Where Early-Stage Founders Should Focus First

Most founders think their marketing problem is "we need more leads."
But when you dig in, the real problem is this: you're not bad at marketing. You're just trying to operate a late-stage funnel in an early-stage company.

The Pattern You're Stuck In

You're posting on LinkedIn. Running ads. Redoing your homepage. Building case studies.

All at the same time. With a team of three people.

No wonder nothing's moving.

The B2B Marketing Funnel Mistake: Wrong Sequence for Early-Stage

The textbook funnel says: Awareness → Interest → Consideration → Evaluation. That works if you're Nike. Or if you have budget, brand recognition, and a marketing team.

But if you're early-stage B2B SaaS? That sequence will burn you out before it builds pipeline.

What Actually Works for Seed Stage Marketing

Interest → Awareness → Consideration → Evaluation. Why?

• If no one raises their hand, awareness is hollow.
• If no one understands you, consideration collapses.
• If no one has a category anchor, evaluation never happens.

Let's break it down using the marketing funnel stages:

• Interest = "I recognize myself in this."
• Awareness = "I've seen them before."
• Consideration = "I understand what they are."
• Evaluation = "Is this the best option for me?"

Most early-stage founders skip straight to Awareness or Evaluation. Then wonder why pipeline is empty or full of bad-fit leads.

The Hand-Raiser Rule

Here's the truth: early GTM success is not about filling the top of the funnel. It's about creating enough gravity that the right people lean in.

That's Interest.

Founder POV, category language, problem framing, light education — that's where the real work happens. Interest doesn't feel like traditional marketing. It feels like teaching. Like saying something that makes someone stop and think, Wait. Someone finally gets it.

When you nail Interest, everything downstream gets easier.

The Diagnostic: Where Should You Focus Your B2B Marketing Funnel?

When prospects get on a call with you, what happens?

• They say "oh, I don't need that" or "that's not what I thought you did"? → Interest problem
• They ghost after the first call? → Consideration problem
• They compare you to five other vendors and you lose on price? → Evaluation problem

What does your pipeline look like?

Struggling to get any meetings? → Awareness problem
Meetings easy to book but go nowhere? → Interest problem
Deals stall during evaluation? → Consideration/Evaluation problem

If you're not sure, default to Interest.

Why Interest Is Usually the Right Answer

Awareness won't create pipeline. You're not Nike.

Consideration can't work if people don't understand what you do first.

Most early-stage founders have an Interest problem disguised as an Awareness problem. They think: "If more people knew about us, we'd close more deals."

Reality: people do know about you. They just don't understand why they should care.

What Good Interest Work Looks Like

• Prospects self-qualify before they book a call
• Discovery calls feel like info-gathering, not explaining
• Direct traffic to your site increases
• At events, people say "oh yeah, I've seen you"
• Your "noun" clicks — people can mentally place you: "Oh, it's like X for Y"

Interest doesn't show up in vanity metrics. It shows up in how prospects talk to you.

What to Stop, What to Start

Stop:

• Chasing impressions and reach
• Launching new channels before you've nailed one
• Explaining your product in every piece of content

Start:

• POV content — what do you believe? Why does it matter?
• Clear category placement (if someone can't describe what you do in one sentence, your Interest stage is broken — see this post on defining your ICP)
• Focus on 1–2 channels where your ICP already hangs out
• Message clarity before pipeline volume

The Forcing Function

Your team is stretched. Your budget isn't infinite.
Every dollar and hour you spend on the wrong stage is a dollar and hour you're NOT spending on the right one.
You can't fix this by hiring more people or throwing money at ads. You fix it by choosing your battlefield.

Your Next Move

If you need to focus on Interest:

• Audit your last 10 sales calls — what did prospects misunderstand?
• Rewrite your homepage to answer: What is this? Who is it for? Why now?
• Pick ONE channel and commit for 90 days

If you need to focus on Consideration:

• Map your product to your ICP's pain using their language, not yours
• Make positioning dead simple (revisit your ICP work)

If you need to focus on Evaluation:

• Build proof: real customer stories, before/afters, ROI examples
• Show why you're different and why that matters

The Real Unlock

The funnel isn't the problem. Doing all of it at once is the problem.
You don't need a late-stage playbook. You need an early-stage one. And for most of you, that starts with Interest.
Pick your stage. Go deep. Get it working. Then move to the next one.

Coming Next: The Minimum Viable Marketing Plan (For Each Stage)

Now that you know which stage to focus on, the next question is: what does "going deep" actually look like when you're a three-person team?

In the next post, I'll walk you through:

• The 80/20 of each funnel stage — what actually moves the needle
• Tactical plays you can run without a full marketing team
• How to know if you need outside help or just need more focus
• What "good enough" looks like at each stage so you know when to move on

You don't need a perfect funnel. You just need the right one stage firing at the right time.