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Growth Paths / Go-to-Market Playbook
IntermediateFREEEntrepreneur

Go-to-Market Playbook

Five GTM capabilities that compound. Pick the ones your business needs now — each stands alone.

A 36-week path for founders and early GTM hires building the commercial engine of a startup. Six capabilities, all elective — a B2B founder picks the sales process, a consumer founder picks content or press, a deep-tech founder picks IP. Each one has a different proof standard.

0 required outcomes36 weeksCredential on completion

Path outcomes

EntrepreneurOptional

Build a Sales Process from Scratch

Elective — B2B track. A repeatable sales process documented end-to-end: ICP definition, outreach sequence, discovery script, objection log, and 5 closed deals with signed contracts as proof.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Map and document your current sales motion
  2. 2Run 20 documented discovery calls
  3. 3Close 5 deals and write a repeatable sales playbook
EntrepreneurOptional

Build a Marketing Engine from Scratch

Elective — demand-generation track. 100+ qualified leads per month from a documented, repeatable marketing system. The system (not the leads alone) is the proof — document what you do every week.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Define ICP and validated messaging
  2. 2Build and validate one acquisition channel
  3. 3Set up attribution and conversion tracking
EntrepreneurOptional

Build a Content-Led Business

Elective — content track. 10,000 monthly readers from organic content with a documented publishing cadence. Traffic analytics export is the proof artifact.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Content engine built
  2. 210,000 monthly readers
  3. 3First attribution sale
EntrepreneurOptional

Launch on Product Hunt

Elective — community launch track. Top-20 Product Hunt launch or 200+ upvotes in a single launch day. Screenshot of final ranking with timestamp is the proof.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Launch assets ready
  2. 2Community built
  3. 3Launch day complete
EntrepreneurOptional

Get Your First Press Coverage

Elective — earned-media track. A feature (not a mention) in a publication your target customers actually read. Cold-pitched with no paid placement — the published URL is the proof.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Press list built
  2. 2Pitch sent to 20+ journalists
  3. 3Feature published
EntrepreneurOptional

File a Patent

Elective — IP track, primarily for deep-tech, hardware, and biotech founders. A successfully filed and published patent application with USPTO or equivalent national office. The patent number is the proof.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Document the invention — prior art search and patentability assessment
  2. 2File the patent application — provisional or full
  3. 3Patent pending — first office action or application publication

Free resources for this path

Every resource listed here is free. No affiliate links. No sponsored placements.

Free certifications in inbound marketing, sales enablement, and content marketing. The Sales Enablement and Inbound Sales courses are directly relevant to the sales process and marketing engine milestones.

Free, long-form essays on go-to-market from First Round's portfolio founders. The 'Sales' and 'Marketing' sections have the most credible free content on early-stage GTM at the startup stage.

Free. The only accurate source of organic search traffic data for your content. Required tool for the content-led business milestone — traffic analytics from GSC is the accepted proof artifact.

Free guidance on provisional patent applications — the fastest path to filing with a USPTO filing date. A provisional gives you 12 months to file a full utility patent at a fraction of the cost.

Free source for earned media opportunities — reporters actively looking for founder quotes and expert sources. The fastest path to a legitimate press mention without a PR agency.

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