Early-Stage Founders Struggle With Selling 😵

Since late 2023, I've engaged with lots of early-stage founders.

Some I've worked or sparred with, some were just old friends.

In all cases, they had similar struggles with selling:

✅ Finding Replicable Deals

Most have already signed their first paid client. Now the goal is

to repeat that success and turn 1 into 2, 2 into 4, and so on.

Only then will they be able to identify patterns, generate

historical data, and form a reliable sales process.

Up to that point, they aren't doing real selling.

Rather customer discovery, which is understanding:

👉 customer needs (through interviews)

👉 validating assumptions (via testing hypotheses)

👉 iterating based on feedback (adjusting product and approach)

In this phase, they learn what works, refine their approach, and

build a foundation for scalable sales.

✅ Finding the Right Use Cases and Verticals

This ties closely with the first point: who is my ideal customer profile (ICP)?

We know from posting on LinkedIn that the broader we aim, the

harder it is to find the right fits repeatedly.

A common pitfall for early-stage startups is becoming an

agency for companies that need cheap brainpower and

manpower to fix a small problem.

These companies don't intend to buy the main solution for

strategic initiatives (where the big budgets are).

This will hinder efficient growth! ❌

Saying No to a lot is hard, but without that focus and discipline,

there'll be a false sense of "success" and "interest".

✅ Finding Experienced Sellers Without a Full-Time Budget

In the first stages, founders are the first salespeople.

They need to test their idea in the market until they strike gold.

But then, they have other responsibilities: product, hiring, investors, communications, and branding.

Their goal is to become more selectively involved when it matters.

The problem? 🤨

Early-stage sellers who think like founders are hard to find (not

the same as selling for Google or Salesforce.

On top of that, any experienced seller will be expensive (3-digit base).

🤓 Where Does That Lead Us?

My prediction is that there’ll be many more former sellers like

myself offering their skills and time on a fractional basis.

If they’ve worked at the early stage before (including launching

new geos), they’ll know how to:

👉 identify potential accounts and leads

👉 test hypotheses

👉 find patterns to generate repeated wins

At that point, bringing on more sellers and a first manager makes sense.

Otherwise, it would just be the blind leading the blind.