So you built something cool. Great. The catch is that nobody’s banging down your door. In fact, many don’t even know your door exists. Building a product is only half the battle, and without users, your shiny MVP risks becoming just an expensive paperweight.
Enter Go-To-Market strategy, or GTM if you want to sound fancy at a VC mixer. It’s your battle plan for turning your MVP into a buzzing product with real traction. This quick guide walks you through five moves that get people interested.
Whether you’re wooing crypto geeks, students glued to TikTok, or any other niche crowd, you’ll want to skip the guesswork and dive headfirst into practical tactics that work. Startup House has the full playbook — and some excellent coaching — to help you launch and scale without losing your mind.
Five moves that matter in any GTM playbook
Building your product was the opening act. Now it’s time for the main event of getting actual users.
And there’s proof this actually happens on Starknet. Focus Tree, a scrappy productivity app that went from MVP to over 250,000 monthly active users, did so rapidly and all on a shoestring budget.
Here’s some of what they did, which will give you some context as you implement your GTM roadmap.
Move 1: Start narrow with a beachhead market
Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Pick one tiny, laser-focused audience with a real, burning problem. We’re talking psychographics, not just demographics. That is, finding out who really feels the pain you’re solving with your startup.
Focus Tree’s secret sauce was diving headfirst into the Starknet crowd of savvy, passionate, and ready to rally crypto users. The beachhead should feel so small it almost hurts. That’s how you know you’re onto something.
Move 2: Create scarcity and community hype
Nobody likes feeling left out. Use that to your advantage. Limit access and make your product feel exclusive, like a secret club only the cool kids know about. Focus Tree partnered with 20–30 crypto projects and dropped just 100 NFTs per community. The result was an insane amount of demand.
Scarcity isn’t a trick or manipulation tactic, it’s a signal. Think of it as a trophy for early, passionate users. We’ve seen this playbook work across crypto ecosystems, like Zora’s “Hype Machine” drops turning limited-edition mints into buzz loops. Farcaster’s invite-only launch made access feel like a privilege, not a right.
The same principles apply outside of crypto too, with companies like Teenage Engineering sending music hardware demo units to artists first, building credibility and desire before public launch. Even Tesla turned Cybertruck reservations into cultural flexes. The message is simple: when access is limited, interest grows.
Move 3: Saturate one ecosystem before expanding
Don’t scatter and over-extend yourself chasing every shiny new platform. Own one ecosystem first, get cozy with its culture, and dig deep. Focus Tree mastered Starknet before they tried “vampire attacking” Blast and Base. And let’s just say that jumping the gun wasn’t pretty.
Remember, what works in one place won’t necessarily fly in another. Context is king.
Move 4: Tailor your strategy for Web2 vs Web3 users
Crypto natives and regular internet folks don’t play by the same rules. Tokens and on-chain virality work like magic for the former. The best thing to do is to keep it simple. No crypto jargon, just easy usage and value.
Focus Tree’s first try targeting students with ads flopped hard. But when they switched to TikTok creators and adjusted their onboarding, growth exploded.
Different crowd, different game.
Move 5: Test fast, spend slow, iterate always
You probably won’t nail it on the first try. That’s why you should run cheap, quick experiments, drop the dead weight, and double down on what’s working. For instance, Focus Tree paid students $20 per TikTok video to promote their brand.
This low risk tactic had a huge payoff, with 10x user growth and 4x retention in just three months. This doesn’t mean you need to pay influencers or key opinion leaders (KOLs) for traction, but it does mean that creative marketing campaigns move the needle.
And when it comes to GTM, perfection is overrated. Speed, iteration, and feedback are your best friends.
GTM in 60 seconds
If you’ve skimmed your way down here, no judgment. Here’s the too-long-didn’t-read version. First, start with one beachhead market. Make it weirdly specific. You’re not trying to win the world, just one corner of it where people really care.
Then, stir up some scarcity. Partner with trusted communities, limit access, and make your product feel like the invite-only party of the season. And don’t try to boil the ocean — saturate one ecosystem first. Know its culture, earn your spot, then think about expanding.
Know that Web2 and Web3 users are playing different games. Tokens and on-chain virality might dazzle the crypto crowd, but your average student just wants something simple and useful. So adapt your strategy based on who you’re serving.
And finally, don’t wait around for perfection. Test fast, spend slow, and be ruthless about cutting what doesn’t work. The goal isn’t to be right on the first try, it’s to learn faster than everyone else.
If you’re into that kind of gritty, hands-on growth, Startup House was built with you in mind.
Join us for the Startup House Demo Night finale — and scale your future at Founder Basecamp
Traction starts with a clear strategy, tight feedback loops, and tactics that fit your audience. At Startup House, founders get hands-on support to sharpen their GTM, from value props and channel choices to marketing and launch strategies.
Although applications to Startup House Cannes are now closed, we encourage you to join the next Founders Basecamp. It's a 5-week bootcamp to help early-stage founders refine their ideas, craft their pitch, build a GTM strategy, and more. The next cohort runs August 23 through September 26. Stay tuned for application details!
If you’ll be in Cannes for EthCC, swing by Startup House on June 29 for Demo Night and introduce yourself to the Starknet Foundation team by registering here.
Let’s reshape the digital world together at Startup House.
