{"id":20596,"date":"2022-03-03T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foundersnetwork.com\/?p=20596"},"modified":"2026-04-15T15:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T22:35:21","slug":"go-to-market-best-practices-with-richard-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foundersnetwork.com\/go-to-market-best-practices-with-richard-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Go to Market Best Practices with Richard White"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Since its founding in 2020, AI notetaker application Fathom<\/a> has gained rapid traction. The startup announced it had raised a $4.7 million seed round earlier this year. Additionally, the application, which was developed exclusively for the Zoom Marketplace, is currently the #1 app on the platform.\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Fathom Founder and CEO Richard White attributes Fathom\u2019s early success to the startup\u2019s go-to-market model. The company landed on a bottom up model early on and the model informed much of their strategy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought about go to market and distribution at about the same time we came up with the product itself,\u201d White says. \u201cKnowing your go to market model really drives a lot of product decisions, as well as marketing decisions and team composition decisions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On April 12, White hosted a webinar for Founders Network members<\/a> where he provided different go-to-market models in tech and how deciding on a go-to-market model early on can greatly benefit startups.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sneak preview of White\u2019s experience in the startup community and what it taught him about go-to-market best practices.<\/span><\/p>\nWe did every go to market strategy. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

\n

To learn more about different go-to-market models in tech and how deciding on a go-to-market model early on greatly benefits a startup<\/span>,\u00a0see if you qualify for membership<\/a>\u00a0and check out the\u00a0<\/b>webinar<\/a><\/b> from April 12.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Learning from experience<\/span><\/h3>\n

White has decades of experience as a startup founder. He founded one of his first endeavors, UserVoice, in 2007 and still serves as chairman of the board more than 14 years later. That experience taught him valuable lessons about the benefits and pitfalls of various go-to-market models.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did every go to market strategy,\u201d White says. \u201cWe started as a freemium tool. We did bottom up and at some point we pivoted and did top down. We didn\u2019t have a hypothesis early on. We just built a product and it worked.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWithout knowing our go-to-market model, we would have spread our bets across everything. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

Strategy first<\/span><\/h3>\n

Startup journeys tend to follow a similar trajectory. Founders come up with a product, they hire a team to build and market that product, and then they go to market. At Fathom, White approached things differently. He says he had a clear picture of the startup\u2019s go-to-market strategy from the start.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know with Fathom, we\u2019re bottom up. It makes everything easier,\u201d White says. \u201cOur team is all engineers and success people because all we\u2019re trying to do is bottom up and word of mouth and that means we need high quality customer care. On the product side, we knew we were word of mouth so we optimized for the best single player experience we could build. If I was going to do top down sales I would focus immediately on team level features and functionality because I\u2019d have to go sell this to a team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWithout knowing our go-to-market model, we would have spread our bets across everything. We would\u2019ve done a little bit of single user stuff, a little bit of growth stuff, and a little bit of team stuff. That\u2019s a common thing I see people do. They go shallow in a lot of stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhen it comes to go to market, there\u2019s a lot of folks who want to do everything. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

Pick a lane<\/span><\/h3>\n

In addition to landing on a go-to-market model early, White recommends being precise about your channel. He says founders often look at successful companies and try to reverse engineer their success, but they often miss the point. For example, while a company like Hubspot does it all today, they only did inbound marketing at the start.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to go to market, there\u2019s a lot of folks who want to do everything,\u201d White says. \u201cIf you look at a large company, they do everything. They do social, ads, partnerships, events, etc. But that\u2019s because at that stage, you\u2019ve raised enough money, you might as well do all the things. But if you look in the beginning, almost every company only had one channel and that\u2019s what helped them get off the ground.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to execute multiple channels. Usually it\u2019s one channel that you get growth from in the beginning.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At his webinar, White covered:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • The benefits and challenges of different GTM models<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The factors to consider when choosing a go-to-market model<\/span><\/li>\n
  • What research to conduct before deciding on a go-to-market strategy<\/span><\/li>\n
  • How GTM strategy is different from a product launch<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    To learn more about different go-to-market models in tech and how deciding on a go-to-market model early on greatly benefits a startup<\/span>,\u00a0see if you qualify for membership<\/a>\u00a0and check out the\u00a0<\/b>webinar<\/a><\/b> from April 12.<\/b><\/p>\n