Marketing seems pretty straightforward, right?

Figure out who your customer is, where they are, throw some money at targeted ads, be clever on social, and boom! Just add water. There you go. The customers - and the money - just come pouring in.

And yet, we all know it's not quite that simple.

We've had early-stage portfolio companies that initially struggled with marketing. From a deep-tech company targeting the 200 or so to fish farmers of the world to well-known founders of a security business that, well, wasn't so well known, we've seen marketing be a tough nut to crack.

Particularly in the very beginning, it's really difficult for founders - especially first-time founders - to determine if it's (a) the right time for marketing and (b) what that marketing effort should look like.

It's tempting for all companies to move right to "turn on demand gen" and feel like they're doing marketing. But using marketing in a more foundational, data-driven way at the earliest stages moves you that much closer to the goal: a company that's scaling well because it's taken the time to get the product fit, market understanding, customer insights, and sales process exactly right.