How to build demand gen at each stage of startup growth

Executive overview

Most founders copy a channel that worked elsewhere — or default to what they know — without checking if it fits their stage or buyer. The right demand gen approach depends entirely on which phase of growth you're in.

At product market fit, you need a handful of customers, not a scalable system. At go-to-market fit, you need at least one proven scalable channel. At scale, you need multiple channels, because every channel has a saturation ceiling.

Build the channel that fits your stage, not the one you're most comfortable with.

Getting your first customers: do unscalable things early

• You need 2–3 customers per month to prove product market fit — not 100
• Skip content, ads, and outbound; they take time and capital you don't have yet
• Leverage your personal and professional network to get 50 warm introductions
• Warm intros convert at high rates — both intro-to-meeting and meeting-to-customer
• Build an advisory board specifically to unlock introductions to potential customers
• Investor networks and college alumni in your ICP are underused assets
• Target: 50 intros → 30 meetings → ~10 beta customers

Choosing your first scalable channel at go-to-market fit

• You now need a demand gen channel that can sustain 2–3 new reps per quarter
• Don't copy what Databricks did or what worked in your last job
• Evaluate channels through the lens of your buyer, your product, and your business context
• A PLG model fits an AI coding tool sold to engineers; content fits sales software sold to CROs
• Generate 20 channel ideas, then test the 2–3 you're most confident in
• Measure cost per meeting and meeting quality to identify what's working
• One proven channel is enough to move to the scale phase

Scaling with multiple channels

• Every demand gen channel has a saturation ceiling — usually below your growth aspirations
• No billion-dollar company runs on a single channel
• PLG companies like Slack, Notion, and Dropbox all added sales teams to scale past early plateaus
• At scale, run content marketing, outbound, partnerships, and paid simultaneously
• Multi-channel is not a go-to-market fit move — introduce it only once one channel is proven