Startup Sales — 5 Common Sales Mistakes by Founders
August 12, 2025
Founders are responsible for the first sales a startup will make. For many founders, this is one of their very first experiences of sales and mistakes are often made.
Today, we’re talking about the basics of startup marketing.
1. In my opinion, your first outreach should be direct. That’s for B2B, B2C, and marketplaces. The reason is that you need lots and lots of feedback at this very early stage. Analytics won’t cover it. You need to be talking to customers directly. Most people start within their own network and then expand.
2. When you want to broaden outreach to dozens of people and beyond, then we can start to test all the various scalable channels, although don’t discount direct outreach — it scales too. However, do remember, the best products often generate referrals from happy customers.
3. So the marketing channels I often suggest startups try first are: content marketing, conferences, and direct outreach, where you ask for advice. The channel I suggest you avoid is Ads, as it’s easy to start but so expensive it can drastically shorten your runway.
Best of luck out there.
