GoToMarket

You have a good product or service. But is that enough to make it successful?

You have a great business idea and go straight into building it. Alone or with partners, you spend hours creating that first MVP you can finally take to market. It looks solid. You are ready to go.

So you test it, and the response isn’t what you expected. Potential customers don’t seem that interested, and sales don’t come. And at some point, you even start questioning the business model itself.

Many founders are naturally product-oriented. They know what they want to build and why it should be valuable. However, building a great product and building a successful business are two different challenges.

Yesterday I had a great conversation with Kateryna Golushko around exactly this situation. She’s building something to help founders navigate this stage, and our conversation brought up a few questions that I think are worth asking before jumping too quickly into sales:

• Market landscape: What does your competitive landscape actually look like?

• Market & audience: Who are you really selling to, where, and what problem are you solving for them?

• Differentiation: Why should someone choose you instead of the alternatives?

Answering these questions forces you to step back from the product and look at the business around it. And that thinking eventually shapes your go-to-market strategy, your sales approach and, importantly, the narrative you take to market.

What if the problem isn’t the product, but the business around it?