How to Navigate Startup Ecosystem Growth

I've bootstrapped two SaaS startups from $0 - $1,000,000 ARR in the Shopify ecosystem, making every mistake you can imagine. Here’s how I’d do it again if I started today: 1. PICK A LANE: - There are two lanes. Brands doing > $1M and brands doing < $1M. - The GTM motions for each are RADICALLY DIFFERENT. - Don't try to do both until you have mastered at least one. Let’s focus on building for brands > $1M, as this is where I’ve screwed up the most. 2. PRODUCT: - Don’t write a_single_line_of_code. - Spend 60-90 days talking with brands. - Refine the pitch/solution/value each time. - Look at their face for signs of interest, instead of their words. - Focus on where you are adding revenue for the lowest lift possible. - Brands will not switch providers or onboard a new tool otherwise. - See how many will commit to a 3-4 month free trial based on hardcoded screenshots of what the solution will look like. Super hard, but it's gonna be a tough first 18 months without this. 3. DISTRIBUTION: - Build in public on LinkedIn and X as a founder. 100x more effective than any paid ads you could run at this stage. - Build a TAM list in Hubspot (around 25,000 brands) to work from. Companies and Contacts. Enrich the data and work backwards. Track how much of the market you are penetrating as you grow. Study how Romain Lapeyre did this at Gorgias (his SaaStr videos are essential viewing) - GOOD cold email. Good, being the key. I’ve been fortunate to have some people in the ecosystem share their strategies in detail with me recently. Still works if done right vs spray and pray. - Invest in SEO early. I’m surprised at how much traffic we get from our blog and the people who show up through RB2B every day. - Buy a $299 Webflow template and hire a good designer to work on branding. Update the template. - Build best-in-class integrations for Klaviyo / Postscript / Gorgias / Skio/ etc. Use their latest tech/API's they want to promote. There’s a chance they could refer/promote to their customer base based on the strength of the integration. At the very least you'll make connections. Tech partnerships will be critical. - Do the same for agency partnerships. No one will take you seriously yet and that’s fine. We’re playing the long game. For every brand you onboard, identify if they’re currently looking for X,Y,Z solution if possible. Refer business to agencies whenever it makes actual sense. Start small, work up. This will come back to you eventually. Leads are the currency. - Show up to every event in your area and every event you can financially make it to. Meet people IRL, it goes a long way and most people in the ecosystem are happy to help. - As soon as you deliver over-the-top service for a brand, ask to put their logo on your site, and plaster over your social. Social proof is HEAVILY Weighted here. Ask for case studies once real results come through. Looks like we're going to the comments to continue 👇

The Partnership Death Cycle is what every company should avoid Too many partnerships fail—not because the strategy was flawed—but due to unrealistic expectations from the outset. Here’s how the death cycle unfolds: 1. Unrealistic expectations are set Leadership expects partnerships to deliver immediate results—often demanding ROI in the same timeframe as direct sales. 2. Resources are cut or never fully committed When quick wins don't materialize, the company pulls back on crucial support like dedicated teams, integration resources, or marketing enablement. 3. Partnerships struggle in a compressed timeframe Without sufficient support, partnerships can’t drive the results expected, leading to more pressure and less time to succeed. 4. Blame is placed on the partnership, not the process Ultimately, the partnership is seen as a failure—when in reality, it was never given the right environment to thrive. Here’s how to break the cycle before it starts: 1. Set realistic expectations early Partnerships are long-term investments. Make sure your CEO, board, and cross-functional leaders understand that the ROI from partnerships doesn’t follow a typical sales cycle. Expect a 12-18 month runway to see real, measurable results. 2. Allocate proper resources from day one Partnerships need more than just a team lead—they require full commitment across the organization. This includes dedicated integration support, a trained sales team, and marketing resources to co-create demand. 3. Measure the right KPIs Instead of only tracking short-term revenue, focus on KPIs that reflect the true health of a partnership: joint pipeline creation, partner enablement progress, and the completion of key integrations. These are the milestones that drive long-term value. 4. Understand that partnerships need time to grow Partnerships need time to build trust, integrate offerings, and develop shared go-to-market strategies. It’s not about instant returns—it's about sustained, compounding growth. Break the cycle by committing upfront, supporting your partnerships with the right resources, and playing the long game. That’s how successful ecosystems are built.

