Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When I started working with B2B SaaS clients, I kept seeing the same pattern: companies obsessing over product features while their distribution strategy was an afterthought. They'd spend months perfecting their onboarding flow, then wonder why nobody was signing up in the first place.
Here's what I discovered after working with dozens of startups: distribution beats product quality every single time. You can have the most elegant solution in the world, but if people can't find it, it doesn't matter.
Most founders get this backwards. They build the product first, then figure out how to sell it. But the most successful companies I've worked with? They started with distribution channels and built their go-to-market around where their customers already were.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why the traditional "build it and they will come" approach fails
How to identify and validate distribution channels before you scale
My framework for building distribution into your growth strategy from day one
Real examples of how distribution-first thinking transformed client results
The metrics that actually matter when measuring distribution success
Stop treating distribution as a nice-to-have. Start treating it as the foundation of everything else you build.
Industry Reality
What every startup founder believes about go-to-market
Walk into any startup accelerator or browse through YC's advice, and you'll hear the same go-to-market wisdom repeated over and over:
"Perfect your product first, then scale distribution." The logic seems sound - why would you want to distribute a mediocre product? Fix the core experience, nail product-market fit, then worry about getting it in front of people.
This approach usually follows a predictable pattern:
Build an MVP with core features
Get initial user feedback and iterate
Optimize onboarding and conversion rates
Launch marketing campaigns to "pour gasoline on the fire"
Scale the channels that work
The problem? This linear thinking assumes that great products naturally find their audience. It treats distribution as a volume knob you turn up once everything else is perfect.
Most startup advice comes from successful companies that had the luxury of time and funding to iterate. But the reality for most founders is different - you need revenue and traction quickly, not eventually.
The conventional wisdom also assumes that product-market fit happens in isolation, when actually distribution channels fundamentally shape what product-market fit looks like. A product that works perfectly for LinkedIn audiences might completely fail with Google Ads traffic.
Here's where traditional go-to-market planning falls apart: it treats distribution as a tactical afterthought instead of a strategic foundation that should inform every other decision you make.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
Last year, I was brought in to help a B2B SaaS startup that was stuck. They had a solid product - a workflow automation tool for marketing teams. Great user experience, strong feature set, positive feedback from early users. But they were bleeding cash with almost no organic growth.
Their go-to-market approach followed the textbook playbook. They'd spent 8 months perfecting their onboarding flow, A/B testing every button color, optimizing their trial-to-paid conversion rate. The product metrics looked great - except almost nobody was signing up for trials in the first place.
When I dug into their acquisition strategy, the problem became obvious. They were treating distribution like a marketing afterthought. Their "strategy" was essentially:
Launch the product
Create content and hope for SEO traffic
Run some Facebook and Google ads
Try to get featured in a few publications
Each channel was treated as a separate experiment. No integration between them. No understanding of how different traffic sources affected user behavior. They were optimizing for vanity metrics instead of actual business outcomes.
The most telling sign? When I asked about their ideal customer's journey, they could only describe what happened after someone reached their website. They had no idea where their best customers were spending time before they had a problem to solve.
This is the classic symptom of product-first thinking: you build something great, then try to find people who want it. But the most successful companies do the opposite - they find people with problems, then figure out the best way to reach them consistently.
The client's real issue wasn't their conversion rate or feature set. It was that they'd built a beautiful store in an empty mall, then wondered why nobody was shopping.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of optimizing their existing channels, I convinced them to completely flip their approach. We started with a simple question: "Where do marketing managers go when they're frustrated with their current workflow tools?"
The answer wasn't Google search or Facebook ads. It was specific Slack communities, LinkedIn groups, and niche newsletters where they vented about their daily struggles. That insight changed everything.
