In a startup, the first marketing you do starts from within.
The organization, that is.
In my experience, whether or not a founder or co-founder is an engineer, a scientist, or a pilot, is irrelevant to a startup's first attempts at forming an opinion about itself as it seeks out product and market fit.
In a startup, the founding principles come from a kind of default marketing department, a small team that has to huddle around a computer late at night, and figure out WHY they are doing what they are doing.
This is the first marketing you have to do to solve all the other problems that are out there -- and there will be problems.
Look at this internal memo written by Nike's first marketing lead, Rob Strasser. This inward-facing document is a communication master's example of a mission to focus the team on the common core of their work. There's something of the founder DNA in this. A founder can learn from this approach.
Notice that not one of these ten points describe shoes, or how to make the shoes, or where to source the shoes. Those things can be worried about later, as long as these first principles are attacked.
These core principles talk about behavior, mindset, purpose and methodology.
As a founder, you are the leader, and you are in a similar boat, but being the hardworking and incessant person you most likely are, your head is buried in the details of granular problems and descriptions of product. You are focused on business goals and numbers, maybe.
If you are in a position where you are looking at marketing as a separate job that needs to be delegated to an individual or a team that is only focused on explaining product to market, maybe take a step back and consider this approach.
Have you started with marketing from the inside?
Have you sat with the team and explained, "This is us?"
Have you measured your focus and your work in terms of emotion, psychology, internal motivations and desires?
In the hard rocks and tough nights of startup work, or encountering your first mistakes, it will inevitably come down to this marketing that starts from within.
Four practical steps you might take to get started in this direction:
1. Make your list of where you would start on these goals.
2. Sit down with everyone on your team, go over it, check in with them, listen to their feedback.
3. Go back again and edit, boil it down to the essentials.
4. Deliver them in a company meeting, field questions, and make sure everyone has it right.
Where you go from there will have a lot to do with what happens in these first steps.
Doug Crets
Communications Master, AppWorks Accelerator
If you are a founder who is working in Blockchain and AI, keep an eye out for our next round of applications, which should be out later this year. We hold a roughly five month long accelerator class twice a year that is free of charge and takes no equity from founders. Find out more at https://appworks.tw/accelerator
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