When should a startup start marketing?

Before launch, but not with campaigns. The early work is the proposition: who this is genuinely for, why they’d commit, and what makes it defensible. Product-market fit can’t be manufactured by marketing, and spend on an untested proposition is mostly wasted.

How do you market a startup with no budget?

With almost no money, as long as you have one sharp proposition, one focused channel, and a willingness to do things by hand that won’t scale forever. Budget rarely fixes what an unclear proposition breaks.

Should our first marketing hire be an agency?

Usually not. An agency executes within a channel, and before product-market fit there’s rarely a channel worth scaling. What an early-stage business needs first is the strategy layer (proposition, audience, sequencing), which is advisory work on a few days a month, not a retainer.

Can you help with the raise itself?

With the marketing side of it, yes: the commercial narrative, the market sizing, and positioning that survives investor scrutiny. For the raise itself there is a dedicated engagement with twice-exited founder Dave Mitchell; and for non-dilutive money, grant applications and bids are their own service, with millions secured.

Who I help // Startups

Startup marketing: proposition, go-to-market, and the raise

Most startups have a product. Fewer have a proposition.

Pre-launch and early-stage marketing for startups: pressure-testing the proposition against real market conditions, defining who this is genuinely for, and building the commercial narrative that investors and first customers will actually commit to. I’ve been through a business sale from both sides (as a co-founder and as the marketing lead), so I know what the far end of this looks like.

Sound familiar //

01
Pre-revenue or early revenue, with a proposition still forming
02
Preparing to raise, and the marketing story has to hold up
03
Bootstrapping, so the tech stack and the product build have to stay lean
04
The brand and communications haven’t caught up with what you’re building
05
Traction isn’t what the plan assumed and nobody can explain it
06
Six things you could build and no view on which comes first
07
A technically strong product nobody outside the team can explain

What’s usually going on //

The gap between a product and a proposition shows up at the worst possible moment: mid-pitch, or in front of your first serious customer. And founders chasing several revenue lines usually read as indecisive rather than diversified. Cutting to the one or two that are genuinely defensible is nearly always the highest-value thing I do.

The work //

01Stress-test the proposition.
Market sizing, ideal-customer definition, and an honest answer to whether this holds up: before money goes into promoting it.
02Sequence the go-to-market.
Positioning and messaging that survive investor scrutiny, then the ordered decisions (audience, channel, timing) that a launch plan actually hangs off.
03Stay for the build if it helps.
Advisory days or fractional leadership through launch and the raise: brand and communications from day one, the commercial narrative behind the round, and a tech stack lean enough to stretch the runway.

Early-stage proposition development and channel strategy for Adzemble, moving from idea to market. Go-to-market strategy and B2B positioning for Dragonfly AI, the predictive-attention creative testing platform, in a fast-moving space.

Most relevant

Where I’ve done it //

Education Student recruitment is a marketing problem with a very short window.
Green Tech & Clean Energy Novel technology that the market hasn’t got language for yet.
Tech & SaaS Technically complex products, buyers who don’t speak the language.
Independent restaurants The food is rarely the problem. Being found and booked is.
Charity & Purpose-led Small budgets, real constraints, and no room for waste.
SMEs & small businesses Big-brand marketing thinking, at your size of business.
Raising a round Investors buy the story and the plan. Not the product.

Straight answers //

When should a startup start marketing?
Before launch, but not with campaigns. The early work is the proposition: who this is genuinely for, why they’d commit, and what makes it defensible. Product-market fit can’t be manufactured by marketing, and spend on an untested proposition is mostly wasted.
The full answer
How do you market a startup with no budget?
With almost no money, as long as you have one sharp proposition, one focused channel, and a willingness to do things by hand that won’t scale forever. Budget rarely fixes what an unclear proposition breaks.
The full answer
Should our first marketing hire be an agency?
Usually not. An agency executes within a channel, and before product-market fit there’s rarely a channel worth scaling. What an early-stage business needs first is the strategy layer (proposition, audience, sequencing), which is advisory work on a few days a month, not a retainer.
Start-up Marketing Advisory
Can you help with the raise itself?
With the marketing side of it, yes: the commercial narrative, the market sizing, and positioning that survives investor scrutiny. For the raise itself there is a dedicated engagement with twice-exited founder Dave Mitchell; and for non-dilutive money, grant applications and bids are their own service, with millions secured.
Raising a round

Worth reading //

Go-to-market strategy: a practical guide for founders A go-to-market strategy is an ordered set of decisions (proposition, audience, channel and timing), not a list of launch tasks.
How to market a startup with little or no budget Practical, no-cost ways to market a startup: a sharp proposition, one focused channel, real customer conversations, and earned attention over paid.
What is product-market fit, and how do you know? What product-market fit means in practice, the honest signs you have it, and why marketing cannot fake it.
What is brand positioning, and why does it matter? Brand positioning is the clear reason a specific customer should choose you over every alternative, including doing nothing at all.
Grant funding applications that get backed What separates grant funding applications that get backed from those that do not, and how to build a case rather than fill in a form.

Next //

Running an early-stage business?

Start with a conversation.

Tell me where you are and what you’re trying to do, and we’ll work out together whether I’m the right person to help. No commitment, no pressure.

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Brighton · London · UK-wide and internationally · LinkedIn