Happy Paying Customers ™

What do we mean by GTM micro-tests? Details 👇

"If I am being honest, we've just been throwing spaghetti at the wall to get customers." - every smart founder after 'testing everything'. Just last week, a founder told me what they've tried in 6 months: - Cold outreach - Social media - Content marketing - Paid ads - Events - Community building - Newsletter - Partnerships - Ambassador program They’re still feeling like they’re spinning in place. Know what's missing? A playbook. Random marketing activities = Random results Instead of trying everything, you need: + Clear parameters for what you can win at + ONE priority customer segment to focus on + Specific positioning that resonates + Holistic go-to-market playbook + Systematic micro-tests That's it. No more guessing. No more random acts of marketing. No more wasted time and money. Just a clear path to your first 100 Happy Paying Customers ™. 👉 Want to design a go-to-market playbook for your startup? Next week, I'm going to breakdown what I mean by 'playbooks' including: + a definition + 3 principles + 3 examples Follow me and hit the bell icon on my profile to be notified. What questions do you have about GTM playbooks? P.S. Ashley Chang and I are going live tomorrow at 1 ET to share Sundays playbook to $1M ARR. Join us via “view my website” below my name above.

"I know I need to do marketing, but where do I even start?" This is the question Ashley Chang brought to me in Nov 2023. I still have the go-to-market plan that Ashley sent me to review in Dec 2023. Guess what? That plan is what she executed against to get to $1M ARR. ~14 months in, their strategic direction is still the same. We are revealing Sundays GTM plan this Thursday during our live session: Sundays road to $1M ARR powered by Happy Paying Customers ™. (I'll also explain the framework so you could apply it to your startup). Join Ashley, me and 175 founders / startup peers on Jan 16 at 12 CT. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gTxfeSfb (Last few seats are open)

Big news alert: Ashley Chang’s Sundays is about to hit $1M ARR (annual recurring revenue) in ~18 months from conception. For a largely bootstrapped startup, this is FAST. For any startup, this is fast. The best part? The co-founders are able to pay themselves meaningfully, too! + What’s been the key milestones on the journey? + When and why did she decide to prioritize go-to-market? + How’d she use the Happy Paying Customers ™ methodology? + What was her go-to-market plan? + What have been her key learnings? + What’s the plan looking forward to $2M? Ashley and I are going to cover all this in a public session on January 16 at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT. Register here: https://lnkd.in/g4YrjAbW What questions do you have for Ashley or me? Comment below!

“I admit it. Marketing is way harder than I thought it would be. I frankly thought it would be easy." - said one of the founders in my portfolio who has a day job as a CTO at a popular B2B marketplace. I have heard this countless times from founders who thought that building the solution would be the hardest part. This isn't just limited to technical founders. I've also heard the same from founders who are completely new to tech. There is a reason why they say first time founders build product, second time founders build distribution. 👉 This is why I'll die on the hill that, especially underestimated founders who have more at stake, need to focus on distribution from day 0. Figure out your go-to-market fundamentals. How? Another hill I am willing to die on: by getting Happy Paying Customers ™ asap. YES, even before you invest your time, money, and energy into building something. Not sure what to sell? Figure it out. Already built something? Sell it. Feeling stuck? Ask for help. You got this ✨ --- Hi, I am Sweta. I am a champion for underestimated founders (like myself) on the journey to their first $1M. I help them get their first 100 Happy Paying Customers ™. Join other smart, ambitious, and kind founders in the Founder-Led Marketing Club, the highest value membership for new founders running go-to-market micro-tests as they build and grow their startups. Snag 1 of the final slots for the year before the holidays! DM me to asses fit and timing.

I was raised to believe I was capable of most things, but that's not the case for many underestimated founders. I can't thank Sweta Govani 🧩 enough for illuminating this to me in the latest episode of the Marginal Podcast. In cultures like her own, women are encouraged to keep quiet and comply with the systems that silence them time and time again. But beneath that silence, many of these women develop incredible competencies. Heck, many of them become perfectionists because they're not used to second (or even first) chances. And these are precisely the types of people that Sweta supports with Founder-Led Marketing Club - a platform that helps entrepreneurs get their first 100 Happy Paying Customers ™ & drive sustainable wealth. This episode is such a gift for all of the underestimated, but more-than-capable, founders out there seeking alternatives to the ‘growth at all costs’ model. Listen anywhere you find podcasts, and be sure to follow Sweta for more resources on how to build a lucrative business on your own terms. - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eBp254zC - Apple: https://lnkd.in/enr7NZmn - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ex3jxWPT #femalefounder #bootstrapping #startups #dei

I don't believe in systems change, questioning the status quo, <insert whatever other way to disrupt startup land>. I am not here for misogyny, racism, or any of the other -isms. But, what change have we created by shouting about issues like: Only 2% of venture backed startups are women-owned Only 0.5% goes to Black-owned startups And so and so forth? I am not saying this shouldn't change. It should. But why not just play a different game? The above stats are only about 0.5% of startups that DO raise from VCs. 99.5% of startups do not raise. Harsh truth: majority of those should not raise because: + they may not be venture scalable i.e. not a billion dollar potential + venture scaling might not be the right fit for the founder + or, there's not enough info to know what's best This is why underestimated founders are instead focusing on building thriving businesses on their terms. How? Fueled by Happy Paying Customers ™. Heck, if you're a new founder, the best way to de-risk your business is simply to focus on happy paying customers from day 0. If you're just getting started, remember this: Customers only care about the value you deliver to them. If they like and trust you, they'll buy from you. Even if your product is sub-par to start. Go get customer 1. You got this. I'm rooting for you ✨

