Go-to-market before your first dollar
At pre-revenue, the only question that matters is who pays. Everything else is premature optimization.
Take the assessmentFocus here first
This is the single most important thing at your stage. You need to know who has the problem you solve, how they describe it, and whether they will pay to fix it. Skip this and everything else is guesswork.
Once you know who buys, you need to articulate why they should buy from you. Your positioning should make your ideal customer think "this is for me" within 10 seconds.
You need to close your first deals. At this stage, your sales motion is you — the founder — having conversations and figuring out what gets someone from "interested" to "paid."
What to ignore (for now)
Demand
You don't need demand generation yet. You need 5-10 customers, and your personal network is enough for that. Paid ads and content marketing are premature.
Distribution
Channel strategy is a scaling question. Right now you need to sell directly so you can learn what works.
Hire Readiness
You are the sales team. Hiring before you have a repeatable process is the most expensive mistake pre-revenue founders make.
Retention
You need customers before you can retain them. Retention becomes critical once you have 10+ paying accounts.
Common traps
Building features instead of selling
The product is never "ready enough" to sell. If you keep building and nobody is buying, the problem isn't the product — the problem is you haven't validated who wants it.
Spending money on marketing before talking to buyers
Paid ads, a beautiful website, and content marketing all assume you know who you're talking to. If you don't, you're burning runway on guesses.
Trying to serve everyone
Pre-revenue founders resist narrowing because "what if we miss someone?" But broad targeting means weak messaging, long sales cycles, and no pattern to repeat.
Frequently asked questions about go-to-market before your first dollar
- How do I find my first customers without a marketing budget?
- Your personal network and warm introductions are your best channel at this stage. Reach out to people who match your target profile, offer to solve their problem, and ask for referrals. Ten genuine conversations will teach you more than any ad spend.
- When should I stop building and start selling?
- Now. If your product solves a real problem, it is ready enough to sell. Every feature you add before talking to buyers is a guess. Sell first, learn what matters, then build the right things.
- How do I know if I have a real market or just a few interested friends?
- Pay attention to who reaches for their wallet versus who says "cool idea." Five strangers who pay real money are more valuable than fifty friends who say they would. If you cannot get 5 paying customers from outreach, the market signal is weak.