checklist.
What you'll have at the end
Run the path in order and the artifacts accrue. By the last stage you are not holding a reading list — you are holding a go-to-market operation.
- Ideaan ICP, a sized market, a messaging framework, and the metrics you will run on
- Pre-Launcha validated problem, a scoped MVP, and an onboarding and activation path
- Growa content and channel plan, a converting website, and a demand engine
- Acquireyour first customers, a defined sales process, and a qualification standard
- Distributea retention playbook, a faster time to value, and an expansion motion
- Scalea fit-for-stage tech stack and the compliance posture to sell upmarket