Big news: It is time to say goodbye to my business - Doing Good, Well. If you are new around here, you may not know this but my business is called Doing Good, Well. I officially started and registered my business in September 2022. When I started, I was a marketing consultant for early-stage tech startups with a special focus on mission-driven startups. "Doing Good" referred to the mission-driven part. "Well" had dual meaning: 1) Holding ourselves to a higher standard for the 'good' 2) Doing financially well i.e. not having to choose between mission & money All this made sense to me and I got to work. One dream client admitted to me that she had hesitated to contact me for a while. She shared, "I wasn't sure if you'd think my business was 'mission-driven'." I instantly got rid of the 'mission-driven' language in all my materials. I switched to 'values-driven'. Anyone who knows me, knows I have a very high standard for ethics so values-driven is accurate for the type of humans I like working with. However, soon I discovered that this, too, was not attracting my dream customers. As the months went on, I decided that the business name and phrasing of this did not matter for now. I shifted my focus to one thing: * whom* I want to support. In the last 2 years, I've had 500+ conversations, advised 100s, and supported at least 70, not counting the workshops I've run. As I would explain my methodology to founders, there was one piece that resonated with everyone: your business is just a series of hypotheses until you have Happy Paying Customers ™. ✨ One said, "you're changing my brain chemistry about go-to-market". ✨ Another, "I get why my single focus needs to be Happy Paying Customers." ✨ Yet another DMed me, "I just used that term with my team today!" I overheard founders using it in presentations or mentioning it in LinkedIn posts. I discovered a new way to articulate my mission: I am passionate about supporting underestimated founders in building thriving businesses on their terms. I fundamentally believe that to do so, the founder has to be singularly focused on growing Happy Paying Customers ™. Customers = acquiring good fit ones Paying = monetizing them Happy = retaining them 🧩 Now, here's the big news: I believe in this so much that this is officially my business name. New logo, brand and website coming soon. Yup, I am going all in. You didn't really think I was shutting down, did you? I'm just getting started 😇

"I have come to the realization that there are no shortcuts. I need to talk to customers." I hear this from at least 1 in 5 founders I am supporting. Few weeks ago, I was reviewing the draft go-to-market plan for a new Founder-Led Marketing Club member. The founder had watched the tutorials and filled in the template. There were even extra comments and context provided. First look, I thought this plan would be ready for testing. But something was missing. As usual, I reviewed the product demo video and other information about the startup, too. I slept on it. Then I came back and read through the plan again. Something WAS missing: + the founder has built a MVP + there are 2 customers But, there was no clear replicable Happy Paying Customer: - there wasn't a clear definition of the ideal customers - nor, the specific painful problem they face This is a critical piece of the go-to-market puzzle. I started to go through and add in comments asking the founder questions to help me fill in the gaps about the ideal customers and their pain points. I thought this information lived in documents he had not sent me. Or maybe in his head? (as founders we tend to store a ton in our head!). Alas, that was not the case. During a small group coaching session he said something like: "Sweta was asking me all these questions I did not have answers to. It made me realize, I need to talk to customers." 🌀 --> 🧩 Here's the good news: I had provided him with an add-on assignment to explain the 'why' behind his startup. He wrote a 5-page document. I was reading it while having an afternoon snack...Ya'll I ate it up faster than my snack. His mission and fire is so clear. Now he is talking to the * right * people in the right ways. Once he has some of the right insights, he can draft a new go-to-market plan and we can focus on how to micro-test it. Best news: he'll have flexed his 'talking to customer' muscle which will be exactly what he needs to turn those research conversations into sales 💪 TL;DR: talking to (prospective) customers pays dividends in more ways than you might imagine. Yes, it is a ton of work. Yes, it can be uncomfortable. You can do it. You got this ✨ --- Hi, I am Sweta. I help new founders get on the right path to $1M ARR. If you're ready to get your first 100 Happy Paying Customers ™, join smart, kind and ambitious founders in the Founder-Led Marketing Club. I'll help you draft a go-to-market plan and run micro-tests, including how to talk to prospective customers.

I was literally laughed at. I must have been about 10, or max 12, years old. A boy around my age asked me: what do you want to be when you grow up? (Backstory time: I grew up in India until I was 13 i.e. I moved to the US in time for high school. Yes, it was quite a transition. That's a story for another day. No woman in my life worked - mom, aunts, grandma, neighbors, etc. The only exception were a handful of women who owned their own micro-business (think selling clothing to neighbors). My main role model for work were my dad, uncle, and grandpa. They owned a business. This was a big deal especially since my grandpa came from extreme poverty. Also a story for another day.) When the young boy asked me what I wanted to do with my life, I blurted out: I want to be a 'business woman'. One of the most dramatic memories of my childhood is this boy's reaction. He, very literally, burst out laughing. I do not remember his name. I wish I did so I could look him up. LOL But, boy, who is laughing now? 😇 Here's to all the underestimated founders. Don't let the bullies' underestimation of you define you. Here's to building thriving businesses on *our terms* powered by the only validation that matters: Happy Paying Customers ™ 🧩 📈 Pictured: me excited about a wall incorporating little meaningful pieces. Build your life and business in a way that makes sense for you. Despite the bullies. We got this ✨