Rita Casimiro at Blue Bio Value in 2022.
In the last few years, it became clear and almost a mainstream concept that social and environmental challenges are great opportunities to be fostered through the approach of a business venture. In 2022 impact companies represented 15% of the broader European tech market (Atomico 2022), and as such, both impact and mainstream VCs are increasingly attentive to the opportunity impact presents.
At maze, we have been supporting early-stage impact startups to develop and grow. Despite the level of knowledge and content available out there, many early-stage founders struggle with their go-to-market strategy, which ends up having a structural negative impact on their future journey. Here are six aspects to consider before crafting your go-to-market strategy:
Not all founders have previous expertise working with the problem or industry they are tackling, nor do they need it. In certain contexts, it may help in your differentiation. In others, it may benefit from entering as an outsider with a fresh and unbiased perspective. Regardless of your situation, by the time you develop your company, you must become obsessed and a real expert about the problem you are tackling and the market you are entering.
Before you start developing a product, you must know the ins and outs of the industry, understand the current incentives in place and the psychology (the needs, the pains and the motivations) of the key stakeholders playing a part in it.
Immersing yourself in such context and going above and beyond the initial superficial bias, both as an insider and outsider, is essential to develop a solution that adds real value, and that may offer a feasible alternative to the market stakeholders – especially users and payers.
In addition, and focusing on the reality of an impact founder, your company journey will require you to become an ambassador in raising awareness for the dimension and importance of the problem you are fighting for, so deep insights are essential to promote credible interactions and gain the confidence of those you need to get onboard.
When starting to develop the MVP and investing further in product development, many founders make the mistake of taking certain assumptions for granted without adequately validating them. The results tend to be months of work and resources invested and a product that is not actually appealing to clients or aligned with their ability and/or willingness to pay. Of all mistakes a founder can make, I dare to say that not taking a user-centric approach is the most common and a very expensive one, from which neither the founders who have raised and spent millions are sparred from.
An example of a company that adopts this methodology strategically is Fair Phone, which uses as one of the sources of information their forum to continuously and actively hear, question and engage with their customers when developing and testing new features – especially important given the disruptive approach that their company has in the market.
Applying a culture of user-centric design is crucial in developing a successful product as it helps prioritize the real needs and wants of the end user. By understanding and catering to the user, the product is more likely to meet their requirements and drive customer satisfaction. This leads to increased user adoption, positive word-of-mouth, and better business outcomes.
Ultimately, a user-centric design allows teams to be focused on delivering deep and sustainable value when developing a product and prevents them from falling into the trap of dispersing in the development of several features and services ahead of time and without a robust rationale behind it.
Such an approach may also signal and support a company to pivot its model earlier rather than later, saving considerable amounts of resources that would be wasted otherwise. It is no coincidence that in successful companies, founders prioritise and ensure close contact in customer service activities until product-market fit is reached.