Entering multiple market segments? Bad move. Investors read ‘lack of focus’. Pursuing different buyer personas? Bad move. It suggests you don’t really know your solution.

☄️ More segments mean more money spent. Instead of focusing capital, you’re spreading it. You’re diluting it. You’re moving slow.  It’s a lose-lose.

It might require a completely different strategy for each market segment. A product-led strategy targets direct-to-consumer markets with low average contract value and involves heavy reliance on inbound marketing and product development at the expense of salespeople. Meanwhile, a sales-led strategy (often needed for enterprise buyers) will involve triple the spending on hiring salespeople, as well as account-based marketing and PR – and is mostly incompatible with the product-led approach since it requires a completely different talent mix and different use of resources. This looks like a recipe for chaos to any investor.

Investors love a focused go-to-market strategy. Stay narrow. Have one persona. If your target audience grows organically along the way, great. But have one clear, focused target at the start.

👷🏼‍♂️ Building a marketplace? They’re tricky. You might need to target two different personas. If that’s your case, present it right. Avoid seeming scattered. Your go-to-market strategy, like your product, should be straightforward and easy to grasp.