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.

🇺🇸 DOES YOUR FLAG FAIL? Grey Grades State Flags!

The Obsession of the Modern World | Origins: The Journey of Humankind

View All

Flu Virus 101 | National Geographic

[Narrator] The flu is a highly contagious respiratory illness. It turns up year after year with devastating consequences, all caused by a most elusive virus. The influenza, or flu virus, is a recurring nightmare. It causes more than 36,000 deaths in the…

Potential energy | Physics | Khan Academy

If you drop a basketball, then it’ll speed up as it hits the ground, right? Which means its kinetic energy increases. Let’s say 100 joules just to take simple numbers, okay? The question is: where did that kinetic energy come from? Well, one answer could …

The Perils of Downhill Cycling | Science of Stupid: Ridiculous Fails

The electric light, the telephone, the microchip. All great inventions. But for me, the most important of all was the wheel, mainly because it led to things like this. Downhill cycling. Why use two wheels when one makes you look twice as cool? But before…

From Home to Hollywood: Creating a Network TV Commercial with Zero Experience!

The whole idea of making an event-based commercial is to make it relevant to the audience that’s watching. Remember, this is a debate. I want to show you something really interesting. You know, my companies in Aggregates spend millions of dollars each mon…

30 Years of Business Knowledge in 2hrs 26mins

I am good at only one thing: business. For the last 30 years, I built 19 companies and invested in 78 startups. People ask me every day to be their mentor and to help them, and they’ve even offered me £10,000 to help them just for one day in business. I d…

Uncovering Adventure in Maine's Southern Coast | National Geographic

When you’re visiting Maine, you can’t help but fall in love with this place. You feel connected to nature. No matter what you’re doing, you feel this tie to the water and the ocean. Whether you’re traveling on it, eating something from it, or just enjoyin…

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

More Articles