🟧 Hugo H. Macedo 🟧's Linkedin Analytics

Are you building a business or just bragging about vanity metrics? +90% of startups fail, and the # 1 reason is still building something nobody wants, or don't know who wants it! Yet many founders still think success is: ➡️ That TechCrunch article ➡️ Your oversubscribed funding round ➡️ Everyone telling you the product is "interesting" (translation: "I will never use this") After mentoring 50+ startups and scaling companies from zero to $100M+, I've watched founders repeatedly confuse false signals with Product-Market Fit. Check out these 8 dangerous illusions that feel like progress but lead nowhere: → Media coverage that impresses everyone except customers → Website traffic that never converts → Social followers who never pay → Startup awards that collect dust → Free users with zero intent to upgrade → Investor checks that validate potential, not reality → Growth hacks that spike then flatline → Polite compliments instead of urgent demand You can swipe through to see if you're chasing ghosts or building something people actually need. Finding PMF is complicated, and you likely have tougher questions than a carousel can answer. So join our FREE 30-minute AMA next Thursday (22nd) where Gina Dragulin and I will answer your toughest PMF questions live. Link in comments. Spots are limited to keep it interactive. #ProductMarketFit #StartupAdvice #FounderJourney #GrowthStrategy What's your most challenging PMF question? Drop it below, and we will feature it in our AMA!

Last night, I dreamt I was obsolete. Replaced. Forgotten. In my nightmare, AI had mastered everything I'd spent 20 years perfecting. What now? My specialised skills, the ones I'd built my career on, were being executed flawlessly by algorithms in seconds. I woke up in a cold sweat. The nightmare was still buzzing in my head when Edison's famous quote came to mind: "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." And suddenly, my perspective transformed. What if we, humans, focus on "inspiration"? I still come up with better, more insightful ideas than AI. Those "eureka" moments when inspiration strikes, when you see connections nobody else has, they're precious, amazing, and uniquely human. That's the 1% that AI is not doing. Meanwhile, AI excels at the perspiration: - Crunching massive datasets - Processing huge amounts of content - Executing repetitive tasks at scale and warp speed - Working without fatigue, hunger, or complaints What if AI taking over all that perspiration isn't a threat but an opportunity? My nightmare wasn't prophetic. It was a wake-up call. The future belongs to those who leverage AI for the 99% perspiration while doubling down on their uniquely human capacity for that 1% inspiration, empathy, and creative vision. I'm not afraid anymore. I'm taking control. The opportunity is massive. To focus on the 1% means potentially 100x our impact. What about you? Are you still doing work AI could handle, or are you focusing on what makes you irreplaceable? ---- PS: The post insight - connecting the Edison quote to AI vs. Human - came from me (the human). Then AI helped me write it down and produce the image. I still edited a bunch. We're working on better ways to collaborate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you are unhappy with your marketing agency, consider this instead. Marketing teams have traditionally outsourced technical work to agencies - it was how they scaled. But we've all felt the pain: misaligned incentives, team turnover, competing for attention, endless revisions. But a promising solution is emerging: AI Agents. Why delegate to an Agency when you can delegate to your exclusive diligent AI Agent? With AI Agents, many of these problems could be eliminated. No more fighting for priority. No more re-explaining your brand voice to new account managers. This shift isn't guaranteed, but it represents a potential transformation in how marketing teams operate - offering greater control, consistency, and speed. Are you already employing AI Agents? Do you consider them as a replacement to some or part of the Agency? Or is your Agency just using the Agents to be more effective and serve more clients, while you explain your brand voice for the nth time?!

It’s not available. I cannot reach it. What now? My anoretic lists are useless. I fold the page and doodle instead. There was a major power outage today. No internet also. Especially no internet! I don’t remember the last time. Cyber-attack or just fried birds? What should I do now? What do we do in this situations? My first instinct - ask ChatGPT. It’s not available. I cannot reach it. What now? I grab a paper and pen and I try to make a checklist, scenario planning, things we need at home for this situations,… All the things that ChatGPT can tell me in a blink of an eye. Not today. Not when I need it.

People Don't Buy What You Sell - What?! People don’t buy features, that I know. People buy benefits, value,… that’s what I thought. Then I read something in "Oversubscribed" that stopped me cold: People don't buy what you sell. They buy what others buy. This hit me in the face. 😳 All that time figuring out benefits and how to talk about value, when what really matters is showing that others are already buying it! Think about it: When did you last choose a restaurant with an empty dining room over one with a waiting list? Or skipped the highly reviewed item for the new item with 5 reviews? We're wired to follow social proof. It's not irrational, it's evolutionary. If others value something, it reduces our perceived risk. We also crave connection with others. So, how do you create this virtuous cycle when starting out? → Showcase early adopters prominently → Make your existing customer base visible → Highlight testimonials over features → Create "waiting lists" even when unnecessary → Focus marketing on your community, not just your product This shift in perspective makes me wonder about my approach. Instead of trying to convince people directly, I should build and showcase a community of satisfied customers. What about you? Are you still selling features while your competitors are selling social proof?

