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If I joined a startup as a late co-founder handling GTM, here are 12 things I would do in the first 3 months 👇 1️⃣ Check if we have a clear ICP and a set criteria to qualify / disqualify them. 2️⃣ Check if we understand our positioning against direct / indirect competition and what sets us apart from status quo. 3️⃣ Understand how we convey our value proposition and to whom. 4️⃣ Check how our messaging is applied on homepage, sales deck, emails. 5️⃣ Check our pricing - do we have the right packaging, value tiers, payment terms, policies. 6️⃣ Understand our GTM motion (PLG, SLG, hybrid) and if it aligns with our ICP, pricing and product. 7️⃣ Analyze our sales funnel and check for any issues that hold us back. 8️⃣ See if we follow a sales methodology or identify what needs to happen to move deals through the pipeline. 9️⃣ Check how we do our demo and discovery calls (hope for no feature f*****) 🔟 See how our GTM channels are performing / what can we do to get new leads. 1️⃣1️⃣ Review if our GTM assets (e.g. case studies, product videos...) reflect our ICP, positioning and messaging correctly. 1️⃣2️⃣ Gather growth insights from sources like lost deal analysis, product usage, CRM audit, customer segmentation. GTM is the foundation of your SaaS. If you don't have it right, you're going to struggle in growing your SaaS. If you need help with your GTM, drop me a DM, I'd love to help you grow! Not a a co-founder, but as your GTM advisor 😀

Sales enablement, the way we've done it in the past, doesn't work anymore. What's working instead? Buyer Enablement. Sales enablement is transitioning from ❌ Building content libraries and sales training to ✅ Helping your buyers make better, faster, and more confident decisions. So I've asked Marc Grewenig what's working in 2025. 7 ways to enable your buyers and win more deals along the way 👇 1️⃣ Create a Content Hub Make your content findable, not just available. -> Create a hub to locate the right content at the right time, in the right context. And no: It's not 73 folders in Sharepoint. 2️⃣ Enable your buyer’s champion, Your champions sell internally. Give them what they need to make the case when you’re NOT in the room. 3️⃣ Ditch the one-pagers. -> Build decision customer portals that give buyers a place to align, explore, and decide. -> Use tools like emlen to help you with this. 4️⃣ Treat your buyers like customers (even before they pay) A great experience isn’t just post-sale support. It’s clarity, trust, and ease, from the first interaction. 5️⃣ Don’t just track engagement. Act on it. Views are vanity. But seeing who engages with what – and reacting fast – wins deals. 6️⃣ Respect their time. Simplify their path. Every unnecessary meeting, email, or file slows your buyers down. -> Reduce friction. Increase momentum. 7️⃣ Be present, without being pushy. The best enablement feels invisible, helpful, personal, and available on demand. Treat Buyer Enablement as the new Sales Enablement. Your reps will thank you. Your buyers will too. 👇 How do you enable your buyers & sales team? P.S. Need hands-on support in building your buyer enablement, reach out to Marc Grewenig #buyerenablement #sales #paidpartnership

I've added another criteria to my ICP. And it has nothing to do with firmographics. It's a matter of 'work ethic'. If someone don't show up to our intro call, it's a disqualifier. I talk about 'no shows' - people who don't inform you ahead of time that they can't make it. No message. No appologize. I don't want to work with someone who don't respect others time. What's on your ICP list?

