When you’re pre-product market fit, sales is a job for the founders.

less than 1m read

·Nov 3, 2024

If you're the founder of an early stage startup and you're building a product that you're hoping other businesses will buy, you are capable of selling it. That's the good news. The bad news is that you're probably the only person capable of selling your product.

That is, if you aren't able to sell your product yourself at first, chances are you're not going to be able to hire somebody else to do it for you. Now, if you're anything like we were, you're probably thinking there are lots of talented salespeople out there. Wouldn't it be faster to hire one of them than try to do it ourselves?

After all, that's what you'd probably do with any other role, like designers or lawyers or accountants. The problem is that sales, before you find product-market fit, is very different from sales after you find product-market fit. Sales pre-PMF is fundamentally entrepreneurial; it requires vision and credibility with customers, lots of experimentation, and a tight feedback loop with the people building the product.

This is a role for founders.

Saving Albatross Chicks From Tsunamis and Rising Seas | National Geographic

The 5 things I wish I knew before becoming a Landlord...

View All

Worked example: differentiating polar functions | AP Calculus BC | Khan Academy

Let r be the function given by r if theta is equal to three theta sine theta for theta is between zero and two pi, including zero and two pi. The graph of r in polar coordinates consists of two loops, as shown in the figure above. So let’s think about wh…

This New Zealand Couple Is Charming—So Is Their Farming | Short Film Showcase

[Music] We shall have a cup of tea. They met in 1953, two young refugees over bickies and tea. We didn’t even say a word. Maybe you’re a bit too shy. It was love at first cup, with a wink and a smile. Faye and Joe Gok danced down the aisle. As Chinese we…

Parallel & perpendicular lines from graph

In this video, we’re going to do a couple of examples that deal with parallel and perpendicular lines. So you have parallel, you have perpendicular, and of course, you have lines that are neither parallel nor perpendicular. Just as a bit of a review, if …

Inside The $100,000,000 Empire Of Dhar Mann

What’s up, you guys? It’s Graham here, and today I’d like to introduce you to one of the most successful entrepreneurs you probably didn’t expect, Darman. At the age of 30, after nearly having to move back in with his parents, he developed a series of mot…

Expressing a quadratic form with a matrix

Hey guys, there’s one more thing I need to talk about before I can describe the vectorized form for the quadratic approximation of multivariable functions, which is a mouthful to say. So let’s say you have some kind of expression that looks like ( ax^2 ).…

Missing Dial Trailer | National Geographic

You don’t know heartbreak until you’re running through the jungle, yelling for your son’s name. “Roben! Oh, that’s my son, chip off the old block!” He emailed us right before he headed into the jungle. “It should be difficult to get lost forever.” What t…

When you’re pre-product market fit, sales is a job for the founders.

More Articles