The Convergence
Posts
The #1 reason early-stage startups fail to scale

The #1 reason early-stage startups fail to scale

The secret every top founder knows...

Lillian Pierson
October 04, 2024 • Read Time: 6 minutes

Here’s the deal , if you’re reading this then one of these three things is probably true about you…

EITHER

You’re a founder or leader of a pretty high-growth tech scale-up. Operations are getting more complicated by the day and the simple foundational marketing tactics that got you where you are today simply aren’t moving the needle anymore. There some things that are working well, but lots of resources going into growth strategies that don’t produce results. The mixture on that is probably 20/80, respectively.

You’re running a smaller VC backed startup and still looking to validate product-market fit. You’ve probably already invested in a bunch of marketing strategies that are only appropriate for scaling growth, and they didn’t do much except waste budget… You didn’t have a huge budget to begin with, but you’ve got a sneaking suspicion that you’ve been shooting yourself in the foot by trying to wing it with this marketing thing yourself.

You’re a pre-revenue technical founder (or aspiring founder) - maybe you have funding, maybe you’re bootstrapping… You may have even built a product, but the money’s just not flowing in. You know you need a foundational marketing strategy to support a successful launch, but (a) you don’t have much of an audience and (b) you don’t know where to start with the marketing stuff.

Am I right?

Now, one of the things that I love about my work as a marketing strategist and fractional CMO for tech startups is that I get to speak and converse with powerful, industry-leading tech execs on a near daily basis…

Today I want to let you in on one secret of success that runs consistent among this crowd.

All the best industry-leading tech execs are effective at leveraging data, AI, and automation to support and drive the growth of their company and it’s bottom-line revenue.

I said that :)

That secret: They always, always, always use data, AI, and automation to support and drive the growth of their company and it’s bottom-line revenue.

Sounds simple right?

But, the thing is - using data and AI to drive growth must be done in a strategic manner. No willy-nilly, throw spagetti at the wall and see if it sticks approaches.

Otherwise, run the risk of wasting budget, or - even worse - wasting time that could have otherwise been spent driving revenue gains.

There’s good news - with a little bit of handholding and procedural support, you too can build data- and AI- strategies that drive predictable growth.

The bad news though, I can’t explain it all in this one email…

Over the next few months, as we roll out the launch of my latest book, The Data & AI Imperative, I’ll be sending emails that are designed to get you started, get you inspired, and get you moving on building out you’re own strategies for world domination.

Are you with me? If so, hit reply and say “hey”.

That’s all I had for today… Oh, except one thing - wouldn’t want you to miss this:

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

If you're dealing with fragmented customer data across multiple systems, you know the frustration.

🔸 Incomplete or outdated information makes it hard to get reliable insights.

🔸 Your AI workflows get slowed down because your data sources don’t communicate.

🔸 Every customer query takes longer than it should because you’re pulling from scattered data points.

One of my colleagues built a pretty elegant solution to all these woes.

His name is Steven Renwick and his product is Tilores.

This week on ProductHunt, they launched a new RAG feature, and with Tilores Identity RAG, you can:

Unify your customer data into a single, reliable source — so your AI models can access complete, up-to-date information.
Keep your data secure and within your infrastructure while also keeping it ready for real-time searches and updates.
Seamlessly integrate with your current systems and ensure that your data is always GDPR-compliant.

As part of the launch, they’re giving away $500 in free credits to help you get started. That’s $500 towards faster, more accurate, and more efficient AI workflows.

You don’t have to let fragmented data slow you down.

*Disclaimer: I have no idea how long they’re going to be giving out these free credits, so if you’re curious, I’d claim yours now.

ON THE BLOG

AI-Driven Marketing Insights: Meet & Learn Directly From My CMO Mentor, Madhukar Kumar

Unlock the potential of AI-driven marketing to optimize campaigns, enhance customer engagement, and drive measurable growth. Learn from Madhukar Kumar exactly how to leverage cutting-edge AI tools and strategies to transform your marketing efforts and stay competitive in today's data-driven world.

READ MORE

With that, I’m wishing you the loveliest of weekends ahead. Cheers, until next week!

All the best,