How to do marketing when you’re a tech founder
You can build something exceptional and still struggle to get noticed. Many tech founders find marketing uncomfortable. It feels vague, creative, and far from the clear logic of coding or building.
If you haven’t come across this article by Paul Graham, it’s worth a read. Many tech startups believe they either take off fast or fail early. In reality, most need a push. As Paul Graham puts it, you often have to do things that don’t scale to get momentum started.
Marketing is a process of solving problems. The same mindset that helps you fix bugs or improve systems can help you understand your audience and test what works. You just need to approach it with curiosity and keep learning from what you find.
Here’s how to approach marketing with the same curiosity and logic you use to build products.
Table of Contents
You don’t need everything to be perfect
You can never perfect a product before going to market. The only way to know what works is to launch, get feedback, and keep improving.
As Reid Hoffman said, “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”
The market is the only true judge. No expert, investor, or consultant can tell you if your product will succeed or fail. That answer always comes from the market itself.
We talked more about this idea in our previous blog — how selling first and building second can help you validate faster and waste less time guessing.
Talk to the right people
Your SaaS or product stays invisible while you’re constantly talking to the people who feel the pain you solve.
Start by interviewing 10 users. Learn their exact pain points, frustrations, and triggers.
Turn every call into micro-content:
- A 90-second screen capture of how you fixed something.
- A short LinkedIn post about a user insight.
- An FAQ that later becomes a blog post.
Doing this weekly creates a year’s worth of authentic content.
Treat SEO like product iteration
Think of SEO as a long-term engine. You don’t need to be a full-time content team to start seeing results.
- Write one blog post per week targeting real phrases your customers use.
- Focus on long-tail questions you hear on calls (they bring more qualified traffic).
- Use internal linking to connect those posts to your main product or “money” pages.
- Tools like SE Ranking and Ahrefs help spot keyword gaps and track what drives sign-ups.
We’ve also written about when it makes sense to take a bolder approach in B2B and how to find the balance between being memorable and staying trustworthy.
Test ads like experiments
Most tech founders see ads as risky, but they’re just experiments with numbers.
- Start with $5/day on a high-intent keyword that matches your offer.
- Track cost per acquisition (CAC) and compare it to lifetime value (LTV).
- If CAC > 30% of LTV, switch it off and analyse what to fix.
Use small ad spends to test headlines, landing page copy, and audience fit before scaling.
We’ve covered the measurement side of marketing, exploring how to move beyond vanity metrics and focus on data that connects directly to business outcomes.
Build in public (the right way)
Visibility doesn’t come from shouting about your product, it comes from sharing what you’re learning.
- Post consistently on LinkedIn, X, or niche communities like Reddit or Indie Hackers.
- Share problems you solve, insights from customer calls, or quick product wins.
- Give value before asking for attention (marketing becomes natural when it’s about helping).
If you want to go deeper into using Reddit as a growth channel, check out our Reddit Marketing Playbook. It’s a complete guide for founders and marketers who want to generate awareness and leads organically, without spending on ads. The playbook includes step-by-step tactics, real examples, and community engagement strategies we’ve tested with real startups.
Get The Ultimate Reddit Playbook
The Reddit Playbook is based on real-world experience with B2B brands. It’s a practical guide for founders, marketers, and sales teams, covering both the basics and advanced strategies for engaging authentically, spotting opportunities, and growing your presence without relying on big ad budgets.
Track and simplify your funnel
Don’t let friction kill conversions.
- Use Mixpanel or a similar tool to track where users drop off during onboarding.
- If more than 20% of users abandon a step, fix it fast.
- Marketing metrics are just feedback loops, like bug reports.
Think of marketing as your visibility debugger
Marketing isn’t about shouting louder, it’s about systematically fixing why the right people aren’t seeing you.
The mindset shift is everything. In the early stages, marketing won’t run on autopilot. You need to give it a push. Just like product development, traction starts with deliberate effort. Talk to users, test, and adjust until something clicks. Over time, that motion builds into momentum.
If you’re ready to turn that mindset into action, Fractional Teams helps tech founders and startups shape a clear strategy and execute marketing that drives meaningful growth. Because great products deserve to be seen.
Dariia Panchenko
Hi! I'm Dariia Panchenko, Analytics and Community Manager at Fractional Teams. I write about the best B2B marketing strategies and practices.
