Marketing usually costs money.
If you’re trying to bootstrap, you probably should wait until your product is finished? There are very few free avenues for self promotion on the Internet for “code”, other than a blog.
If you’re trying to bootstrap, you probably should wait until your product is finished? There are very few free avenues for self promotion on the Internet for “code”, other than a blog.
I don't know what it says in the book, but I'd expect the message would be similar to the YC advice, which is to start talking very early and frequently to potential and existing customers, to ensure that what you’re building is highly valuable to them.
YC partners have often said that the companies that achieve the biggest success are the ones who are the most active in talking to existing/potential customers.
They also note that the ones who spend money on paid marketing before they have a highly valuable product and organic (i.e., free) growth are the ones who fail.
Your “advice” would fall under the “getting your first 1000 users” trope:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajayyadav/2017/05/16/how-to-get...
When I studied a couple of university marketing subjects in the mid-90s, we were taught that's about the most fundamental aspect of marketing.
> “We’re overloading the term”
I think it's more likely you're reacting to a stereotype of marketing held by people outside the field, rather than what it really is according to those who do it properly.
From the author's own summary of the book:
So basically: start marketing the day you start coding.
Or, actually... before you even start coding! Validate your idea, build a prototype, show it to people, gather feedback, improve it and keep going.
https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
There’s no value in repackaging the idea into “start marketing the day you code”. It’s confusing the real intent with an ambiguous and broad term.
I work in product marketing for a large SaaS and would absolutely consider talking to customers (potential and actual), and talking to people who talk to customers (such as sales, CS) as part of my job. It would be incredibly hard to do my job without it.
The answers to most questions in marketing come from outside the building. We’re not overloading the term - you appear to be narrowly defining the term as advertising and branding.
Market research firms will also regularly supply insights and opinions about positioning, which definitely falls under marketing.
Competitive differentiation is so fundamental to positioning that it doesn’t really make sense to treat them as siloed functions.
I think this is a stepping stone entrepreneurs learn only after a few failures. My last startup went from 0-90k in 5 months with simple marketing. Having premade material to give out means the difference between a follow up to a cold call and never following up with them again.. I’ve had both happen, so I always spend an hour or two selling, then marketing before doing any kind of coding or other deeply technical work
From the moment you decide to pursue the idea, you have to do marketing, advertising, and public relations.
Yes, there is a cost. That’s the reality.