Proper lost reasons are 1 of 3 easy fixes for your CRM. I get it. CRM is hard. Millions of things to optimize. But simplicity is king. Tracking your deal lost reasons is one of 3 things that can really make a big impact on your SaaS success. The other 2 are: - Self-reported attribution Asking prospects: How did you hear about us? - Mandatory deal fields To move the deals through your pipeline. But let's focus on lost deals. Learning WHY you lost a deal is pure gold. Because getting to know your customers, especially when they decide NOT to go ahead with you, is key🔑 However, most founders don’t track the reasons systematically in their CRM- To really get insights from your lost deals, ✅ Here are the 7 'lost reasons' I recommend tracking 👇 1️⃣ Decided for competition 2️⃣ Status quo sufficient 3️⃣ Decision delayed 4️⃣ Too expensive / no budget 5️⃣ missing key feature 6️⃣ no response 7️⃣ other ❌ Using open text boxes to track reasons is not ideal. ✅ Instead, use dropdown options. ✅ These 7 pre-defined lost reasons should cover 90% of your lost deals. ✅ In case you see an emerging reason in your 'other' bucket you could add them as a dropdown option (e.g. Compliance risk). ✅ Having pre-defined reasons makes analyzing lost reasons easier. ✅ Add an (optional) text field to add more context to the lost reasons. These insights will help you understand which GTM channels to optimize and what's stopping your ICP from buying. It will also help you close deals faster once you address the issues. Get started with this today by setting up your CRM and let me know how it works for you!

The most challenging part of being a solopreneur? Accountability. I thoroughly love being a solopreneur. It gives me the flexibility to work on my terms. But the downside is I lack accountability. There is no "manager" to check in on me. Up until now, I had been setting OKRs to keep me on track. It's harder, though, to track them when no one's checking on your progress. So 4 weeks ago Maximilian Antosch and I started this thing called "accountability buddy" It's not a new concept. The idea is to have someone who holds you accountable to your goals and OKRs. We've decided on bi-weekly syncs but you can choose a frequency based on what works for you. I'm going to test this out and keep you updated with how it goes. How have you been holding yourself accountable as a solopreneur?

You have plenty of options to reach your ICP. But keep in mind that: 1️⃣ You can NOT run more than 3 (better 1-2) in parallel as an early-stage startup 2️⃣ Not all channels are equally relevant for you (depends on your ICP, ACV, own skills) What channels do you bet on in 2025? 👇

Do NOT copy the 'perfect' pricing models from Notion, Miro, Asana of the world. Not if you are early-stage ⛔ Pricing for early-stage startups is NOT about optimizing growth. I believe pricing should rather be good enough to NOT stop you from growing to 1€ million ARR. So it is primarily about: ✅ Aligning pricing model with growth motion (sales-led vs. product-led) ✅ finding the right value metric (for value-based pricing) ✅ Getting clarity on packaging So you need to analyze: - Packaging & Value Metrics - POC, Free Trials or Freemium - Pricing terms (contract length, payment schedule, cancellation policy) I like to thing about pricing as something iterative. You have a pricing to get from: 1️⃣ 0 to first 10 customers = pricing v1 2️⃣ 10-100 customers = pricing v2 3️⃣ 100 to X = pricing v3 Your pricing needs to match the stage of your company. So don't copy the 'perfect' pricing models from Notion, Miro, Asanas of the world. Not if you are early-stage. Instead, take it iteratively. Have a quarterly pricing meeting.

We all talk about positioning. But what is positioning really? My definition in a nutshell: Positioning means having clarity on: 1️⃣ Who benefits from your product = Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) 2️⃣ What your product does = Product Category and/or Primary Use Case 3️⃣ Why it’s better than the current/default option = Limitations of Status Quo + Your Key Benefits 4️⃣ How it’s different from other alternatives = Unique Differentiator / Positioning Angle ...and being able to clearly communicate this across your product, marketing, and sales touchpoints. But I'm sure the positioning experts Anthony Pierri 🎸 and Robert Kaminski 🎯 have an even better definition? 👇What's your definition of positioning?

Your first sales hire can either be a multiplier or have the complete opposite effect. To help you filter the right candidates, Machiel Kunst, Elvin Kingma, and I have built a scorecard specifically for SaaS businesses. They have helped 350+ SaaS companies hire the right GTM talent so far. Here are their dos and don'ts. What NOT to look for in a pioneer or founding AE👇 Filter out candidates who ❌ Come from big companies ❌ Lack of product knowledge ❌ Not willing to become an industry expert ❌ Not keen on building an industry network ❌ Always sell with massive discounts ❌ Competition-focused ❌ Lack accountability & blames others ❌ Don't have a growth mindset Instead, do LOOK for people that: ✅ Have startup experience ✅ Can prospect from scratch (full-cycle) ✅ Have a strong track record ✅ are Challenger Sellers ✅ Have grit & adaptibility ✅ Have a willingness to build, test, execute List the candidates you are considering and check them off against these points. If you want to know more about common hiring mistakes and how to avoid them, don't miss the next MRR Unlocked newsletter. We are launching it this sunday!

