Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Most startups I work with make the same critical mistake: they build amazing products and assume customers will just... find them somehow. It's like opening a beautiful store in the middle of an empty mall and wondering why nobody's buying.
I learned this the hard way working with an e-commerce client who was completely dependent on Facebook Ads. Their ROAS sat at 2.5, everything seemed fine on the surface, but they were one algorithm change away from disaster. That's when I realized distribution beats product quality every single time.
Over three months, I completely overhauled their distribution system. Instead of relying on a single channel, we built what I call an "omnichannel distribution engine" that transformed their business from vulnerable to antifragile.
Here's what you'll learn from my real-world distribution experiments:
Why the "build it and they will come" mentality kills startups
The hidden vulnerability of single-channel dependency (even when it's working)
My 3-month framework for building sustainable distribution systems
How to embrace the "dark funnel" instead of fighting attribution
The counterintuitive metrics that actually predict distribution success
This isn't another theoretical framework. This is the exact system I used to help clients move from dangerous single-channel dependency to resilient, multi-channel growth engines. Read more growth strategies here.
Industry Reality
What Every Startup Founder Gets Wrong About Distribution
Walk into any startup accelerator and you'll hear the same distribution advice repeated like gospel:
"Find your best channel and double down" - Focus all energy on the highest-performing acquisition channel
"Optimize for CAC and LTV" - Make everything about customer acquisition cost and lifetime value ratios
"Test fast, fail fast" - Rapidly test channels and kill underperformers immediately
"Attribution is king" - Track every touchpoint and optimize based on last-click attribution
"Growth hacking trumps everything" - Find the one weird trick that unlocks exponential growth
This conventional wisdom exists because it feels logical and measurable. VCs love clean metrics. Founders love simple strategies. Everyone wants the silver bullet that makes distribution "easy."
But here's where this falls apart in practice: real customer journeys are messy, multi-touch, and impossible to track accurately. The iOS updates, cookie deprecation, and ad blocker usage have made attribution a fairy tale. Meanwhile, your "best performing" channel becomes a single point of failure.
I've watched too many startups crash when their "winning" channel got expensive, saturated, or hit algorithm changes. The problem isn't finding good channels - it's building antifragile distribution systems that get stronger under stress, not weaker.
The industry's obsession with clean attribution and channel optimization misses the fundamental truth: distribution is about coverage, not control.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I started working with this e-commerce client, they had what most would consider a "good problem." Facebook Ads were generating consistent revenue with a 2.5 ROAS and €50 average order value. The metrics looked solid, the cash flow was steady, and they were growing month over month.
But I saw the red flags immediately. Their entire growth engine depended on Meta's algorithm and ad costs. They had over 1,000 SKUs in their catalog - a massive strength for discovery and variety - but Facebook's format demanded quick decisions on 1-3 flagship products.
The fundamental mismatch was obvious: their strength was catalog depth and customer browsing behavior, but their distribution channel rewarded impulse purchases and immediate decisions. They were trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
When I dug into their customer behavior, the problem became crystal clear. Their best customers needed time to browse, compare products, and discover items they didn't even know they wanted. Facebook Ads' quick-decision environment was fundamentally incompatible with their shopping experience.
Even worse, they had no backup plan. If Facebook costs increased or algorithm changes hurt performance, they'd be scrambling. I'd seen this movie before with other clients - sudden dependency on a single channel that could disappear overnight.
That's when I knew we needed to completely rethink their distribution strategy. Not optimize their existing approach, but build something entirely different that played to their actual strengths.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of fighting the platform limitations, I decided to build a distribution system that embraced their catalog complexity and customer discovery patterns. The goal wasn't to improve Facebook Ads - it was to create multiple pathways for customers to find them organically.
Phase 1: Website Architecture Overhaul (Month 1)
First, I completely restructured their website for SEO optimization. This wasn't about making it "prettier" - it was about turning every single product page into a potential entry point. With 1,000+ SKUs, we had 1,000+ opportunities to rank for specific, long-tail searches.
The key insight: instead of thinking "homepage → category → product," we thought "any search → specific product → discovery journey." Every product page became a landing page.
Phase 2: Content Strategy at Scale (Month 2)
With the foundation in place, we focused on content that matched their customer's discovery patterns. Instead of generic "category" content, we created buying guides, comparison articles, and use-case content that helped customers navigate their complex catalog.
The content wasn't just SEO-focused - it was genuinely useful for customers who needed guidance in their product space. We turned their catalog complexity from a Facebook Ads weakness into an SEO strength.
Phase 3: Embracing the Dark Funnel (Month 3)
Here's where it got interesting. Within a month of implementing the SEO strategy, Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9. Most marketers would celebrate improved "ad performance," but I knew better.
The reality? SEO was driving significant traffic and conversions, but Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for organic wins. This taught me the most important lesson about modern distribution: embrace the dark funnel, don't fight it.
Instead of trying to track every touchpoint (impossible), we focused on expanding visibility across all possible customer discovery moments. The goal became coverage, not control.
Distribution Audit
Start with a complete audit of current traffic sources, customer journey touchpoints, and single points of failure in your acquisition system.
Channel Physics
Understand that each channel has its own "physics" - Facebook rewards quick decisions, SEO rewards patient discovery, LinkedIn favors B2B thought leadership.
Dark Funnel Strategy
Stop believing in perfect attribution. Build for multiple touchpoints and focus on brand visibility across the entire customer discovery journey.
Strength Mapping
Match your product's natural strengths to compatible distribution channels instead of forcing mismatched channel-product combinations.
The transformation was remarkable, but not in the way most people measure "distribution success." The real win wasn't improved metrics - it was antifragility.
Within three months, we achieved significant organic traffic growth that reduced their Facebook dependency from 90% to about 60%. More importantly, their total customer acquisition became recession-proof. When Facebook costs increased industry-wide six months later, their competitors scrambled while they simply shifted budget allocation.
The unexpected outcome? Customer quality improved across the board. Organic customers had higher lifetime value, lower return rates, and became better brand advocates. Why? Because they discovered the brand when they were actually looking for solutions, not when an algorithm decided to interrupt them.
The attribution data became meaningless, but revenue became more predictable. That's the power of distribution strategy that embraces uncertainty instead of fighting it.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Distribution beats optimization - Building multiple channels trumps perfecting single channels every time
Match physics, don't fight them - Align your product strengths with channel characteristics instead of forcing incompatible combinations
Attribution is dead, coverage is king - Stop trying to track everything; start being visible everywhere your customers look
Embrace the dark funnel - Modern customer journeys are messy and multi-touch. Build for that reality
Antifragility over efficiency - A distribution system that gets stronger under stress beats one optimized for perfect conditions
Product-channel fit matters - Your product has natural distribution channels where it thrives. Find them
Time horizons determine strategy - Paid ads give immediate results, organic builds long-term moats. You need both
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups building distribution:
Audit your current channel dependency and identify single points of failure
Build content systems that turn every feature into a searchable entry point
Focus on channels where trial users can discover you during problem-awareness phase
Create helpful resources that build trust before selling
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores building distribution:
Turn your product catalog into 1000+ SEO landing pages
Create buying guides and comparison content for discovery shoppers
Build email capture systems that work across all traffic sources
Embrace multiple marketplaces as distribution channels, not just direct sales