When early-stage tech companies show me their go-to-market plan, I ask one simple question: “Can a rep with no industry experience close a deal in 60 days using this story and these tools?” Most founders pause. Then nod. Then—more often than not—they realize the answer is no. That pause is the real test. Because if your GTM motion only works when the founder is in the room, or when the AE is a 20-year industry veteran, it’s not a repeatable strategy. It’s a fragile workaround disguised as momentum. After decades leading GTM teams and helping nearly 40 companies go from early traction to exit, I’ve developed what I call the “60-Day Litmus Test” for evaluating go-to-market strategy. It cuts through hype, slides, and sentiment to reveal if your playbook is actually built to scale. Let’s break it down.
🚦The 60-Day Litmus Test
Ask yourself: Can a freshly hired sales rep, with no industry background, close a deal in 60 days using only the narrative, tools, and process you’ve built? If the answer is yes, congratulations—you’ve operationalized product-market fit into a functioning revenue engine. If the answer is no, don’t panic. But do diagnose.
🛠️ What This Test Reveals
This one question surfaces weaknesses fast. Here’s what it’s really testing: – Narrative clarity – Is the story simple, specific, and sticky? If a rep has to “learn it by shadowing the founder,” it’s not a story. It’s tribal knowledge. – ICP precision – Can a junior rep identify who to call without needing a three-week onboarding on industry jargon? – Enablement & tools – Is your sales motion codified in a way that enables consistency? Can they demo? Handle objections? Get a contract out quickly? – Product readiness – If a deal closes, can the delivery team implement and support it without heroics? Too many early-stage companies build their GTM strategy around unicorn reps and founder-led sales. That may get you from $0 to $1M, but it won’t get you to $10M and beyond.
💡 Best Practices from the Field
Here’s how I help clients build GTM systems that pass the 60-Day Test: 1. Codify your messaging into a single source of truth. One-pagers, demo narratives, objection-handling guides—every company needs them earlier than they think. 2. Instrument your pipeline to flag bottlenecks. If reps are getting stuck at the same stage, it’s not them—it’s your process. 3. Shrink the ICP, don’t expand it. Early-stage founders often try to go broad. The sharper the ICP, the faster new reps find traction. 4. Test with a “cold rep.” Hire a smart, coachable AE with no prior domain experience. If they can’t close quickly, fix the system—not the person. 5. Get out of the founder’s shadow. Build systems that work without you. Your GTM shouldn’t depend on your charisma, network, or ability to jump in late-stage deals.
🔁 GTM is Not a One-Time Strategy
It’s a system. A loop. A series of plays and messages that must be learned, adapted, and refined continuously. The companies that win aren’t the ones with the most slides. They’re the ones that reduce the sales process to something that can be learned, executed, and repeated. The 60-Day Test isn’t about lowering the bar. It’s about designing a GTM motion that doesn’t rely on miracles.
🧠 Closing Thought
Next time you review your go-to-market plan, skip the spreadsheets and ask this:Could someone brand new close a deal in 60 days using this?If the answer is no, fix it before you scale it.If the answer is yes—build the machine and press play.
There’s a moment in every startup’s journey when the founder turns to the team and says:
“We need a real marketing leader.”
It’s an understandable impulse. Growth is flattening. Sales cycles are inconsistent. There’s pressure from the board to “build the brand.” Everyone wants a silver bullet — and it seems like the right CMO could be it.
But here’s the reality: hiring a full-time CMO or VP of Marketing too early is one of the most expensive missteps a tech startup can make. And worse — it can slow your momentum more than it helps.
At The Artesian Network, we’ve helped dozens of venture-backed startups scale from early traction to repeatable revenue. Our strong stance is this:
Don’t hire a full-time marketing executive until after you’ve raised your Series B.
Why? Because until that point, your company likely hasn’t yet achieved a repeatable, predictable revenue model — the single most important signal that it’s time to scale. That means the core go-to-market playbook still needs to be tested, built, and proven.
In other words, you haven’t validated your Marketing and Sales MVP — a concept I explain in detail in this post:
Why Full-Time Marketing Hires Often Fail Pre-Scale
The most common mistake we see? Startups up-title a smart, hardworking marketer from a larger tech company into a VP or CMO role.
They’ve got pedigree. A strong resume. They know the jargon and have seen big growth in action.
But two structural problems usually arise:
1. They Lack Startup Pattern Recognition
Big company success doesn’t always translate to early-stage scrappiness. In fact, it often gets in the way.
