Marketing remains often misunderstood within tech startups. Many founders, upon hiring CMOs, fail to integrate them into the business core, leaving marketing as an enigma. Successful CMOs emphasize the importance of understanding the company's vision and value proposition to craft effective marketing strategies. Defining market positioning is crucial, and it should be established early, not at critical points like IPO preparations. Founders must clarify the central problem their product addresses, shifting focus from competition to unique solutions their offerings provide.
"For many CEOs, it's a black box—and it costs money," says Johanna Flower, who was the first CMO for CrowdStrike, growing the now $4 billion-in-revenue cybersecurity business through its 2019 IPO.
"One of the mistakes I see founders making is that they hire a marketing person and then they don't spend enough time with them. They don't let the marketing person truly understand the vision, where we're going as a company, where can we be successful, what are we disrupting," she says.
"What problem are you ultimately solving?" asks Johnson. Not why your product is faster, cheaper, or better—but what problem can you, specifically, fix.
"Drafting your S1 is not the time to figure out your positioning," says Denise Persson, the CMO of Snowflake, the $3.6 billion-in-revenue cloud-based data platform.
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