Positioning is a core aspect of your SaaS GTM Foundation. So let’s start with what positioning is. So, in a nutshell, positioning means having clarity on: 1️⃣ Who benefits from your product = Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) 2️⃣ What your product does = Product Category and/or Primary Use Case 3️⃣ Why it’s better than the default option = Limitations of Status Quo + Your Key Benefits 4️⃣ How it’s different from other alternatives = Unique Differentiator / Positioning Angle ...and being able to clearly communicate this across your product, marketing, and sales touchpoints. To answer these core questions, you need to ask yourself: ✅ Who is your direct & indirect competition? ✅What is your primary competitor (aka. status Quo)? ✅ What sets you apart from the status quo (aka. limitations and benefits)? ✅ How are you different from your direct competitors (aka. unique differentiator)? One of the best ways to answer “What is your product? For what do I use the product?” is to know your: ✅ Product Category and/or ✅ Usecase In a nutshell, do this: ✅ Product Category positioning: if you’re building a product in an established market → Good indicator: you will find a category on G2, Capterra, etc., and there’s existing search demand on Google & co. ✅ Usecase positioning: if you’re building a product in a rather new market (blue ocean); no established product category has been built yet. → Good indicator: No product category on G2, Capterra, etc. There is a great visual by FletchPMM for this. On Sunday I will guide you step-by-step on how to build your GTM foundation, including Positioning.

Hiring your first GTM team is one of the most crucial tasks as a founder. The transition from founder sales to founder-led sales is not easy. Avoid these 9 most common hiring mistakes👇 1️⃣ Not implementing a sales methodology --> Your way of doing sales as a founder might seem structured to you, but it’s hard to replicate. 2️⃣ Not setting realistic goals --> Overambitious quotas have the opposite effect of a higher level of revenue. 3️⃣ Hiring the wrong Pioneer AE --> People from "big companies" have most likely not been in the trenches often. 4️⃣ Hiring a sales leader before hitting PMF --> Most haven’t been hands-on for a while and shouldn't be your first GTM hire. 5️⃣ Hiring strategic leaders too early --> Executor >>> someone who only strategizes 6️⃣ Hiring "cheap" salespeople --> Don't try to save money by hiring less experienced people. You don't have the required resources to train them. 7️⃣ Being slow in hiring process --> Speed matters. The best candidates get multiple offers within weeks. 8️⃣ Founder stop selling too soon --> You still need to be involved in sales, even after your first hire. 9️⃣ Neglecting cultural fit --> Don't hire purely based on experience. Cultural fit and passion matters too. Machiel Kunst , Elvin Kingma and I have worked on a detailed guide where we show you how to avoid and fix these. Check out MRR Unlocked to find these in our next episode. Link in the comments. 👇 What would you add to the list?

When I work with SaaS founders, I see 3 common mistakes with their ideal customer profile. ❌ Being too broad & unspecific --> Our ICP are ‘companies with 1-100€ million revenue’ - so everyone Skip the FOMO. Start with early customers. In the early days, you usually don’t have the resources to serve everyone. Start with initial customers (beachhead segment) and then scale from there. ❌ Your ICP changes over time --> You will have multiple different ICPs over time. The 'ideal' customers in the 0 to 100k € is different than your 'ideal' customers from 1€ million to 5€ million etc. So create a mindset that your 'ideal customer' is ideal until you reach the next milestone. ❌ TAM vs. ICP And also remember, your TAM is not your ideal customer profile. Especially if you’re VC-funded and talk a lot about the HUGE market, it’s a common mistake. Your TAM is something you will (eventually) win in 5+ years, but not today. So live with the fact that your ICPs will change over time. Think about it this way: Your ICP today brings you to your next milestone. Once you hit the next milestone, you can revisit your ICP. 👇 How do you think about your ideal customers?

