You shipped at Google or Meta. Your startup is now your call. You know product. You don't know marketing. Your board is asking, your team is asking, and you're wondering if you're building something people actually want.
Built for FAANG-exit founders who skipped the marketing track. Applies to CTOs, VPs of Product, and technical founders recognizing a knowledge gap. You know how to build. You need an outside read on how to sell it.
Get a 60-Minute Diagnostic →You don't need to become a marketing expert. You need to separate what you must understand from what you can delegate. You must understand buyer behavior and how channels work. You must be able to read unit economics. Everything else is execution. A 60-minute conversation on your customer, positioning, and first channel choice gets you there.
You know you have a gap. Most founders in your position either ignore it or hire the wrong person too fast. You're asking for an outside perspective first. That's the right instinct. You need someone to read your customer, your positioning, and your channel choice, and tell you what's working and what's not.
You knew the user, the budget holder, and the buying process. Marketing in that context is optimization. At a startup, you're defining all three. You can't optimize your way to product-market fit. You have to find it first. That's a different problem. One conversation answering three questions, who buys, why they buy from you, where they spend attention, reframes everything.
One: Whether your buyer understanding is shaped or shaped by hope. Two conversations with customers will tell you. Two: What you claim that competition does not. If you can't finish that sentence, your positioning isn't clear yet. Three: Which channel to test first. Not every channel. The one channel where your buyer spends attention and the unit economics could work.
You describe your product, your target buyer, and your current channel hypothesis. A strategist with Series A and Series B GTM experience points out what's working and what's not. You get a one-page note within 48 hours with a roadmap for your first 90 days. This is not a sales call. This is a diagnostic. $500. One hour on video. One page of clarity in your inbox the next day.
Yes. But you need to separate what you need to know from what you can delegate. You need to understand buyer behavior and channel unit economics. You don't need to run all the channels yourself. The first 60 days should focus on customer discovery and positioning clarity, not on running paid campaigns.
At FAANG you optimized for scale within a known product and market. At a startup, you're defining the market. You have no brand assumption. You're running cost-per-acquisition math against zero revenue. You need market validation before channel optimization. FAANG taught you rigor. Startup marketing is the same rigor applied to uncertainty.
At seed stage, hire a fractional marketer who understands B2B GTM and has Series A experience. Not your first full-time hire. Agencies are useful when you have money to burn on paid channels and you're optimizing spend. You don't have the clarity yet. Get clarity first. Then scale with a marketer or agency.
Nothing until you have product-market signals. Your budget is your time in customer discovery. Once you have 20 conversations that confirm a repeatable buyer pattern, spend on ads or partnerships to validate that pattern at scale. Most founders overspend too early on channels before they know who they're buying.
A 60-minute conversation with someone who has shipped marketing at your target buyer's stage. Not a sales pitch. A diagnostic. You describe your product, your buyer, and your assumptions. They point out what's working and what's not. They deliver a one-page note the next day with a roadmap. That's a Bay Area Diagnostic Call. $500. 48 hours.
Bay Area Diagnostic Call · $500 flat · 60 minutes on video plus a one-page roadmap within 48 hours. Three questions answered. First 90 days charted.
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