Build Traction Before You Build Your Product: A Founder’s Guide to Go-To-Market Strategy

In today’s challenging funding environment, early-stage founders can’t afford to treat go-to-market as an afterthought. This session challenges the conventional “build first, sell later” approach and demonstrates why GTM strategy must start the moment your business idea is born.

Drawing on decades of startup advisory experience, this practical workshop explores the critical fits every founder must validate: Founder-Problem Fit, Customer-Problem Fit, Problem-Solution Fit, and ultimately Product-Market Fit. Whether you’re bootstrapping toward revenue or pursuing VC funding, this session will equip you with frameworks for customer discovery, value proposition testing, and founder-led sales. You’ll leave understanding why you can’t hire your way out of GTM problems, how to map your customer ecosystem effectively, and why traction is your secret power in 2025.

Key Takeaways:

• Why going-to-market starts on day one, not at product launch

• Practical frameworks for customer discovery and validation

• Founder-led sales strategies that create repeatable processes

• How to demonstrate traction investors actually care about

Perfect for pre-seed and seed-stage founders building businesses in today's competitive landscape.