So you think you’ve nailed Product-Market Fit? Think again. Every wrong guess costs runway, talent, and trust.  Let’s fix that—fast! 🎯"Product-Market Fit: Myth, Milestone, or Missing Piece?" 🎯 In this FREE 30-minute Live AMA, we'll: 🔍 Strip the myths holding your growth hostage 💸 Spot “false traction” before it burns your budget 🛠️ Preview battle-tested frameworks used at Miro, Unbabel & PandaDoc 🎁 Attend to unlock an event-only promo code for our special 10-seat-only hands-on 3h Product-Market Fit Workshop Hosts: • Gina Dragulin – Product Marketing leader (Microsoft, Miro, SoSafe) • Hugo H. Macedo – Go-to-Market Strategist ($1 → $10 M+ ARR at Unbabel, PandaDoc) 👉 Save your seat, book your calendars - it's already next week! #productmarketfit #B2Bstartups #GTM #saas #growth

Product-Market Fit was coined by a VC. That explains everything. VCs think of "fit": cold, mechanical, binary. Does it work? Is it scalable? Can we exit? But founders live the reality. And the reality is messier, more human. It's not about fit. It's about love. Think of it like falling in love. At first, there's curiosity. Maybe some initial attraction. Your product catches the market's attention, but it's not quite there yet. Then comes the courtship. You're learning what makes each other tick. What problems really matter. What solutions actually work. There's friction, misunderstandings, some rejection. But when it clicks? Everything changes. Suddenly, customers can't imagine life without your product. Sales feel effortless. Word spreads naturally. Growth becomes organic. What once felt forced now flows. The market pulls your product toward them instead of you pushing it onto them. That's not Product-Market Fit. That's Product-Market Love. 🥰 And just like real relationships, it requires ongoing attention. Markets evolve. Customer needs shift. Love requires maintenance. The magic isn't in the metrics (though they help). It's in that moment when everything just works between what you've built and who needs it. ---- Want to explore how to find your Product-Market Love story? 🗓️ Join our Product Market Fit AMA, online this Thursday, 22nd We'll be able to answer your burning questions about achieving that magical fit. Find the link in the comments 👇

Most businesses sell to buyers. Savvy ones do something completely different. They build emotional bonds before any buying process begins or is even close. Are you shaping demand before it's needed? My previous post about pipeline panic sparked discussion, but the concept of future demand needs clarification. Most companies only react when prospects are ready to buy. But by then, it's already too late. Future demand isn't about waiting for customers to find you—it's deliberately building emotional connections before they even realize they need a solution. As Seth Godin famously put it, turn strangers into friends and friends into customers, in this order. When you invest in relationships early, everything changes: • No more desperate discounting • No more forced sales cycles • No more pressure-driven churn You create a natural gravity that pulls prospects toward you when they're ready, with higher win rates and better adoption. You'll survive by harvesting current demand, but you'll only thrive by creating future demand. What specific actions are you taking today to build meaningful connections that won't convert until next year? _____ This is Growth Gems: concentrated insights on growth, strategy, and market dynamics to elevate your B2B growth game. #growthgems #b2b #growth

Think your biggest competitor is your direct rival? Think again.💥 In a recent Marketing class, we unpacked how competition is rarely what it seems... 💡 Competition is defined in the customer’s mind. It’s whatever they think can get the job done. For Coca-Cola, it’s not just Pepsi – it’s water. For Netflix, it’s sleep. In B2B it can be Excel, WhatsApp or just do-nothing. 🫣 🔍 It’s also about how you define the market. Are you playing in a new, growing, or maturing space? Your strategy depends on that dynamic.  ⚡ Competition can be a signal. If you have no competition, it might mean there’s no market. Either you’ve discovered a new planet, or a big surprise is waiting for you.  🎯 Bottom line: Understanding competition is a key ingredient to understanding the market. You first grasp the game, and then what the players are doing.  Big thanks to Prof. André Casado from Faculdade de Ciências Humanas - Universidade Católica Portuguesa for the invitation. It was a pleasure to explore this topic, challenge the students to think beyond the obvious, and reframe their perceptions of competition.  Eager to join the discussion? Feel free to drop your questions and ideas below.

"Demand Gen isn't a real thing" 😱 ”Influencers > Brand” 🤩 “If the CEO doesn’t get marketing, it’s our fault!” 🙊 “Evangelisation is a thing for religions” 🙏🏻 “Category creation?! Don’t get me started!” 😤 These were other bombshells dropped at last night's GTM meetup 💣 Last night's GTM Lisbon Meetup wasn't just another networking event – it was a jam session about real go-to-market challenges. We ditched the presentations and went straight to the source: the actual bottlenecks keeping GTM leaders up at night. Our participant-driven format unleashed the collective brainpower of senior GTM professionals, who tackled everything from trust-building to pipeline acceleration. No buzzwords. No fluff. Just unfiltered expertise flowing freely (along with a few bottles of wine). What you missed: 🔥 Live problem-solving for attendees' biggest challenges – watching a room of experts dismantle complex GTM issues in real-time was something special 🧠 Brutally honest insights like "demand gen isn't a real thing" and "if your audience doesn't trust you, it doesn't matter if they get it" 🔍 Deep-dive discussions on what separates painkillers from vitamins in GTM strategy (spoiler: market pain isn't enough – you need to convince people it's fixable) 📈 Actionable frameworks for modeling your best clients (not your average ones) to define your real ICP As one attendee put it: "You know that feeling when you're surrounded by people who are way too good at what they do, and you're just trying to keep up while secretly taking notes? Yeah, that was me last night." Fernão Mendes 🙏 The energy was electric. The connections were genuine. And the insights were worth 10x the price of admission (which, by the way, was free). For those who missed it – we get it, calendars are brutal. But fair warning: our next meetup in June is already filling up, and we're keeping the group intimate, so I'm not sharing the link publicly by design. Tag someone who needs to be there next time. Your GTM challenges deserve this kind of collective intelligence. Thanks to everyone who was there, including Michel Ozzello, André Dias, Gina Dragulin, Scott Stransky, Igor Kostenko, Augusto Souza Araújo, Fernando Amaral, Marina Mourinho