tools in the average startup GTM stack:
Apollo. HubSpot. ActiveCampaign. Notion. Canva. GA4. Slack. Another Slack. A spreadsheet that everyone pretends is a CRM.
$2,300/month. Zero of them talk to each other.
the best GTM strategy for early stage founders:
talk to 20 customers before you write a single piece of content.
controversial? maybe. wrong? absolutely not.
SaaS founder stages of grief:
1. denial (the product is fine)
2. anger (why aren't they activating)
3. bargaining (maybe one more onboarding email)
4. depression (the dashboard)
5. Intempt (finally, lol)
LinkedIn GTM advice in 2026:
"align your synergies"
"leverage the ecosystem"
"build authentic connections"
actual GTM in 2026:
figure out why 60% of your signups never come back. start there.
your user signed up, connected to a CRM, visited pricing 3 times, and went quiet.
you sent them a "just checking in!" email 7 days later.
they had already signed up for a competitor.
me: we need to understand why users aren't activating
also me: builds a 9-step onboarding checklist, adds more tooltips, writes longer welcome emails
the problem was never the checklist.
unpopular opinion: most SaaS onboarding flows are just elaborate ways to make users feel guilty for not using the product more
fix the product experience. not the guilt trip emails.
your GTM strategy is:
- post on LinkedIn
- pray
- check dashboard
- cry
- repeat
there's a better way.
it's called having an actual system. wild concept, we know.
the reason your brand looks inconsistent isn't your designer or Agency
it's the tools they're using to build it
in 2026 you can generate an ai photo shoot, landing page, email, sms and catalog ad from one place
β¨ creative studio in intempt β¨ tada
hot take: the founders who grow fastest in the next 2 years won't be the ones with the biggest budgets.
they'll be the ones with the best GTM systems.
build the system.
what Blu(our Superagent) does while you're in your third standup of the day:
- maps your user behaviour
- identifies who's about to churn
- suggests the next GTM move
your standup did not do that.
the best time to set up trigger-based emails was when you launched.
the second best time is before another user churns silently without telling you why.
things that feel like marketing but aren't:
- redesigning the website for the 3rd time
- adding another tool to the stack
- having a 2-hour meeting about the brand font
things that are marketing:
- talking to the people you're trying to reach
the gap between "we have a GTM strategy" and "we have a GTM motion that actually runs without us babysitting it every day"
is approximately 6 months of painful lessons.
AI didn't kill the marketing job.
it killed the excuse for doing bad marketing.
no more "we didn't have time to personalise." you have the tools. use them.
marketing team of 1 starter pack:
- doing the job of 6 people
- being asked "can you also just do the socials"
- has 47 browser tabs open
- hasn't eaten lunch at a table since Q1
- runs on Notion and spite
Stripe data + website behaviour + product activity = finally knowing what's actually happening with your customers
a spreadsheet + vibes = what most founders are working with