Forget competition. The real winners are playing a different game. For decades, companies fought for dominance by competing head-to-head. But today, the biggest winners aren’t focused on the competition at all. They are building ecosystems, leveraging partnerships, platforms, and networks to scale faster and dominate entire industries. This isn’t the first time business strategy has evolved. Throughout history, companies have shifted how they approach growth. 📌 1920s: The focus was on predicting and controlling industry cycles 📌 1950s: Corporate strategy and SWOT analysis became the dominant framework 📌 1980s: Michael Porter introduced competitive advantage as the key to winning 📌 1990s: Disruption took over, as companies aimed to overthrow market leaders Now, we are in the early stages of another major shift. Companies like NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Tesla are using this approach to scale faster than ever before. 6 Strategies That Drive Exponential Growth 1. Borrow Someone’s Road Instead of building everything from scratch, companies use existing platforms to expand faster. NVIDIA partnered with ARM Holdings, leveraging its chip architecture to power smartphones, cars, and AI devices. 2. Partner with a Third Party Strategic partnerships expand capabilities, unlock new markets, and enhance offerings. Microsoft integrated Office 365 into Apple’s App Store, shifting focus from devices to cloud-based services. 3. Reveal Your Strategy Transparency builds trust, alignment, and innovation within organizations. John Deere publicly invested in precision agriculture, positioning itself as a leader in smart farming. 4. Be Good, Do Good Social impact drives brand reputation, customer loyalty, and long-term growth. Mastercard launched the "Kill Cash" initiative, later rebranded as "A World Beyond Cash," helping drive massive stock growth. 5. Forget the Competition Instead of competing for dominance, the best companies find gaps, differentiate, and take their time. Ferrari waited until 2022 to launch an SUV, learning from Porsche and Mercedes-Benz before releasing a $400K model that sold out until 2026. 6. Adopt Small-Scale Attacks Test, refine, and scale. Take incremental steps instead of massive risks. Tesla built its $5B battery factory in Nevada in phases, allowing for continuous improvement and faster production. The Takeaway High-performing companies don’t compete. They collaborate, adapt, and build ecosystems. Is your business applying these strategies? Drop your thoughts in the comments. ♻️ Follow César Solís and reshare to help others. 📌 Save this post for future reflection!

I’ve met a lot of founders who have built multiple ventures and secured millions $$$ in funding. What stands out to me is that many of them did not start with groundbreaking ideas. But, they knew how to lay a solid foundation for their startups. Here’s how you can do it too: 1/ Start with a tangible pain point.  Make it relatable and show how your product is the innovative solution people didn’t know they needed. 2/ Know your customer inside out. Research their pain points and desires.  Take feedbacks regularly and to improve your product based on it. This shows you care about their needs. 3/ Your solution should be straightforward and jargon-free.  Ensure it’s easy for both customers and stakeholders to grasp how your product solves the problem. 4/ If you have a demo, publish it on social medias.  A live demonstration showcases your solution in action, providing a clear sense of the value you're delivering. 5/ The bigger the market, the bigger the opportunity.  When you write a plan, make a note of the total addressable market and highlight its growth potential. Back it up with solid data. 6/ Don’t plan for more than two business models when starting out.  If you are planning for a subscription-based model, then just stick to it. Once you make it bigger, you can add more. 7/ Recognize your competitors and explain how your solution stands out.  Use metrics to demonstrate your competitive advantage whenever you do an Ad campaign. 8/ Showcase your team’s expertise, experience, and passion.  If you’re looking for funding, it convinces stakeholders that you can execute your vision. 9/ A strong startup is more than a great idea.  Market yourself with a compelling story that conveys your vision with clarity and conviction. What strategies have you found effective in building a startup? #startup #guide #entrepreneurship

Startups are companies designed to grow quickly. Having worked for more than 15 years building at different startups, and now as an early-stage investor, "growth" remains the single leading indicator for determining future value. All companies, industries and geographies are different. While growth is a prerequisite, what it looks like across different startups varies. At Resilience17, we look for early signals of growth that align to the specific market and industry vertical. → Market Pull - The product must have a real life use case. People may not know your product exists, but they must identify with the problem or outcome it produces in a visceral way. One good example is Chipper Cash’s USD Card in Nigeria. Before it existed many Nigerians faced constant challenges using their local bank cards for subscriptions like iCloud and Netflix. → Activation - Beyond installs, registrations, or incentivized purchases, a subsection of users, the ones that are most likely to stick around, are taking meaningful actions within the product. Identify that action, validate it often, measure it, cohort it, experiment and optimize for it. At Voicea, an AI Meeting Assistant startup acquired by Cisco, our activation metric was when a new user connected their calendar. Instead of asking why 90% of users didn’t connect their calendars, we dug in deep on the users that did. We focused our efforts on getting more of those people versus changing the behavior of the others. → Efficient Distribution - The world, especially the internet, is noisy and busy. Startups can’t bank on being the loudest (spending the most), or for customers to magically find them through extensive research and comparison.   To produce breakout growth, startups need an advantage or point of leverage for reaching the target audience beyond spending and prayer. At Honey, a coupon code aggregator for online shipping that was acquired by PayPal, the advantage was a Business Insider listicle of the ten best Chrome extensions of the year. Supported by Facebook ads, it produced exceptionally high conversion rates, which signaled to FB’s algorithm to increase distribution at very low cost-per-click.   While all companies are different and growth is a full-contact team sport, the fastest growing and most impactful companies share these defining growth characteristics and leverage them to the max to break out of the median. What other examples from top startups illustrate these signals? Please share in the comments for us all to learn from.  🙏🏻 #startups = #growth