Over the past 3 years, I’ve talked with 100+ SaaS founders about GTM. These 10 GTM myths come up again and again — and they’re holding teams back 👇 On Sunday we will cover all 10 myths on the mrrunlocked newsletter. 👇 Let me know, what myth is missing?

I was the first sales hire myself 10 years ago. So I deeply enjoyed writing a guide on hiring your first GTM person with SaaS recruiting experts Machiel Kunst and Elvin Kingma. We created a list of characteristics to look for 👇 Hiring the right first salesperson for your business can have a multiplier effect, while hiring the wrong first salesperson creates the opposite effect. Getting this first profile correct is fundamental. What NOT to look for in a pioneer or founding AE: Filter out candidates who ❌ Come from big companies —> They have a hard time to adapt to a fast-moving start-up culture ❌ Lack of product knowledge —> A lot of (senior) sales reps, if they start working in an early-stage start-up, don't really (invest enough time) to understand the product. ❌ Not willing to become an industry expert --> This point is closely related to point 2. If your sales rep is not willing to dive deep into the industry/ problem of customers, that's a bad sign. ❌ Not keen on building an industry network --> Word of mouth, warm intros, high-touch relationships with customers are key growth strategies in the early stage. It’s super important they want to grow their industry-relevant network ❌ Always sell with massive discounts --> Only being able to sell with massive discounts is a sign of lacking sales skills. ❌ Competition-focused --> The wrong sales reps spend too much time comparing with the competition and blame missing product features for unsuccessful sales performance. ❌ Lack accountability & blames others --> Wrong sales reps blame others (product, marketing...) and miss accountability for hitting their goals. ❌ Don't have a growth mindset --> Early-stage sales is a tough game. Mostly, you try to convince customers of an early (buggy) MVP. You need to be creative, smart, and always find new ways. Instead, do LOOK for people who: ✅ Have startup experience ✅ Can prospect from scratch (full-cycle) ✅ Have a strong track record ✅ are Challenger Sellers ✅ Have grit & adaptibility ✅ Have a willingness to build, test, execute Disclaimer: I did not check all boxes (haven't had a strong track record/sales experience), but I guess most of them at least 😀 Did I? Hanno Lippitsch Stefan Feirer What's missing? Want to read the Guide on the 9 most common hiring mistakes? Check out the link in the comments. - P.S. This is me 10 years ago playing tennis at a racket center in Munich - one of the first clients I closed for eversports.

How Moritz Weiss turned Customer success from reactive support to proactive customer success and #1 source for referrals. ❌ Everyone makes the mistake of seeing CSM as a reactive function. ✅ But the real opportunity lies in turning it into a proactive referral engine. I've worked with Moritz and the whole Locaboo for 2+ years - building the GTM foundation and growing the company beyond €1 million ARR. And a big part of the success has been referrals. So I asked Moritz if he wants to share the secrets we implemented over the last months. (He has been handling more than 600 customers in the DACH region for Locaboo) Here's the process to build a strong CS Referral engine 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: Customer check-ins -> Schedule regular check-in calls with your customers. -> We assigned a dedicated CS manager to each customer. -> Make it a point to actively ask questions about their experience during every contact you have with customers. -> This sets a good foundation to get in the referral mindset. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: Draft the perfect script -> Prepare a script that you can use to request referrals on these customer calls. 🚨 Getting the right referrals depends a LOT on how you ask for them. So make sure you have the right script. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: Set referrals as a KPI -> Set monthly referral targets for each Customer Success Manager. -> Actively report and track them within the team. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰: Pool referrals in a single place -> Build a dedicated Slack channel in which all referrals are shared transparently and celebrated. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟱: Involve sales in the process -> Forward these referrals to sales as warm leads. -> Our SDR teams proactively reach out to warm recommendations. Bonus: Build awareness on how your customers refer other clients. In our case we know: -> They know other cities around them (so you can prepare for the calls and know who they might know) -> They work closely with other departments (so we know how to get warm intros to other departments) You're missing out if you are not actively engaging with your customers and building a referral engine around them. 👇 How do you use CS for referrals? P.S. In the screenshot, you see how sales and customer success all share and celebrate referrals in Slack. Congrats Florian Obermeier & Stefan Ockenfels --- If you want to know how to ask for referrals the right way, we have a dedicated guide over at MRRUnlocked.

