The Early-Stage GTM Mistakes Killing Startups, And How to Avoid Them

EP 025

Photo by FORTYTWO on Unsplash

I’ve lost count of how many founders stall out before they even get started. They’ll spend weeks debating color palettes and agency retainers, months tweaking pitch decks, and quarters chasing viral campaigns, all before their first rupee of revenue. And then they wonder why investors ghost them.

But here’s what almost no one will tell you: the simpler your GTM, the faster you’ll get to real proof of demand. The faster you get to proof, the faster you can build a repeatable machine. And in early-stage startups, speed to proof is your only moat.

So, what’s this GTM delusion and why founders overcomplicate?

Founders (or maybe us humans) love the illusion of progress. A 10-slide GTM deck, a paid campaign plan, a retargeting funnel → these things feel like momentum. But they’re mostly delay tactics. Because deep down, talking to real customers, and hearing that first “no”, is terrifying.

Here’s the harsh reality:

No one buys because of your deck → they buy because of your conviction.

Early sales are messy, manual, and personal → that’s not a bug, it’s the feature.

Investors don’t care about your fancy funnel slides → they care about what you’ve already sold.

Want a concrete way to think about it, like a framework (The GTM Hierarchy)?

Here’s a mental model I’ve used with dozens of early founders and it works whether you’re selling skincare, SaaS, or samosas:

1. Direct

   1. Talk to people who already know you: friends, family, past colleagues, industry contacts.

   2. Craft a sharp one-liner of what you’re selling.

   3. Get feedback or orders directly.

2. Community

   1. Plug into WhatsApp groups, local events, alumni networks, Discords.

   2. These communities are hungry for new ideas and more forgiving.

3. Cold Outreach

   1. List your 50-100 best-fit prospects.

   2. Write personalized DMs or emails. Don’t mass spam.

   3. Ask clear questions: Does this solve a problem for you? Would you pay?

4. Content

   1. Share your journey, not polished ads.

   2. Early adopters buy into you as much as the product.

5. Paid Channels

   1. Only after you have at least 20-30 paying customers, refine messaging, and know who you’re targeting.

   2. Until then, paid marketing is usually money down the drain.

And here’s the ugly truth about funnels

You’re not Procter & Gamble. Yet. Your first funnel doesn’t need a flowchart; it needs a founder with fire.

Here’s why:

• Your first 100 customers won’t come because of automated drip emails or pixel tracking.

• They’ll come because you showed up in their inbox, DMs, or face-to-face, and made it impossible to ignore you.

• Funnels matter after you prove you have a fire that people want to gather around.

Here are few real examples that I have seen work

A pet food founder sold her first 500 packets by hosting meetups in dog parks every weekend for a month. No website. No agency. Just conversations.

A home-baked snack brand sent handwritten notes with samples to 30 influencers in their city. 12 posted about it. That alone led to their first ₹1 lakh in sales, before a single rupee spent on ads.

A B2B SaaS founder booked 80 demos in 30 days by cold-DMing LinkedIn profiles that had “Operations Manager” in their title. He closed 11 customers before he even had a proper website.

These stories don’t look glamorous. But they’re how the first sparks of traction catch fire.

So, what’s the investor lens on this?

Investors are pattern matchers. And the pattern they trust most is proof of demand. Every slide you make, every funnel you build, is secondary to whether people are willing to pay you.

What’s the simplest way to show proof?

• A waitlist of pre-orders

• Screenshots of WhatsApp chats with buyers

• Small but consistent repeat purchases

• Testimonials or case studies, even informal ones Those signals show you have the scrappiness and clarity to survive.

Here’s a list of things that are absolutely not required early

• Fancy brand guidelines

• A PR agency on retainer

• A full-funnel ad strategy

• Paid CRM tools or analytics dashboards

• Endless competitor slides

These are useful later. Early on, they’re distractions disguised as progress.

The founders who break through aren’t the ones with the best plan. They’re the ones who get in front of real people fastest, adapt in real time, and prove demand without overcomplicating the process.

Your job isn’t to design the perfect machine. It’s to validate the simplest path to money changing hands. Then build systems around what works.

---

If you’re feeling stuck building your GTM plan, bookmark this post. Better yet, send it to your co-founder and agree to pick one simple action to get paying customers this week.

---

Need Real, No-Fluff Help?

Reading is one thing. Doing is another.

If you’re stuck turning your GTM plan into real traction or want a sounding board on your deck, fundraising strategy, or brand positioning, I offer direct 1:1 consulting sessions. Let’s cut the fluff, get practical, and move fast.

Book a session with me here → Topmate

And if you want the essential guide to building, pitching, and raising smart, I’ve distilled years of experience across 1000+ pitch sessions into a compact, must-have ebook. It’s the first thing every founder I work with reads.

Get the ebook → Topmate

Let’s stop guessing. Let’s start building.