Hear me out...what if we started treating our partner programs less like siloed one-way biz-dev functions and more like a community? I've had a few conversations this week about how to keep momentum, how to build differently, and how to engage at scale. My response: build your program like it's a community. Bring the ALL together. Think about it. Your "ecosystem" technically is a community, it's just not CONNECTED like a community. But what would happen if it was? A lot of things will happen (I've seen it work). When you bring ALL of your partners together like a community, whether it's in one general Slack community, a community portal like Circles, or something as simple as a monthly gathering (Nick Salvatoriello ran a great monthly meeting for all partners at Drift). You start to see something of a network effect within your ecosystem. When you pull them all together, like a community, here's what happens: 🔸 They start to learn from each other, what's working, what's not. How to do more within the partnership. We would highlight one partner a month and the work they were doing to show the other partners what great looked like. 🔸 They start to get to know each other and work with each other. Agency partners start talking to your tech partners and begin providing services to those tech partners and now thinking about how those integrations work more holistically to service the customer and drive more usage with the customer versus you just thinking singularly about your product. 🔸 Value rises in what you are building in your program. You're no longer standing there with your hand out, you're standing there inviting them into a community that has the potential to become a serious revenue driver for their business, as you would ideally be teaching them how to do more for the collective customer base. Chances are you're already doing some of the same things a community offers, you're just doing them in random acts of delivery or one-offs. A community offers: 🗳 Tactical training 🗳 A resource hub 🗳 Events 🗳 An opportunity to network and work with others. At a minimum, your program should already be delivering on these things. Go treat your partner program/ecosystem as a community and watch amazing things happen. Be Great. Be Arcadia 🐻

We make the mistake of putting ecosystems on autopilot. Doing the same things to enlist people to join the fold, no matter what stage of development we're focused on. What we need to do is enlist other people to do DIFFERENT THINGS as our ecosystem progresses. 1. When we're in the DISCOVER phase, it's critical to enlist people who represent the mindset of who's most critical to the success. Lots of customers, community members, experts who are close to the problem. 2. When we're in the DEFINE stage, we have to include people from outside our core industry. To open our perspectives on what's possible. Example: If we're a bank, bring the leading app into the fold and cocreate potential digital solutions. 3. When we're in the REFINE stage, we need to build TRUST with partners to make our business models work in the real world. 4. During the SCALE stage, the focus is on building out our ecosystem based on force multipliers. Who might provide the platform, community, network that can make our pilot grow to scale? Getting an Ecosystem to "next" requires entirely different strategies, depending on the STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT. Here's a replay of last week's lively discussion sponsored by the Business Ecosystem Alliance with Mohi Ahmed of Shimizu and Stuart Crainer from Thinkers50. Fascinating questions and audience insights sprinkled throughout. https://lnkd.in/gNC_7KFQ #ecosystems #businessstrategies #gettonext

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞… What’s your next move? Find the strategies tailored to your startup’s unique stage! Because the right model can mean the difference between scaling fast and stalling out Here’s how to navigate funding through your growth journey: 1. Early-Stage Funding: - Bootstrapping ↳ Control it all, but limited funds can slow your growth. - Angel Investors ↳ Money + mentorship, but equity dilution comes with the deal. - Friends & Family ↳ Supportive terms, but risky for relationships if things go south. 2. Growth-Stage Funding: - Venture Capital ↳ Big $$$, big expectations, and even bigger stakes. - Series A/B ↳ Expand markets and scale ops, but prepare for deep due diligence. - Revenue-Based Financing ↳ No equity loss, but it can cost you as revenues climb. Know When to Pivot… From Bootstrapping to Angels? You’ve got product-market fit. From Angels to VCs? It's time to scale like a rocket. Build a Sustainable Strategy: 1️⃣ Define your stage: Ideation, scaling, or expansion? 2️⃣ Know your needs: How much $$$ and why? 3️⃣ Evaluate options: Align funding with your vision. 4️⃣ Think long-term: Protect your mission and equity. Funding isn’t one-size-fits-all. The “right” choice is the one that matches your goals, values, and growth pace. 👉 What stage is your startup in? ----------------------------------- 📢 Stay ahead in fundraising, entrepreneurship, and VC strategies! Follow Leon Eisen, PhD for actionable insights, tips, and expert guidance.