Pattern recognition doesn’t come from theory. It comes from repetition — having lived through multiple GTM experiments across multiple startups. From knowing which early signals matter and which are just noise.
A great early-stage marketing leader has failed — and learned — enough to know when to push, when to pause, and how to prioritize when every dollar matters.
2. They Think Like Operators, Not Scientists
Startups don’t need marketers who optimize what already works. They need marketers who discover what works in the first place.
That requires a scientific mindset — grounded in testing, learning, and iterating. Unfortunately, most marketers from big orgs are trained for efficiency, not efficacy. Their world is about incremental lift — not building from zero.
What early-stage companies need are experimentalists. Systems thinkers. Growth hackers. Not just brand architects or content producers.
3. Speed Is Your Only Advantage
Your only sustainable competitive advantage as a startup is speed — speed to market, speed to learn, speed to pivot.
But building a full in-house team? It takes months — time most startups don’t have. And capital you probably can’t afford to burn.
It can take 2–4 months to recruit a CMO. Then that CMO has to onboard and spend another 3–6 months building a team: demand gen, content, product marketing, brand, and ops.
A seasoned fractional marketing team plugs in by week one.
They bring:
An integrated team of specialists
Proven GTM systems
Best practices from dozens of startups
A cost profile that’s far more startup-friendly
This isn’t just about saving money — it’s about accelerating outcomes.
So When Should You Hire a CMO or VP of Marketing?
Once you’ve hit product-market fit and early signals of revenue repeatability, that’s when scale-ready marketing becomes a priority.
That’s when you shift from figuring it out to building the engine.
But who you hire — and how you evaluate them — matters deeply.
What to Look for in Your First Full-Time Marketing Leader
✅ Breadth Over Depth
Look for generalists who have worked across multiple marketing disciplines — demand gen, product marketing, brand, content, analytics. At this stage, you need someone who can both strategize and execute.
Interview Tip: Ask how they’ve led across multiple functions. You’re looking for systems thinkers who’ve rolled up their sleeves.
✅ Systems Builder
They must know how to build and run demand funnels, attribution models, testing protocols, and messaging frameworks — from scratch.
Interview Tip: Ask them to describe a demand engine they built. What worked? What didn’t?
✅ GTM Pattern Recognition
They should have lived through several startup GTM motions — not just one. Bonus points for failure stories with clear lessons learned.
Interview Tip: What’s the biggest GTM mistake they’ve made? What did it teach them?
✅ Comfort with Ambiguity
The ground is always shifting in early-stage companies. You need someone who thrives in chaos and doesn’t wait for perfect data.
Interview Tip: How have they handled shifting ICPs, pricing models, or sales feedback loops?
✅ Obsession with Learning
Great startup marketers are curious and adaptable. They experiment constantly and seek new insight like oxygen.
Interview Tip: What’s the last thing they taught themselves — and why?
✅ Cultural Fit > Resume
Finally, make sure they match the mission. You don’t need a resume — you need a teammate. Someone who can align with product, sales, and leadership and earn trust quickly.
Interview Tip: Invite them to join a sales huddle or standup. Observe how they engage.
Final Thought
Startup success hinges on timing and fit — nowhere more than in marketing leadership.
Hire too early, and you risk:
Burning capital
Scaling the wrong message
Misfiring on product-market fit
But hire the right person at the right time?
You unlock scale. Create alignment. Build momentum.
Until then?
Work with experienced fractional talent who know the early-stage grind — and can help you find that repeatable, predictable path to growth.
At The Artesian Network, we’ve been the interim marketing engine for dozens of early-stage companies. Over 50% of our clients have gone on to successful exits, including IPOs and acquisitions.
A PR firm can be useful if: – You’re announcing a major funding round (Series A or higher). – You’re entering a highly competitive or consumer-facing market where media buzz directly drives business outcomes. – You have a compelling narrative and a founder/executive team able to deliver it well in interviews. – You’re already experiencing traction and need to amplify a moment, not manufacture one. Even then, PR works best when paired with existing momentum—not as a substitute for product-market fit or customer validation. We, at The Artesian Network have worked with many highly valued great PR firms in the past. We have gotten our clients as featured stories on Bloomberg TV, CNBC Top Disruptive Company Lists, and at the top of headlines on all the tech and business blogs and publications.
