5 Things Founders Wished They Knew Before Launching a Startup

2024-09-27 14:20 Industry

Starting a business is exhilarating but it’s also full of challenges that many founders only recognise once they're in the thick of it. With tight budgets, high stakes, and rapidly evolving markets, startup founders need to hit the ground running, especially when it comes to marketing.

Drawing insights from seasoned founders and marketing experts, in this week’s Solid Growth edition we explore five crucial lessons you should learn before launching a startup.

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1. Don’t skip market research ❌

Many founders dive into product development without fully validating their market, which can result in wasted resources and missed opportunities.

The key is to focus on customer pain points early, ensuring that your solution meets real needs.

It’s truly tempting to jump straight into executing the idea you’ve fallen in love with, but the consequences can be disastrous for both you and your team. No one wants to create a product that no one needs — it’s better to find out the gap early, adjust your approach, and invest resources in what truly matters for your potential customers.

Mike Waizman, Chief Marketing Officer at Pepper.Partners

“First, I underestimated the importance of early market validation. In my previous roles across industrial automation, lighting, and hygiene products, I saw that established companies had the luxury of testing and iterating products, while startups must be laser-focused on truly understanding customer pain points before building a solution. You need to invest in market research upfront, not after you’ve already committed resources to product development.”

Ksenia Drobyshevskaya, Business Development for BitMart, Boosty, Albus

"Market research is 100% important and clearly defines your target audience. You need to know exactly who you want to sell to and whether your offer fits them — or if it fits at all. The rest, in my opinion, is secondary (like website design, etc.) and depends on the audience profile(s), preferences, and chosen channels for outreach."

If you want to learn more about how to approach market research, we discussed it in our edition ‘Creating an APAC Marketing Strategy’.

2. Get your brand story sorted from the start 🏁

In large corporations, established brands can rely on their reputation. Startups, on the other hand, need to build their own story and values to differentiate themselves in the market. A strong narrative helps potential customers connect with the brand on a personal level, making them more likely to choose your product or service over your competitor.

Mike Waizman, Chief Marketing Officer at Pepper.Partners

“In large corporations, there’s usually an existing reputation that carries the brand. But in a startup, especially in B2B environments, customers often buy from you because they connect with your story and values. Differentiating yourself isn't just about features; it's about how you communicate your unique vision consistently across markets.”

To learn more about how to create a brand narrative and marketing architecture, have a read of the Solid Growth edition “How to Save Money, Time, and Sanity when Launching a New Brand (Product)?”

3. Balance quick wins with long-term growth 🏆

After launch, it’s tempting to chase rapid growth and impress investors with app instals and user registrations. But true success comes from balancing short-term wins with building towards those less tangible assets such as reputation, customer success, retention and loyalty.

Daria Kameko, Chief Growth Officer at Hi:Re

"I think that all startups, like myself, often wonder which marketing direction to choose for the start? Personally, I always divide [outreach] channels into two types: conversion-focused (those aimed directly at converting people into sales/downloads/instals with a straightforward offer and value proposition) and those that work on brand awareness [and reputation].

It's always a dilemma — whether to start only with conversion-focused channels to build an initial client base or to simultaneously work on brand awareness since building a brand takes time. With limited resources, it always seems like you need to prioritise only what brings clients immediately. But PR activities, for instance, can help bring clients to you faster (this is especially important in B2B, where reputation within the network is highly valuable)."

Read the Solid Growth edition where we discussed how PR can be your growth lever.

4. Approach Organic Social with a healthy degree of scepticism 🌿

If you have put your bets in content marketing via organic social media as a channel, you might be disappointed soon.

Algorithms can be unpredictable and often don't reflect the effort you put in high quality content creation.

Plus, sometimes the cost of content creation is overlooked, as it also requires investment of both time and/or money.

Healthtech Startup Operations Director

“The cost and unpredictability of forecasting growth on social media platforms caught me off guard. Initially "teaching" and "training" social media algorithms is extremely expensive, often leading to an unsustainable Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). This makes it challenging to plan and budget effectively in the early stages.”

5. Build your MarTech infrastructure early ⚙️

Metrics like Reach, Conversion, CTR, CPC, CPL, Lifetime Value, and Retention should be tracked from day one. The data you collect helps analyse your marketing funnel, identify growth opportunities, address gaps, and form hypotheses.

Having timely data ensures you're not operating blindly and allows you to make informed decisions.

Don’t wait until you’re overwhelmed — startups need a robust, scalable marketing infrastructure from day one.

Healthtech Startup Operations Director

“In the post-cookies world, accurately profiling customers and attributing costs per channel has become nearly impossible. This makes it crucial to understand and implement holistic measures for calculating growth performance, rather than relying solely on traditional metrics.”

Dmitry Bashkirov, Head of Media Buying at MelStore

“When I launched my first startup, the biggest challenge was creating a system to understand performance marketing results in real time. The transition from an Excel spreadsheet to an interactive dashboard with multichannel analytics took far too long.”

Ankit Tharwani, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Ooredoo Fintech (ex Co-Founder and CTO of Loop Money)

"I think there are so many things that I learnt during the Loop journey, that I wish I would have known earlier, but atleast i am being mindful in my next ventures.

One of them is the importance of data - be it customer behaviour, to attribution, to product performance KPIs.

I just can't see how organisations can achieve growth without having the right measurements in place.

The tooling ecosystem is complex, and I wish I would have had a handbook to navigate through the universe of saturated choices. It is a world where people can take months to evaluate and select tools, and still get it wrong. There are so many components required that need to elegantly stitch together along with your product and marketing channels."

Here’s a guide on how to get your martech stack ready in one of Solid Growth’s previous editions

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We at Solid Water Marketing Agency will never get tired of repeating — marketing is so much more than paid ads or Instagram reels. As a business, your marketing covers everything from the name of your company to choosing a logo to defining your price point and a product line, to advertising.

Mike Waizman, Chief Marketing Officer at Pepper.Partners

"I wish I had viewed marketing not just as a function, but as the pulse of the entire business—something that drives product development, customer relationships, and long-term market positioning."

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