Are you in charge of building ecosystems for your company? If so, there are 5 dimensions that you need to manage and mature to create a high-value, sustainable network of inter-dependent partners. These 5 dimensions represent the attributes that, taken together, allow an ecosystem to emerge and thrive. If you don't nurture and mature each element Strategically, Operationally and Culturally, across your ecosystem orchestration framework, your ecosystem won't deliver sustainable value. Here are the 5 Dimensions: 1️⃣ Value - this dimension might seem obvious, but its trickier than it appears. Value Orchestration needs to happen on 4 vectors - value to the 'joint' customer, value to each ecosystem member, value to the ecosystem orchestrator, and value to the entire ecosystem. Note that the best ecosystems deliver network effects 'at the ecosystem level' so the value you orchestrate with the overall ecosystem is the magic that makes the 4-way win so powerful. 2️⃣ Alignment - this is the most difficult dimension to get right because Alignment Orchestration also has to happen on 4 vectors - internal alignment (e.g., tying the ecosystem to a platform business model), alignment with 'each' ecosystem member, alignment 'across' ecosystem members (P-2-P), and alignment between the joint customers and the ecosystem. 3️⃣ Engagement - this is the most overlooked dimension. Engagement Orchestration is where and how we 'relate' to and with each ecosystem member and the ecosystem as a whole. Engagement Orchestration covers the RACI, rules, workflows, tools, data, reporting, incentives, etc. Engagement can't happen without a comprehensive ecosystem platform (aka your ecosystem tech stack) that is designed around the challenges of ecosystem orchestration. 4️⃣ Agility - this is the least understood dimension. Like any other organism (business or natural) survival and sustainability is a function of agility - the ability to successfully adapt to changes in environment in an anti-fragile manner. A top priority for ecosystem leaders is ensuring that the ecosystem continues to adapt its value, alignment, and engagement. Agility Orchestration means, bringing in new ecosystem partners, re-setting commercial terms and rules of operation specified in Engagement above, re-aligning with members of the ecosystem as joint customers ask for new forms of value, etc. 5️⃣ Scale - this dimension is also obvious but means more than just adding more gas and building more infrastructure. Scale Orchestration is a governance job. It is the competency to look at the overall state of the other four dimensions to measure and manage maturity in a concerted fashion. In simple terms that means that the amount of value, alignment, engagement and agility must be matched & coordinated across your ecosystem journey on a Strategic, Operational and Cultural level. Scale Orchestration also helps ecosystem leaders to manage the C-Suite and the Board. #ecosystemorchestration

Stop trying to be better than your competitors. Here’s why ‘different’ wins at Series A. Too many founders focus on outperforming competitors in similar ways. Instead, focus on carving out a differentiated spot in the market. Here are my tips to craft a strategy that not only attracts investors but positions your startup for sustained growth. 1️⃣ Your GTM engine needs precision, not perfection At Series A, your GTM strategy must be sharp, data-driven, and adaptable. It’s not enough to have a plan - you need a living, breathing strategy that evolves with market feedback. → Avoid the trap of positioning blur. Sharpen your message around specific, quantifiable benefits that set you apart. 2️⃣ Double bet on the high ROI channels Every marketing dollar must be an investment in growth. Your job isn’t to be everywhere; it’s to dominate where it counts. Identify the channels where your audience is most engaged and double down on them. → This isn’t the time to experiment wildly. It’s about precise, calculated moves that maximize ROI. 3️⃣ Turn market feedback into your secret weapon Too many startups treat customer insights as an afterthought. Instead, make it the core of your strategy. The faster you can pivot based on feedback, the more you’ll outmaneuver competitors. → Differentiate by responsiveness and make speed and agility your brand’s hallmark. 4️⃣ Scale without sacrificing authenticity As you scale, ensure your messaging remains consistent with your brand’s core values. Your growth should amplify your brand’s voice, not dilute it. → Focus on the pillars of your brand. These should be the anchors that guide all your scaling efforts. 5️⃣ Optimize every stage of the customer journey From the first touchpoint to post-purchase engagement, every interaction should be optimized for maximum lifetime value (LTV). → Retention is your best friend. Think scalability in service and support as much as in sales. 6️⃣ Sales and marketing are the powerhouse of your GTM These teams must operate as one, with shared goals, consistent messaging, and clear communication. This alignment is critical to turning leads into revenue faster and more efficiently. I help startups craft their positioning and GTM strategies to gain a competitive edge in the market. Find out how we can work together: https://t2m.io/tmVRzGGc #startups #entrepreneurship #marketing #positioning #GTMstrategy