Step 1: Map the Customer Journey Outside Your Product
We spent two weeks just understanding where their target customers already gathered. Not where they might see ads, but where they actually spent time discussing the problems our product solved. We identified:
3 active Slack communities with 1000+ marketing managers
2 newsletters with high engagement from their target market
Specific LinkedIn discussion threads that consistently generated problem-focused conversations
Step 2: Test Distribution Before Scaling Features
Rather than building more product features, we focused entirely on distribution experiments. We tested different ways to provide value in these communities:
Sharing workflow templates (not promoting the product)
Answering questions with detailed solutions
Creating mini-resources that solved immediate problems
The key insight: we weren't trying to sell anything. We were establishing the founder as someone who understood their daily struggles better than anyone else.
Step 3: Build Product-Channel Fit
Here's where most companies get stuck - they try to force their existing product into channels that don't match. Instead, we adapted the messaging and even some features based on what resonated in each distribution channel.
For the Slack communities, we emphasized collaborative features. For the newsletters, we focused on time-saving automation. Same core product, but positioned differently based on where people discovered it.
Step 4: Create Compounding Distribution
The breakthrough came when we stopped thinking about individual tactics and started building systems. Every piece of value we provided in these communities became a way for satisfied users to naturally recommend the product to their peers.
We built what I call "distribution loops" - each successful customer interaction created opportunities for more distribution without additional effort from the team.
Channel Research
Map where your customers already gather before they know they need your solution. Focus on communities, not advertising platforms.
Value-First Approach
Provide genuine value in each channel before promoting anything. Build trust and authority through helpful contributions.
Product-Channel Fit
Adapt your messaging and positioning based on what resonates in each specific distribution channel, not one-size-fits-all.
Distribution Systems
Create loops where satisfied customers naturally become your distribution channel without additional effort.
The results transformed their business in 90 days:
Traffic Quality Improved Dramatically: Instead of 2% trial conversion from cold ads, we achieved 18% conversion from community-driven traffic. People who found the product through these channels already understood the problem and trusted the solution.
Customer Acquisition Cost Dropped 70%: By focusing on channels where customers already gathered, we eliminated the need for expensive paid advertising to reach cold audiences.
Organic Growth Kicked In: The most important metric - 40% of new signups started coming from referrals within the communities where we'd established presence. The distribution was becoming self-sustaining.
But the biggest win wasn't in the numbers. It was in the business model shift. Instead of constantly paying for attention, they'd built a system where attention came to them.
Six months later, they raised their Series A largely based on their distribution moat - not just their product features. Investors could see they'd solved the hardest startup problem: predictable, scalable customer acquisition.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this distribution-first approach across multiple client projects, here are the core lessons that apply to any go-to-market strategy:
Distribution Channels Define Your Product Strategy
Your product isn't what you build - it's what people experience through specific channels. A workflow tool discovered through Slack communities needs different messaging than one found through Google search.
Start With Problems, Not Solutions
Instead of asking "How do we distribute our product?" ask "Where do people discuss the problems we solve?" The second question leads to much better channels.
Test Distribution Before Optimizing Product
Most startups waste months perfecting features that don't matter to their actual distribution channels. Test how your core value proposition resonates in different channels first.
Build Systems, Not Tactics
Individual marketing tactics are fragile. Distribution systems that create compounding value are sustainable. Focus on building loops where success creates more success.
Measure Channel-Product Fit, Not Just Conversion Rates
A 10% conversion rate from the wrong channel is worse than 2% from the right channel. Quality of traffic matters more than quantity.
Distribution Moats Beat Product Moats
Products can be copied. Relationships with communities and established presence in key channels are much harder to replicate.
The biggest mistake? Treating distribution as a marketing problem instead of a fundamental business strategy that should inform every decision from product features to pricing models.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing this approach:
Map your customer's workflow outside your product before building features
Test messaging in communities before investing in content marketing
Build integrations that create natural distribution loops
Focus on trial quality over trial volume
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores adapting this strategy:
Identify where customers research before buying, not just where they shop
Create valuable content for discovery channels, not just product descriptions
Build partnerships with complementary brands in your distribution channels
Optimize for repeat customers who become organic advocates