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At ASquared, we believe a launch isn't the finish line – it's the first leg of a journey. The stronger your go-to-market (GTM) foundation, the more your early traction compounds. And done right, your launch day doesn't feel like a gamble – it feels inevitable, like the moment you've been building towards all along.
If you've seen our post "Built to Fail: Why Early Traction Should Start Before Your Product Does", you'll know we lean hard into early momentum. A robust GTM plan is simply the next piece of that puzzle, one that ties your product, brand, and audience together in a way that feels intentional, not improvised.
Below are the secret ingredients we think about when we're working with early-stage founders on a launch... the things you can't afford to ignore without stacking risk against yourself.
A lot of founders skip this bit but the "why" is what gives your product a point of view: who you are, what you believe and why this product matters. Emotion (when measured) can strengthen your story, even if it feels a bit uncomfortable. Creating a personal connection to what you’re building – and outlining why you’re best placed to be the one building it – is compelling.
This is the stuff you can’t make up, it’s got to be a genuine foundation to build everything else on top of. Whatever it is, your story should feel coherent wherever someone encounters you: your landing page, your pitch deck, your app store listing, your LinkedIn bio...
Please don’t find yourself thinking "why isn't everyone just coming to us?". The reality is people already have habits, defaults and tolerances, and so many things fight for our attention. Even if you’ve got the best product in the world, most of them are not waiting around for you. The fastest way to be forgettable is to aim for everyone. Your early users will likely be a narrow (opinionated) slice of your total market, so be honest about the gap you're filling.
Even the biggest brands get this wrong! Gap’s 2010 rebrand (swapping its iconic blue box logo for a bland Helvetica wordmark) is the classic case of trying to modernise for “everyone” and pleasing no one. Pepsi’s shift from “The Choice of a New Generation” to the hollow “That’s What I Like” had the same problem – it lost its edge, its tribe, its reason. The brands that nail it speak directly to a specific mindset.
Brand identity isn't a nice logo – it's a living system that must perform under real-world constraints. Accessibility and consistency across your product, marketing and support channels aren’t extras, they’re fundamentals, whether that’s visually, through your tone of voice or your interaction design.
We see too many startups bolt on brand as an afterthought. That mismatch silently erodes trust as users inevitably move between your site, onboarding, socials, app, and support channels.
Your initial launch might be low budget. And that's absolutely fine. But it must not look low effort. Quality of content and craft is the easiest way to signal credibility. A sloppy landing page, generic imagery, or lazy (AI!) content will erode trust faster than any ad campaign could build it. People respond to craft, nuance, and personality. None of which comes for free.
You can still be clever without spending big though, and healthy budgets don't guarantee success. I’ve seen elegant, low-spend launches win because they used insight instead of noise. Save as much budget as you can for your full launch, and test, learn, and iterate before you invest heavily. The smartest spend is the one that doubles down on what you already know works.
You don't want to launch into silence so use your GTM strategy as a learning machine before day one. Start with a lean landing page or microsite with a clear value proposition, and don’t skip the social channel set ups (go where your audience already are instead of expecting them to come to you), email capture, and pre-orders or waitlist mechanics.
Gather feedback and validate demand. Whoever joins your waitlist or signs up early isn't just a contact – they're your first evangelists, your testers, your word-of-mouth engine. If you skip this, your launch becomes your first exposure and that's risky. But note that this needs love and attention, and probably a bit of shouting into a void to start with. Build traction consistently but don’t expect it to happen overnight, and when they’re there keep nurturing them.
When your app goes live, you want every touchpoint to feel unified and intentional. That means having your assets ready before launch, and making sure they speak to each other:
Once you have the creative foundation, the next question is: where and how will people discover you?
Your GTM plan should map out channel tests, budgets, and measurement, but also contingencies. What if Channel A underperforms? How quickly can you reallocate? Be ready to pivot messaging, repositioning, or channel mix. But calibrate carefully to avoid knee-jerk changes that waste momentum. Action-driven-patience is a virtue!
A GTM isn't a static document. It's a hypothesis. So you need a scoreboard and a process to evolve it. Define north-star metrics – activation, retention, referrals, LTV – definitely not just installs. Implement analytics before launch so you don't scramble afterwards.
Set up rapid feedback loops, qualitative and quantitative. Talk to early users and monitor reviews and support channels. Over time, collect signals that tell you not just whether your GTM is working, but why.
You can outsource your GTM planning and execution, but you can’t outsource its success. It lives in your team culture and coordination. Make sure everyone (dev, design, product, marketing – even if they’re all you!) shares the narrative, language, and metrics. Have fallback plans for review delays, creative asset errors, and last-minute bugs. Launch day (week) will stress-test your team, so build in buffer, clarity, and resilience.
Don't get stuck in "perfect" mode. Your GTM plan is meant to evolve. Always ask: does this support the story we're telling? Guard your brand consistency early – be territorial!
Where possible, time your launch around momentum – industry events, news windows, relevant cycles – but don't delay indefinitely waiting for the perfect moment (and also understand that others may be doing exactly the same), so noise matters. Test the question people really need answering: "why should I care?" If users can't articulate this in a sentence, they won't stay. That's not a reason to dumb things down, it's a reason to sharpen them up.
And finally, think it through but don’t get bogged down. If this stuff was easy, no start-ups would fail, every product would thrive and consumers would have no spare cash for the next shiny thing - but if it was impossible, no one would ever do it!
Let's see what we can make together.
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