"Once you reach x€ in revenue, you can hand off sales to professionals and focus on being a real CEO" Most founders don't know this, but one of the most important steps to succeed is NOT letting go of founder-led sales. Hear me out, I don't mean that you need to be your startup AE forever. But ✅ Founder-led sales isn't a phase you graduate from—it's your permanent responsibility. Your founder role will evolve. Here are 6 phases in which you'll evolve 1️⃣ Finding Poblem-Solution Fit -> Here, you're personally validating that customers will pay for your solution. -> The focus is on having real conversations that lead to paying customers. 2️⃣ Acquiring First Customers -> Focus on creating a repeatable process for finding and closing customers here. -> You're personally closing deals and beginning to recognize patterns in what works. You are acquiring customers for the purpose of learning, until the process becomes repeatable. → This phase is not about scaling. It mostly is about doing non-scalable things to learn and get 1-2 channels performing. 3️⃣ Making your first sales hire -> Don't think of this as your escape from sales. -> Here, you transition out of 'solo' selling to supplement and accelerate what's already working because you are at capacity. 4️⃣ Making It Predictable -> Focus on creating a truly predictable process with clear KPIs and conversion metrics -> You can build sales methodologies and reverse engineer your sales forecast at this stage. 5️⃣ Multiple Sales Hires -> Once your process is repeatable and predictable, bring on additional salespeople who can succeed within your established framework. 6️⃣ Hiring a Sales Leader -> The right time to hire a sales leader is when a handful of people on the sales team are already executing. -> But you, the founder/CEO stay the CRO, no matter what, always managing that sales leader. 🔑 By following these phases in order, you become a competent sales leader yourself before hiring one. If you're a founder, recognize what phase you're in currently and plan for the next phase accordingly. If you want to know about each of these phases in detail, Seth DeHart and I are coming up with a Founder-led Sales guide this Sunday, Want it? --> Sign up on mrrunlocked .com and get it delivered to your inbox on Sunday or --> Comment 'Founder' and I will DM you the guide.

After 100+ calls, I've discovered the top 10 challenges of SaaS founders go from €0 to €1 million ARR.👇 I work with SaaS founders building their GTM foundation. I've helped 20+ over the last 3 years and had 100+ calls. Here's what I've found. Challenges: ❌ Don't know our ICP ❌ Don't know our USP ❌ Don't know how to communicate our product's value ❌ Don't know the right pricing to grow to 1€ million ARR ❌ Don't know how to best sell the product (PLG? SLG? both?) ❌ Don't know where to find clients ❌ Don't know how it takes to grow to 1€ million ARR (budget, team) ❌ Don't know what assets we need ❌ Don't know how to systemize our sales process / CRM ❌ Don't know when and who to hire That's exactly the things we cover in my 6-month GTM advisory. Together, we: ✅ Define your ECP & ICP ✅ Define your unique positioning ✅ Build your messaging framework ✅ Build your pricing V1 ✅ Define yoursales motion & buyer journey ✅ Test & optimize your first channels ✅ Create financial forecast & sales plan ✅ Launch your must-have collaterals (homepage, sales deck, case studies) ✅ Create your CRM V1 set-up ✅ Define your hiring plan What challenge is missing? --- Want to work 1-on-1 with me? Send me a DM. I have 2 free slots starting mid-May.

