Bring clarity to what you do first
Until prospects understand your intended value, the rest will be more difficult
A major failure mode we see, regardless of stage, is a company’s inablity to clearly describe the problem they are solving. Often the guidance is that the Founders haven’t found the right ICP, targeted the right users, or done the right outbound but if you do not have a well-defined articulation in one (maybe two) sentences of what you’re solving, it’s already far too complicated. In a market where you are likely competing with 5-10+ companies on a market map vying for attention in the same category, this must be clear first.
Where teams go wrong is trying to rely on benefits-driven or performative language without clearly explaining what the product actually does. Saying something like “making engineers more efficient” isn’t a real value proposition — every tool a developer buys is expected to improve efficiency in some way.
One thing we often remind technical Founders of when pursuing sales or GTM for the first time is that their entire jobs prior to starting a company was about excruciating attention to detail, systems thinking, and getting into each tactical step to ship something great. The first sales and GTM process should actually feel similar. Performative language and rushing to ROI discussions misses the point of what you need to do first: get people to easily understand the value it provides and for users to love your product. Until then, it will be very hard to tell the story or articulate the ROI and value of your product. It first starts with tactical workflow diagrams, step-by-step walkthroughs of how users should use your product, then simplifying for people to deeply understand so you can identify if your product is resonating with the right audience(s).
If you don’t have a clear hypothesis on how people use your product and the problem you are aiming to solve for them on a daily basis, you should take a step back and define this first. This is important it will be very hard to get meetings (either through referrals or cold outbound) if people don’t know why they are being asked to take a call. This does not mean you will have the right product at the beginning but people must understand what they are looking at to give feedback or feel compelled to test-drive your product. Better upfront clarity and expectation setting allows for better feedback.
To better develop and refine a clear value proposition to show the problem you solve, first have a clear understanding of the below, then work on defining a 1-2 sentence explanation of what you do:
Who benefits most from your product? The safe answer everyone often starts with is “VP of X,” but often, they are the beneficiary of their teams getting value. The VP is rarely the person who will use or benefit from the daily use of the product itself
What does your product actually do that is unique and different from your competitors? Everyone loves to start with a 2x2 diagram putting their logo in the top right corner, but what about your product actually makes it earn that spot in the top right corner? Can you prove it?
Explain how the product works not “it will make you more efficient”
Don’t use fluffy language like “single pane of glass,” or “turnkey” explain what the end user should experience
If you showed your mockup or v1 of the product can people follow the claims? What specifically do people say, ask, and positively reinforce that you can use in your problem statement
Pivoting and iteration often come from: learning your product isn’t adoption or purchase-worthy, or that what you aim to build is far too great of a promise to start, so you need to refine how you get someone to get to value faster. Remember, niches are okay (to start)
A few resources we recommend as well:
Positioning Guide - MKT1
Positioning Teardown - MKT1
On Developer Marketing - Lee Robinson
If you feel your hypothesis is strong to start, here’s what you can do to make sure you get the feedback you need to succeed:
Prepare for the call – use the research to validate or inform how you’ll drive the hypothesis on the first call
Don’t ask for pain (yet), validate the problem you’re solving – there is nuance on how you ask discovery questions
Be definitive – validate your hypothesis with clear direction
Inspire the next step – be clear on how a prospect should engage with you
We’re always here to support!