No one knows your startup — yet. ✨
This harsh reality greets many of the early-stage founders we meet every day at Bessemer.
You might have a groundbreaking solution, but gaining traction (ahem, sales) can be an uphill battle when you’re an unknown player, especially in an evolving market.
✨ The challenge is clear: how do you generate demand and user adoption when starting from zero? ✨
𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 →
To start off, here are eight insights to keep in mind for early-stage founders:
1. Being precise in your understanding of your ICP is the cornerstone of high-impact demand generation. Identify their pains, gains, shifts, blockers, and motivators.
2. Adaptive GTM strategies — moving from founder-led and ABM approaches to product-led growth (PLG) and community-led models — are critical for scaling in the AI era.
3. Building out robust mid-funnel (MOFU) content is usually the missing link for early-stage founders.
To build a stronger mid-funnel, focus on website messaging, long-form educational content, events, LinkedIn, earned media, engaging in communities, and email.
4. Experimentation is essential, and successful startups iterate rapidly on messaging and approach, responding to direct feedback from prospects.
5. Winning AI startups excel by combining strategic channel selection with credible proof points, such as case studies, third-party endorsements, and endorsements from advisors.
6. In the AI era, demand generation success requires developing messaging for both executive buyers and end-users, aligning benefits with each audience.
7. Community-led and influencer-driven approaches can rapidly build trust, especially in verticals where founders lack authority.
8. The basics remain unchanged: tightly defined ICP, consistent high-quality content, and disciplined, hypothesis-driven experimentation power sustainable growth.
For more early stage founder guides, join us on Atlas:
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