But PR Firms are best used at a later stage in the company lifecycle. With resources tight in the early years, you will receive a much greater ROI in other marketing tactics.
🚫 Common Pitfalls of Hiring a PR Firm Early
High cost, low control: Most PR firms charge $8K–$20K/month retainers. That’s a huge chunk of budget for startups with unclear ROI. – No guarantees: Media hits are never guaranteed. You’re paying for effort, not results. – Low relevance: Unless your startup already has a unique, newsworthy hook, reporters often pass on the story. – Misaligned incentives: PR firms optimize for coverage, not customer acquisition.
💡 Smarter Use of Early-Stage Marketing Budget
At the seed or pre-seed stage, founders should prioritize direct, measurable growth activities: – Content marketing (especially founder-led thought leadership on LinkedIn) Paid acquisition tests (Google, LinkedIn, Meta) – SEO for long-tail keywords – Email nurturing and marketing automation – Community building (forums, Discord, Slack) – Webinars or strategic partnerships These channels yield clearer attribution and faster feedback loops.
Strategy for PR Outreach for Early-Stage Startups
📣 Define the Newsworthy Angle
Product launch? – Customer milestone? – Funding announcement? – Major hire or partnership? – Social impact?
📋 Build a Media List
Use tools like: – Muck Rack (https://muckrack.com) – Hunter.io (https://hunter.io) – Manual research via LinkedIn, Twitter, and article bylines Segment by: – Tech journalists – Industry-specific reporters – Local business press – Podcasts/newsletters relevant to your space
✉️ Craft the Press Email (Pitch)
Example Subject Line:
“New AI Tool Helps SMBs Save Hours on Client Research — Interview Ready”
Example Email Body:
1 short sentence of relevance
1–2 sentence summary of your news
Why it matters now
Link to press kit or landing page
Offer exclusive quotes, data, or interviews
🗂️ Prepare a Lightweight Press Kit
Include: – Founder bio and headshot – One-pager about the company – High-res logo and product images – Key metrics or validation (users, customers, revenue milestones) Contact information Host it on a Notion page or Dropbox link.
📤 Pitch Strategically
Personalize each pitch (reference an article or beat they cover) – Use a CRM or spreadsheet to track opens and responses – Follow up once after 3–5 business days
📢 Amplify Any Wins
Share published stories on LinkedIn and Twitter – Add logos of featured publications to your homepage – Mention press in investor or prospect meetings – Repurpose quotes/testimonials in sales and fundraising decks
✍️ Final Recommendation
Unless you’re making a high-stakes, public announcement with broad appeal (e.g., $10M+ Series A, celebrity investor, or product going viral), skip the PR firm and invest in growth tactics with short-term ROI. When the time comes, you can revisit PR—possibly with a part-time contractor or a specialist aligned with your GTM goals.
Why early-stage B2B tech startups need experienced, technical, senior marketing teams—and how to find the right one
Let’s be honest: most startup founders don’t trust marketers. And with good reason.
In the B2B tech world, we’ve seen a familiar pattern repeat itself—over and over. It usually starts with an incredible technical insight: a founder (or founding team) builds something genuinely novel. There’s a real gap in the market, and the early product makes a few smart people sit up and take notice.
But then comes the realization: you need to tell the story, not just build the system.
Why Founders Get Burned by Marketing
Many technical founders view marketing with a mix of suspicion and disappointment. They’ve either hired marketers who couldn’t grasp the product—or they’ve heard horror stories from friends who did.
This disconnect is almost inevitable. Too few marketers can “speak tech.” They mistake features for benefits, miss the architectural brilliance under the hood, or fail to translate a powerful capability into a message the market can actually understand.
It’s no surprise that many founders keep marketing at arm’s length. In fact, some are outright hostile to it.Let’s be honest: most startup founders don’t trust marketers. And with good reason.
In the B2B tech world, we’ve seen a familiar pattern repeat itself—over and over. It usually starts with an incredible technical insight: a founder (or founding team) builds something genuinely novel. There’s a real gap in the market, and the early product makes a few smart people sit up and take notice.
But then comes the realization: you need to tell the story, not just build the system.
That’s when the friction starts.
The burn cycle
They’ve seen the polished decks, the vague slogans, the cookie-cutter playbooks that ignore product nuance. They’ve seen form without function.
