A founder can only excel at one function at a time. In the beginning, it's product. Once that's solid, the focus must shift entirely to go-to-market and founder-led sales. Later, it may become finance. This is a conscious trade-off and sequential juggling act.
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After achieving repeatability, the founder/CEO has a 'second job.' They must stop building and selling the product themselves and start building the company that does it for them. This means shifting from being the PM of the product to becoming the PM of the company.
Founders must consider their sales motion (e.g., PLG vs. enterprise sales-led) when designing the product. A product built for one motion won't sell effectively in another, potentially forcing a costly redesign. This concept extends "product-market fit" to "product-market-sales fit."
Many founders believe their main job is to build the product. However, successful CEOs like OpenAI's Sam Altman dedicate at least half their time to promotion, which is the true engine of growth. Without it, even the best product will fail because no one will know it exists.
Many founders mistakenly believe achieving product-market fit is the final step to explosive growth. However, growth only ignites after also finding a repeatable go-to-market fit, which translates the founder's initial sales success into a scalable process that a sales team can execute consistently.
The "build it and they will come" mindset is a trap. Founders should treat marketing and brand-building not as a later-stage activity to be "turned on," but as a core muscle to be developed in parallel with the product from day one.
Founders can secure meetings, pivot in conversations, and leverage their deep product knowledge in ways that hired salespeople cannot. This initial success is a unique, non-repeatable phase of founder-led selling, not a scalable go-to-market strategy to be replicated by a sales team.
A founder's role is constantly changing—from individual contributor to manager to culture builder. Success requires being self-aware enough to recognize you're always in a new, unfamiliar role you're not yet good at. Sticking to the old job you mastered is a primary cause of failure to scale.
When facing multiple promising growth opportunities, founders should avoid pursuing them all at once. Instead, sequence them by designating one channel as the primary "engine" for the next 6-18 months, treating others as mere proof points to maintain focus.
Founder-led selling is essential for the first 6-12 months but becomes a critical growth bottleneck if it continues. Founders who can't let go create a self-fulfilling prophecy where the business can't scale beyond them. They must be coached to transition from being the primary seller to an enabler of the sales team.
Scaling a company isn't linear. Founders first achieve Product-Market Fit. The next stage is "Company-Market Fit," building organizational structures for growth. Crucially, they must then cycle back to reinventing the product to stay ahead, rather than just managing the machine they built.
