We need more marketers to lead and mentor start-ups
Start-ups underestimate, and undervalue, marketers, which impacts their success and their ability to attract and retain talent. This mindset needs to shift, Stephen Neville argues. And as a former adland exec and current start-up CEO, he thinks more marketers need to lead and mentor in the space.
It’s a mistake nearly every start-up makes: the attitude of distrusting marketing and sales, combined with a ‘build it and they will come’ mindset. It’s a mistake because it leaves many early-stage start-ups with little or no marketing. They may have a great team and a solid product but, without marketing, they struggle to find early growth.
I’ve seen companies at Series A and beyond without any sort of marketing plan. I’ve heard “We got this far without any marketing” from founders over and over, as if it’s something to be proud of.
Start-ups need to better value marketers, to retain and attract talent
These companies get by, for a time, on the back of self-promotion or support from their accelerators and immediate network. But somewhere along the line, they stall. Organic growth becomes difficult and that early buzz starts to fizzle out.
Hey, Stephen.
Interesting article.
I agree that marketing is critical for start-ups. However, the starting point has to be product-market-fit, which is why most successful start-up founders focus initially on product and tend to bring a technical background. All the money in the world will struggle to power a dud product.
A couple of other observations.
Many marketers today, in my experience, are technocrats. They are skillful in certain, narrow areas of digital execution but they lack the creative flair and broader commercial understanding to drive real value for early-stage businesses. They are more button-pushers than business builders.
The other thing I have seen is that a lot of marketers are somewhat institutionalised. They tend to have cut their teeth within large organisations and become reliant on the bigger budgets and brand recognition that typically is not available in start-ups.
Admittedly, these are generalisations and simply based on my own personal observations. It is funny, however, how you tend to form strong opinions after investing in start-up marketing resources that fail to deliver anything but excuses!
Pardon me?
“Reports show that me being the CEO of a tech start-up and having an advertising background is unique.”
What report(s) would they be then…
David, well I’ll be bugherd if he is that unique.
Yup, in my experience, marketing is an afterthought
Good article Nev and agree with you. Look forward to seeing Bugherd grow under your leadership.