Distribution and early GTM

~8 min read

Why it matters

Distribution is how a specific person finds out you exist and tries the wedge. Early on that is not a brand and not ads. It is a founder going where those people already are and doing an unscalable thing repeatedly. Technical teams over-build because building is in their control, and under-distribute because hearing “no” is not. If you cannot describe this week’s distribution activity as a number of conversations, posts, emails, or demos, you do not have a go-to-market. You have a hope.

The message comes from Problem & customer. If you skipped that, distribution just spreads a vague pitch faster.

Core concepts

The first ten users have names. You already listed them. Go-to-market at this stage is finishing that list: a personal note, a demo on their machine, you sitting next to them while they try it. Scale comes after ten people have the habit.
Do the thing that will not scale, on purpose. Recruit in a group chat you are actually in. Concierge the setup. Stand in the place the workflow happens (the club office, the lab, the Discord). A channel you cannot name is not a channel.
Go where the workaround already lives. If they live in a spreadsheet shared on email, email works. If they live in a Slack community, show up there as a person, not as a growth hack. Match the channel to their day, not to what is fashionable.
Founder-led sales is normal for B2B, even a tiny B2B. One person, one problem, one ask: 20 minutes to watch the workflow. You are not “doing sales” as a department. You are the department. A CRM can be a spreadsheet until the spreadsheet hurts.
Cold outreach works when it is specific. One sentence that proves you understand their last painful episode, then a small ask. A paragraph about your vision goes in the trash. Volume without specificity is spam.
A launch is a spike, not a strategy. Posting once (demo day, a class Slack, a forum) is useful if you capture the people who show up and talk to them. It is not a substitute for the weekly motion. See the shipping cadence in Build vs buy.
Don’t buy ads yet. Ads scale a message that already converts. You do not know that message until strangers repeat it back. Spending money here hides the fact that the pitch is fuzzy.

What to do next

Pick one channel you can actually access this week. Write it down. Ignore every other channel until it produces a user or a clear no.
Set a weekly quota that is behavior, not vibes: for example 10 personal notes, or 5 demos, or 3 on-site sittings. Track it next to the ship ritual.
Write a 4-line outreach note: who you are, the specific job, one proof you understand the workaround, the ask (20 minutes or “try this link”). No deck.
For every person who tries the product, schedule the follow-up before you hang up. “I’ll check in Friday” is distribution too.
Write down the sentence users use when they describe you to someone else. That sentence replaces your pitch. If they can’t say it, the wedge is still muddy — return to Idea → wedge.
Only after a stranger has successfully finished the job without you in the room should you consider a second channel.

Mental model

flowchart LR
  list[Named people who have the job] --> note[Personal note or intro]
  note --> demo[Watch them try the wedge]
  demo --> follow[Follow up on a specific day]
  follow --> words[Steal the words they use]
  words --> list
  words --> later[Only then: a second channel]

Early GTM is a loop you can count, not a funnel diagram with six stages.

Common failure modes

“We’ll launch when it’s ready.” Ready is how distribution gets postponed until the semester ends. A narrow thing in front of five people beats a launch to nobody.
Spraying five channels. Each channel takes a repeated motion to learn. Five channels means you learned zero.
Hiding behind content or waiting for virality. A blog post is fine if the people with the problem will see it. It is not a personality substitute for asking.
Treating a classmate’s “I’ll share it” as distribution. Intros you do not follow up on are not a channel. You send the note.

Watch

How to Get Your First Customers | Startup School — Y Combinator. How early teams actually got the first users, without pretending there is a hack.
The Best Way To Launch Your Startup | Startup School — Y Combinator. Launch as something you do repeatedly and learn from, not a single announcement.
How To Convert Customers With Cold Emails | Startup School — Y Combinator. When the people you need are not in your group chat, how a specific email is different from a blast.