The Truth About Early-Stage
Startup marketing
DIY Marketing Program & Marketing Intelligence API* for Early-Stage Startups designed specifically for founders who haven’t raised funding yet — or who are bootstrapping with their own resources. - Limited to 100 Early-Stage Startups and currently in development*
The 4-minute video that will forever
transform your perspective on Marketing.
Marketing is NOT optional for EARLY-STAGE STARTUPS
The Real Pain of not knowing Marketing
Reaching your startup goals depends on comprehending marketing at every stage of your venture’s journey. This understanding helps mitigate the risks that could impede its growth, stop it from scaling, and lead to blindly creating products that no one desires, ultimately resulting in a loss of relevance in an ever-evolving market.
Based on the Startup Lifecycle Model by Max Marmer (Startup Genome)
1.
Discovery
Prove the problem matters — and to whom.
Marketing's Role
Test fast. Listen harder. Find out what people care about before you build anything
Without Marketing Knowledge
You build for ghosts. You rely on guesswork. You chase gut feelings instead of signal. And no one tells you it’s the wrong problem until it’s too late.
2.
Validation
See if the solution actually works — and if anyone will pay.
Marketing's Role
Learn who buys. Why they buy. And how much friction it takes to get them there.
Without Marketing Knowledge
You confuse compliments with customers. You launch to applause, but no one converts. And no one tells you why.
3.
Efficiency
Clean the funnel. Tighten the system. Prep for growth.
Marketing's Role
Map behavior. Remove friction. Build loops that turn attention into loyalty.
Without Marketing Knowledge
You keep tweaking the product when the real problem is your funnel. Leads drop off. Churn rises. You don’t know where to look.
4.
Scaling
Push hard — without breaking everything.
Marketing's Role
Run systems, not experiments. Grow without losing clarity or control.
Without Marketing Knowledge
You throw money at ads, agencies, or content teams — without knowing what works. Growth flatlines. Budgets burn. Blame gets passed.
5.
Profit Optimization
Extract more from what you already have.
Marketing's Role
Maximize LTV. Target smarter. Retain longer.
Without Marketing Knowledge
You keep chasing new users while revenue bleeds from the back. You ignore pricing strategy. You miss expansion opportunities hiding in plain sight.
6.
Renewal
Don’t just survive. Stay wanted.
Marketing's Role
Spot the shift. Own the narrative. Launch again — before someone else launches over you.
Without Marketing Knowledge
You fall in love with your own product — while the market moves on. You miss the signs. You delay the pivot. You slowly lose relevance.
Founders aren’t failing
— they’re just following the wrong advice
Mainstream marketing advice is adapted for medium to large budgets, not small budgets like yours.
Early-Stage Startups with low budgets have no other choice but asking LLMs, training AI agents with the same mainstream marketing tactics or going through the same AI-created content available online for ranking purposes, expecting it will help them succeed.
The result? Everybody knows the failure rates.
Why do Marketers Ignore Early Stage Startups?
Be honest—if you were a marketer, would you chase clients with no budget?
In the Marketing World, it's simple:
More budget = more ad spend, more tools, more billable hours.
Low budget = less or no ad spend, less tools, less billable hours.
More budget = faster results, making them look good.
Low budget = slow results, making them look bad.
More budget = less risk, because established brands already have traction.
Low budget = higher risk, because new brands have no traction.
This is a No-Brainer!
Your Impossible Options
Bad marketers will burn your budget. No exception!
Niched marketers will push what they know best, which might not work—and this is the norm since niches form where the big money is.
Fractional CMO? At $200+/hour, is that really an option?
The Reality
In most cases, aside from Good Fractional CMOs, marketers will push ads, social media, and SEO when you need market validation. I mean look around: Isn't this what you see everywhere?
The result: You'll either hire the wrong people or get locked into marketing that doesn’t scale. And at over $100K+/year, affording a skilled marketing hire isn’t happening right now.
The Truth
Nobody knows your vision better than you—learning how to market it is critical. This is why outsourcing marketing too early is the worst kind of "help." And deep down, you already feel this.
If you don’t learn the basics, you’ll rely on overpriced help and struggle to make the right decisions.
The truth? You don’t need to be a marketer forever. But for early-stage startups, knowing what works is the only way you can survive.
If mainstream marketing advice isn’t built for early-stage realities and risks burning your capital, why follow it?
Doing the same thing over and over again won’t bring different results.
A Marketing Service is not enough to FIX This
We need to create a MOVEMENT
How The Early-Stage Founder's Signal aims to contribute:
Limited Access
Considering the current capabilities, we are limited to around 100 Early-Stage Startups that fit a certain criteria. More details below.
Highly Selective
"One-size-fits-all" programs are nothing more than a marketing myth—sold by those promising sunshine and rainbows. The reality? There is no such thing. We will only approve Startups with the highest potential to benefit from this program, until we are ready to impact more.
The Offer
The Founder's Signal is designed to provide you with DIY Early-Stage CMO-level insights, enabling you to tailor marketing strategies and tactics to suit your business context.
