I regularly speak with EdTech startups about GTM and PMF. I thought it would be helpful if I gathered my thoughts and reflected on some of the better practices.
The concepts of Go-to-market strategy (GTM) and Product-market fit (PMF) are critical to startups (especially in EdTech), but not well understood. Crafting a go-to-market (GTM) strategy can be scary because your business is riding on it and there are a myriad of unknowns. A successful GTM strategy is difficult because it requires value-creating alignment between several steps of the plan.
A convenient way to visualize a GTM strategy is to think about it being the intersection of the MVP (product), a sizable and easily targeted customer segment (MVS), and providing enough value to charge a fee (willingness to pay).
Often too much time is spent on the product with less attention to the fact that the GTM strategy also includes articulating why customers should care (unique value proposition) and a business model to cost-effectively find them and convert them to customers. The world’s greatest EdTech tool will still likely fail if the company can’t build market awareness, cost-effectively find buyers and charge enough for the product to pay the bills. Another common EdTech pitfall is overemphasizing the features (Simon Sinek calls them “what’s”) instead of the value proposition (Simon calls them the “whys”). Research and feedback can reduce the unknowns over time. In EdTech, almost all products are new to the buyers so GTM strategy is likely going to center around early adopters and innovators. In addition, EdTech is a very noisy market. You aren’t just competing against companies that offer similar products, you are competing against every company marketing to your target audience. Startups don’t have to rely on a single GTM strategy. They can have a few. In either case, excellent feedback mechanisms are critical to be able to make adjustments. A GTM strategy will likely be relevant for between three and eighteen months before needing to be updated.
Remember, you are creating the processes necessary for your business to scale. The size of the business — lemonade stand, food truck, storefront — is less important than laying the foundation for the next phase of growth.
