Go-to-Market

Definition

The strategy for launching a product to customers, which in startup land typically involves a 90-slide deck, a Slack channel called launch-war-room, and a blog post nobody reads. It's called go-to-market because go-to-three-customers-who-are-your-friends doesn't sound as impressive.

Example Usage

"Our go-to-market strategy leverages thought leadership, strategic partnerships, and a prayer, which are listed in decreasing order of effectiveness."

Related Terms

Beginner

pay-it-forward mentality

The cultural expectation in startup ecosystems that successful entrepreneurs and investors should help newcomers, supposedly creating a virtuous cycle. In practice, it's often networking disguised as altruism.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

commercialization

The process of taking an idea, product, or technology and transforming it into something that actually makes money, because apparently innovation for its own sake doesn't pay the bills. It's the startup world's coming-of-age ceremony, where brilliant concepts either become profitable products or expensive lessons. Essentially, it's the bridge between "we built something cool" and "people are actually buying it."

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

Scale

The startup obsession with growing bigger, faster, and more unsustainably, as if a company were a goldfish and the market were an ocean. Everyone wants to scale, few know how, and most just end up spending more money to lose money at an impressive rate.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

captive VC

A venture capital fund owned and operated by a larger corporation to invest in strategically relevant startups. They bring money and potential acquisition interest, but everyone knows who they're really working for.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

pivot or die

The startup mantra that romanticizes abandoning your original business plan when it becomes clear nobody wants what you're building. It's plan B through Z, pitched as strategic thinking rather than desperate flailing.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

distribution waterfall

The specific order in which investment proceeds are distributed among LPs and GPs based on the fund's legal agreements. It's the pecking order that determines who eats first at the exit feast.

🚀 Startup / VC

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