Huge Impact Potential
A single skilled marketing hire costs $100K+ per year. Instead of having 100 Early-Stage Startups waste $100K+/year each on hiring marketers—which is a bad idea anyway at this stage—$100K+/year will be used to help 100 Founders take control of their own marketing, saving a collective $9.9 million in wasted capital.
This Program is not about "teaching". This is about nurturing awareness and genuinely helping.
Marketing Intelligence API access* to Power your own AI Agents
Designed specifically for the realities of Early-Stage Startups.
Everything inside the
The Early-Stage Founder's Signal Program will also be available via API—built to power your AI agents through platforms like:
- n8n,
- Voiceflow,
- Zapier,
- Make,
- Bubble,
- and any system supporting custom APIs.
(More information coming soon)
We don't need you as just a subscriber. We want you a part of the movement
You can help make programs like this the standard for Early-Stage Startups.
Just imagine the impact we can create.
The Founder's Signal Guide
for FREE
We know trust isn’t given—it’s earned. That's why, after you apply, if we determine your startup fits the criteria and is eligible for the program, you’ll receive the complete DIY Early-Stage Marketing Guide, absolutely Free.
This isn’t a teaser or a sales trick—it’s the exact framework The Early-Stage Founder's Signal is built around. You can start applying it immediately, on your own terms, until we have the Program ready.
And when we launch the
full program, we'll provide you with the opportunity to get
Early Access.
✅ Early-Stage Startups We Accept
✅ Founders leading their own marketing and seeking structured guidance.
✅ Early-Stage Startups committed to real traction, sustainable growth, and long-term positioning.
✅ Startups selling mid-to-high-ticket solutions where trust, authority, and precision matter.
✅ B2B & digital-first startups that need content, digital PR, and authority-building strategies.
✅ Founders who understand marketing is about continuous learning, optimizing, and executing strategically.
✅ We accept Early-Stage Founders from B2B and high-ticket B2C industries where trust, authority, and strategic growth drive success. If your business depends on credibility, positioning, and long-term customer relationships, you're in the right place.
❌ Early-Stage Startups We Do NOT Accept
❌Startups that offload marketing without understanding it.
❌Teams looking for quick hacks with no strategic foundation.
❌Low-ticket, high-volume businesses relying solely on aggressive paid ads. We actually advice Early-Stage Startups against Paid Ads .
❌Businesses in saturated, undifferentiated markets with no clear value proposition.
❌Those expecting overnight results without testing, iterating, and refining.
❌We don’t accept startups in low-ticket, high-volume industries where success relies on aggressive, transactional sales. If your model depends purely on paid ads with no organic or authority-building strategy, this isn’t for you.
want to find out if you qualify for the program?
Apply for the waitlist
If you fit the criteria, you will receive the Free Guide.
Growth Hacking Insights
Disclaimer & Eligibility:
- Subscription-Based & Exclusive
The Early-Stage Founder's Signal will be a paid, monthly subscription program designed exclusively for Early-Stage startups where Founders lead their own marketing efforts. It is not for marketers, consultants, agencies, or startups at later stages. - Application & Approval Process
This is not an instant sign-up program. All applicants must go through an approval process. We personally review each application to ensure that only the most relevant startups join. If your application is approved, you will receive the full Early-Stage DIY Marketing Guide. If not, we will not send the guide, as it won't likely help you. - Early Development Phase
The program is still in active development, and content will evolve based on Founder feedback to ensure maximum impact. - Strict Eligibility
We only accept startups that align with the program’s purpose. Approval is at our full discretion, and we reserve the right to decline any applicant who does not fit our criteria. Currently, we accept startups from the U.S., but location exceptions may be considered on a case-by-case basis, if the program has potential to help. - What We DON’T Do
We don’t sell implementation, and we never will for Early-Stage Startups—because it’s the worst possible thing to do. Instead, we give you the framework, up-to-date insights, and the truth to take control of your marketing yourself and that should be more than enough to find talent whenever you need it. Our other services (Marketing Consultancy and Fractional & Full-Time Marketing Leadership are tailored for Funded, Late-Stage Startups and Established companies). - We don’t push agencies for commissions, and we never will. With access to quality advice tailored to offer guidance to Early-Stage Startups, you’ll know precisely how to choose the most cost-effective solutions when you need help.
- We won’t dilute our focus. Our only priority is building, improving, and updating The Early-Stage Founder's Signal with the latest marketing strategies and tools—so you never have to waste time figuring it out yourself.
- The API is part of a future roadmap step and is inactive, not planned to be made available when the program starts but at a later date. Access will only be granted to accepted Founders once development is complete only if the Movement grows sufficiently and there is demand. We reserve the right to delay, limit, or restrict access based on the technical feasibility and sustainability of the program, considering it is more intended to make an Impact, before anything else. The API will be designed with Early-Stage Startup realities in mind—but like the rest of The Early-Stage Founder's Signal, it’s built to serve those who genuinely engage with the Movement. This is not a feature to be taken for granted—it’s an extension of the value we are working hard to deliver.