What should be the main forte of a founder starting something in digital/tech space in today's time? For any business, what is the main growth factor, is it a best engineered product or a decent product with clever marketing? What your experience says…
Product or Marketing?
byu/Witty_Possession_545 inEntrepreneur
Posted by Witty_Possession_545
6 Comments
Product, always. Ten years ago it was relatively easy to market a bad product. Now, it’s just hella expensive to cut through the noise even with a half decent one.
So, focus on your product first.
Les deux, mais le marketing est une barrière invisible qui détermine les personnes qui vont réussir ou non.
Dans le marketing, il y a la récupération de clients, l’écoute, l’analyse des concurrents (qui est sous estimé).
It’s almost never either/or. In SaaS/fintech, I’ve seen plenty of “best engineered” products flop because nobody heard about them, and I’ve seen some wildly average products scale with outstanding GTM.
Early on, the founder’s superpower is usually sales and structured customer feedback, not just code or campaigns. A good-enough product plus relentless validation and creative distribution will beat perfectionism 90% of the time.
Make something people want *and* make sure the right people actually find it. If you can get even a basic version working and customers genuinely care, you’ll have something worth marketing (and improving). If you hide behind polish or go all-in on hype, both usually catch up with you eventually.
In my experience, fast learning loops > theoretical best in either engineering or marketing.
The best approach is, product halfway (beta), then marketing, then product again.
Gives you an idea of the product applicability, your audience and whether it will work or not. If the results are good, you can move to finishing your product and create a waitlist in the mean time
Neither. It’s something that users love and will pay for.
Honestly, both product and marketing matter! But if I had to pick, I would say marketing edges it out in the early stages. A great product that no one knows about goes nowhere, but a decent product with strong marketing can still get traction and evolve through feedback. The best combo is when marketing brings users in and the product is good enough to keep them coming back.