Technical founders must budget equal complexity for marketing as for product development
Programmers and technical founders commonly understand how to build products but underestimate that marketing is equally big, complex, and time-consuming. This knowledge gap causes many technical founders to give up at the sales stage. Success requires mastering both product development AND marketing as separate, equally complex disciplines.
When to use
When you're a technical founder planning your time allocation and skill development. From day one of building a business, not after product is built. Relevant for anyone who thinks 'build it and they will come.'
Don't do this
Spending 90% of time on product development and 10% on marketing. Assuming marketing is easier than coding. Giving up when the product is built but no one buys it because you never learned to market.
1 Founder Who Did This
Ure started as a programmer who only knew technical work. Realized after multiple attempts that marketing required learning an entirely new complex discipline equal in scope to programming