The Marketplace of Marketing Help is Siloed—and That’s a Trap Most of the marketing help available to startups is fragmented. You get:
Each offers a slice of the puzzle, but few are able to pull the full picture together. More often than not, they aren’t aligned with outcomes—they’re aligned with outputs. Blog posts. Pitch decks. Ad campaigns. Funnels. Metrics.
But early-stage startups need something much more foundational: go-to-market strategy rooted in reality, driven by insight, and delivered with speed.
The “Pyramid Problem” in Marketing Consulting Even when founders do engage outside help, there’s another common pitfall: the pyramid model.
You meet with a senior partner who seems credible—maybe even great. But once the deal is done, the work gets handed down to junior staffers. People who’ve never launched a company, never sat in a board meeting, never felt the existential pressure of a cash runway and a market that’s not quite biting.
These junior consultants often lack the pattern recognition that only comes from cycles of failure and success across dozens of startups. They may be smart. They may be eager. But they’re not ready to call the shots.
Startups don’t have the luxury to wait for someone to learn the ropes on the job.
When Founders Try to Hire In-House…
It Gets Risky Fast. So maybe you decide to build your own marketing team.
It sounds good on paper: hire a full-time VP of Marketing and let them build from there. But here’s what happens far too often:
You hire someone from a large company—a mid-level manager, maybe a director—and up-title them to VP or CMO. But their experience is shaped by a world that’s very different from yours.
In big companies, marketers are highly specialized—not generalists.
They’re focused on efficiency, not efficacy.
They’re trained to optimize existing systems, not create new ones from scratch.
Big Company Marketers Versus Those Optimized for Startups
Early-stage companies need the opposite. They need people who can navigate ambiguity, test hypotheses, iterate fast, and work across functions—not within a silo.
No wonder the average tenure of a startup CMO is under 18 months. The mismatch isn’t about intelligence—it’s about context.
The Time Trap: Why Startups Can’t Afford to Assemble a Team Slowly
Even if you’re determined to build the “perfect” team, you’ll face another brutal constraint: time.
Let’s break it down:
2–3 months to hire a VP
Another 1–2 months per discipline (content, demand gen, ops, design)
Weeks or months for onboarding and team chemistry
And that’s before you’ve produced anything of value.
The Timeline For A Full-time Marketing Team is Too Long
Speed is the only real advantage most startups have in the early years. You cannot squander it building infrastructure. You need traction. Fast.
Why Full-Time May Not Even Be Necessary
Here’s the kicker: most early-stage companies don’t need a full-time marketing team.
What they do need is a cross-functional senior team who can jump in immediately, drive strategy, deliver execution, and stay aligned to business outcomes—not just marketing metrics.
You need one part business consultant, one part execution partner. Not a loose federation of vendors. Not a junior team that needs mentoring.
You need a co-pilot.
What to Look for in a Fractional Marketing Partner If you’re ready to go the fractional route, don’t just look for an agency or an outsourced “stack.” Look for a team that:
Has deep operator experience—they’ve sat in your chair
Can “speak tech” and act as a translation layer between engineering and market
Brings product management insight, not just product marketing polish
Offers true cross-functional capability, from strategy to execution
Delivers one senior point of accountability—not a rotating cast
Follows a proven framework like Build It. Test It. Prove It.
And above all, make sure they know how to identify—and call out—a lack of product-market fit. It’s better to hear it early than fund a flawed GTM strategy.
The Artesian Network: Built for This Moment
At The Artesian Network, we’ve been that partner—for over 15 years.
We’ve supported dozens and dozens of early-stage tech companies across Silicon Valley, the broader U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. And the results speak for themselves:
The Artesian Network Has Serviced Clients Across The Globe
Over 50% have gone on to a successful IPO or acquisition
The others? Nearly all have raised successive rounds and achieved real traction.
In the rare cases where failure occurred, it was not without our early signal that product-market fit had not been achieved as outlined in two case studies we have outlined in previous LinkedIn Articles.
We don’t just “do marketing. “We help startups move faster, execute smarter, and build companies that scale.
Final Thought: This Isn’t Just Marketing. This Is Survival.
Marketing isn’t a department. It’s how the market comes to understand your value.
You can’t afford to get it wrong. You can’t afford to go slow. And you certainly can’t afford to bet your trajectory on junior talent and fragmented tactics.
If you’re ready to move faster—and smarter—bring in a team that understands the whole game. Marketing, product, growth, strategy—all in one.
Because the right fractional team isn’t a cost. It’s a multiplier.
