Shauna Turner

Venture Partner, Loyal VC

GO TO MARKET

Founders Institute
Silicon Valley, Virtual Cohort
August 4, 2021

© 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.
 Startup School:
“A startup is a temporary organization
designed to search for a repeatable and
scalable business model.” Steve Blank
Business Model
Business School:
“Go-to-market strategy is a
planned system for distribution and
delivery of goods and services to a new
target market, including, among other
things communication of marketing
messages and brand values.”

Value Proposition
Product / MVP

UX
TAM Customer Journey
GO-TO-

Use Cases
SAM
SOM

MARKET
STRATEGY

CUSTOMER SCALABLE
DISCOVERY VALIDATION
ACQUISITION GROWTH

© 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.
 Phase I: Planning

§ Revisit your business model assumptions so that you know

what you need to test validate.
§ Create a plan for connecting with potential customers, market
leaders, opinion leaders to get feedback (Social? Email? Referral?)
§ Set a strategy for how to engage potential customers in interviews
GO-TO- that provides data collection while asking open ended questions.
§ Develop actionable market tests for your assumptions.
MARKET § Figure out what key metrics (TTR, COS, CAC) your market tests
and activities will inform.
MIND SET

CUSTOMER SCALABLE
DISCOVERY VALIDATION
ACQUISITION GROWTH

© 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.
 Phase II: Action

§ Go time! Perform your market testing.

§ Connect with potential customers, experts and key opinion leaders and
business influencers; record results in a structured format.
§ Track the results of market tests in line with your biz model assumptions,
product plan & business unit economics (Spreadsheet!)
§ Adapt in market testing (A/B testing + other methods)
GO-TO- § Resist reacting to early feedback stay the course for your early testing
until you get actionable feedback from customers / market.
MARKET § Begin grouping key metrics your market tests and activities will inform
ACTIONS
CUSTOMER SCALABLE
DISCOVERY VALIDATION
ACQUISITION GROWTH

© 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.
 DATA
Product Market Fit

DATA DRIVEN
INSIGHTS § What does the data tell you?
§ What have you learned that was unexpected?
§ How can you feed this data into the key metrics for your business?
§ What do you now need to put into action based on what you have
learned about your market and customers?
§ How does this information flow into your V2.0 marketing strategy?
§ How does this information flow into your product strategy?
§ How does this data inform your investor strategy and communications?
© 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.
 GTM CHALLENGES AREAS: HERE’S WHAT I’VE SEEN…

¡ Lack of validation strategy for business model opting instead to ’try a bunch of things’ and end up in
analysis paralysis because you aren’t sure which actions led to success / failure to engage target audience.
¡ Lock into strategy too soon and spend $$ on growth before validating model to set metrics.
¡ Mindset: instead of learning from “mistakes” you don’t want to be “wrong” and ignore the data.
¡ When something isn’t working, you try solving it before you can learn from the problem.
¡ Fail to “lock in wins” with customers through longer term agreements (subscription, renewal,
contracts).
¡ Don’t calculate the length of sales cycle (CASE STUDY!) and end up with a very long TTR
¡ Try too many things at once, like multi product launch or providing complex product / service options
to early customers

© 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.
 © 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.

WHY CHOOSE A SALES STRATEGY CASE STUDY?

§ Sales strategy is a key cost driver across your whole business.

§ Sales strategy affects: TTR, MRR, Investment Milestones, Product Pipeline,
HR Costs and Team Composition.
§ Sales Strategy is often not evaluated very well.
§ Many entrepreneurs don’t realize how it affects product development costs.
§ This decision can easily create compound GTM errors and may have an impact
on investment.
CASE STUDY:
COST OF Market Data Complexity?

SALES...WHY? Competition?
Access to
Cost of Hiring? Economic Buyer?

SMALL BIZ MID MARKET ENTERPRISE

Complexity & Cost of Sales (CCA)

 © 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.

Market Ability to Influence

Composition?
Sales Cycle Sophistication of
Structure? Sales Motion
Sophistication of
Need for
Sales Motion
Sales Cycle Length? Agreements?

2 3
CASE STUDY: Market Data
Complexity? Product
COST OF Maturity?
Feature Rollout
SALES...WHAT? Competition?
Access to
Cost of Hiring? Economic Buyer?

SMALL BIZ MID MARKET ENTERPRISE

Complexity & Cost of Sales (CCA)

 © 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.

Market Ability to Influence

Composition?
Sales Cycle Sophistication of
CASE STUDY: Structure? Sales Motion
Sophistication of
COST OF Sales Motion
Need for
Agreements?
Sales Cycle Length?
SALES...HOW? 2 3

Market Data Product

Complexity?
Maturity?
§ Product Development Feature Rollout
§ Product Pipeline (features)
Competition?
§ Support Costs Access to
§ Distribution Cost of Hiring? Economic Buyer?
§ Legal Costs
§ Insurance Costs (GLA)
§ HR Costs
§ Time To Revenue (TTR)
SMALL BIZ MID MARKET ENTERPRISE
= Business Unit Economics
Complexity & Cost of Sales (CCA)
YOUR GTM DATA,TALK TRACK & PITCH DECK
FORECAST Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4
😳
What is
Product MVP Full Launch X3 Products X5 Markets
going on
CCA $10,000 $5000 $5000 $5
here????
Revenue $100 10X 30X $2B

DATA PIPELINE or MILESTONES

M1 M2 M3 M4 M5

As an investor … I am looking for:

• Cohesion of data, metrics and milestones, pipeline, traction.
• A well integrated approach to all the above.
• Clarity that the CEO understands and can explain the relationship between decisions
and outcomes of your GTM.

© 2021 Shauna Turner. This material has been developed for Founders Institute and is not to be copied or distributed without the express permission of the creator.
THANK YOU!
Shauna Turner
Venture Partner, Loyal VC
Advisor, FI Silicon Valley

All my best for Silicon Valley Founders learning and

success in GTM!