“The depth of customer knowledge presented alongside a go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a key factor determining how much confidence VCs have in you,”

– Ashelë Woods, Medium.

Founders are builders by nature. In our experience most founders don’t come up through the go-to-market org, they have product, engineering or operational backgrounds. However building a product in isolation from GTM considerations is consistently cited as one of the top reasons why companies fail*.

While you might be confident about resolving any technical or operational blockers in your path, like many founders, you may feel there is an air of mystery to sales at the earliest stages of a startup. Even founders who go on to build hugely successful companies often look back on early deals and recall “something just clicked” — which isn’t particularly helpful advice for the rest of us.