A lot of times, you read about the 0 to 1 stage. I rather believe the 0-1 stage consists of at least 3 (sub) stages. 1️⃣ Stage 1: Hustle mode Your goal is to find the first 10 / 100 customers (depending on your ACV). You will run different tests. You want to validate your hypothesis, so you do any and everything to land that first set of customers. I call this GTM Experimentation. 2️⃣ Stage 2: Focus mode The goal is to go beyond 10 / 100 customers. But you can’t do this while serving multiple segments and multiple channels because each of them requires different strategies and resources to work. So, how do you do this? Analyze your early customers (Early Customer Profile) to find your best-fit customers (Ideal Customer Profile) and focus on them till you scale to €1 million ARR. I call this GTM Playbook V1. 3️⃣ Stage 3: Expansion mode Here, your goal is to go beyond 1 million ARR. You can do this in three ways - 👉 Vertically - Same target audience (aka. ICP), but new use cases 👉 Horizontally - Same use case, but new target audiences 👉 Simply continue what you already do if there is a big enough market. Double-down/scale. To get there, you need to build your GTM foundations. The GTM foundation spread over: GTM Experimentation + GTM Playbook V1 --- P.S. After the 'focus mode' you achieved Product Market Fit. Thanks Anthony Pierri 🎸 for the great definition of PMF. --- On Sunday we will cover how to build your GTM foundation in the mrrunlocked newsletter.

Stop believing these 10 MYTHS if you're a founder on your way to 1€ million ARR. (Based on advising 25+ founders in their €0-1mil ARR journey) ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟭: We just hired a sales agency to fix sales It’s the founders’ job to win first clients, find patterns, iterate, and build the first version of GTM playbook, not an agency's. ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟮: Our ICP are companies with 1-100€ million revenue’ - so everyone Skip the FOMO. Start with initial customers (beachhead segment) and scale from there. ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟯: Our product is all-in-one It’s tempting to build everything for everyone but it is better to figure what is most needed for your ICP and focus on that. ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟰: My prospects want to see all features, that’s why I demo all features -> It’s a demo. Not a product training. -> Focus only on top 3-4 features that matter to your prospect. ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟱: We do all channels at the same time - Outbound, Content, PPC, SEO, Events, Affiliates... -> Each channel works differently and takes up resources. -> Do smaller tests to figure which channels work and go all in on just those. ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟲: We don’t have any competition -> Every company has competition. -> Look at your indirect competitors and status quo if you can't find direct competitors. ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟳: We lose deals because we are too expensive -> Actually, most startups undercharge. -> It's not your pricing, it's how you package your product and value. Revamp it if you need to. ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟴: My product sells itself, I don’t need marketing/sales You can have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, how will you sell it? ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟵: Our GTM strategy is Google Ads & Influencer campaigns -> These are growth tactics. -> You need to focus on your GTM strategy first, THEN growth tactics. ❌ 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 10: We have first beta customers, now we want to ‘scale’. The €0 to 1€ million ARR phase is not 1 phase - it’s 3 different stages. --> Scaling comes after you have found repeatable and predictable growth. So instead of looking for scale from day 1, take it step by step. ❌𝗕𝗼𝗻𝘂𝘀 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵: Your GTM Advisory is probably not very hands-on or actionable I hear this concern in about 20% of my calls. And I get it. You don’t want any ‘corporate advisory’ - you need actionable, hands-on support. How I see our roles: --> I act as your GTM co-pilot, --> But you, the founder, are the pilot. This means: --> I guide you hands-on on what to do next and how (Drafting, reviewing, sharing best practices & templates) --> You own the operations (talking to clients, writing emails, building your website…) --- 1. If you believe in any of these, check out the guide on mrrunlocked 2. Drop me a DM if you want my 1-on-1 advice.

Many founders make a catastrophic mistake. ❌ They build first, then try to sell later. You won't believe me when I say this, but there is a right and a wrong way to acquire customers. The wrong way ❌ Build features ❌ Launch, hoping someone will buy ❌ Get feedback ❌ Start selling The approach that "If we build it, then they will come" is wrong. You need to be out in front of the customers, understanding what to build; otherwise, they won't come. The right way to acquire customers is ✅ Talk to potential customers ✅ Pre-sell / get strong commitments ✅ Build an MVP based on real demand ✅ Optimize with early adopters ✅ Grow Customer acquisition is scary, it requires hearing the truth from clients, telling you your baby is ugly. But the sooner that happens, the better. You'll be able to iterate, build features that clients will pay for. If you want to learn more about how to sell during the early days as a founder, Seth DeHart and I are launching a super detailed guide on this exact topic. Make sure you check it out at MRR Unlocked this Sunday. Link in the comments.