From Zero to Unicorn: The Changing Role of Marketing in a Startup’s Journey

Marketing in startups is a constantly evolving function that needs to meet the needs of different growth stages and shifting business objectives. What’s needed at pre-seed is vastly different from what’s needed at Series C or D. As a fractional CMO, mentor, and marketing consultant, I'm often asked how marketing should look at the different startup phases and how it will evolve as the company grows. It is indeed an important topic that isn't discussed as much as it should.

Throughout my career I've been fortunate to work with startups through various phases of growth, from early seed stages to successful exits. I’ve had the opportunity to join early stage startups, help them scale and mature through their IPO (Imperva), or through acquisitions (Trusteer, acquired by IBM and Indegy acquired by Tenable). I've worked with companies as they transitioned from startups to scale-ups and beyond, experiencing firsthand the excitement, challenges, and strategic shifts required at each stage. This journey has given me a few insights into how marketing should adapt and scale, and what it takes to build and sustain growth at every level of a company's evolution. 

I wrote this blog to share some of these insights, and help founders and marketers navigate the dynamic and ever-changing needs of startups. It explains how marketing efforts shift toward refining the messaging, expanding reach, optimizing customer acquisition channels, and driving more sophisticated GTM strategies.

Pre-Seed/Seed: Validating the Idea and Building Awareness

At the pre-seed and seed stages, marketing is all about storytelling and validation. It’s not about big budgets or polished campaigns but rather about validating the problem, proving the need, gaining early adopters, and setting the stage for future growth. The startup is still shaping its identity, and marketing plays a crucial role in defining the brand, building the product story and generating initial traction.

One of the most important things at this stage is clearly articulating the problem the startup solves and why it matters. This messaging forms the foundation for all marketing efforts moving forward. Alongside this, startups must focus on building initial awareness to both the founding team and startup brand by demonstrating thought leadership and leveraging organic channels, social media, and personal networks to get their name out there.

Since at this stage Seed fundraising is a key focus for the founders, marketing plays a vital role in supporting this effort by crafting a compelling pitch and developing an engaging investor deck that captures attention and drives interest. 

At this stage marketing will also start testing user acquisition strategies through landing pages and campaigns that help gauge demand and refine messaging. 

Series A: Finding Product-Market Fit

At the series A stage, marketing evolves from building the story and creating awareness to actively validating the need for the product and product-market fit. This phase is all about fine-tuning messaging, testing growth strategies, and laying the groundwork for scalable customer acquisition.

One of the important tasks at this stage is to refine the positioning: early customer feedback gives marketing the insights they need to explain the positioning of the solution and how it differentiates in the market, sharpen messaging and better communicate the startup’s unique value proposition. Marketing is expected to understand who are the ICPs - the Ideal customer profiles - those customers that are most likely to buy your solution, who are the personas involved in the sales cycle and their roles (decision makers, champions, gate keepers, etc), and what are they main use cases they are interested in.

Marketing is also expected at this point to figure out the best demand generation activities, combining organic efforts with small-scale paid campaigns to identify what resonates with the target audience.

Marketing typically engages with early adopters through content, customer testimonials, and product proof points that help create credibility. Research that supports the need for the solution and demonstrates its benefits can be very effective in this stage. 

Marketing tools that were implemented earlier will start to provide the data needed for measuring marketing efforts, analyze results and scale the impact.

Series B: Building a Scalable Growth Engine

Series B brings the funding needed to shift marketing towards building a structured marketing strategy that can support long-term success. At this stage Marketing is expected to lay the foundation for scalable, repeatable growth. Marketing becomes more structured, with clearly defined KPIs, and a strategic mix of demand generation and brand positioning. The goal is to show that  that growth is not only achievable but also sustainable. (Side note: Marketing KPIs and metrics are an interesting topic but I won’t cover it in this blog. However you should keep in mind that at this stage initial KPIs should be introduced and marketing should start measuring their success).

One of the first priorities is building a marketing team and bringing in specialists to cover key areas like performance marketing, content, SEO, and growth. This ensures the marketing efforts are more professional and scalable. 

Another priority is optimizing customer acquisition channels: at this stage marketing should execute effective paid advertising campaigns, use SEO to drive traffic to the website, leverage partnerships for joint GTM activities - all in effort to expand the customer base efficiently and sustainably.

If a Product-Led Growth (PLG) strategy is implemented, at this point it should show conversions from free/low cost subscribers to enterprise-level subscriptions.

Thought leadership becomes crucial for establishing credibility, and with the funds available, this is the stage in which most startups sign up with a PR agency to help them build a strong brand presence. PR plays a crucial role in shaping a startup’s reputation and establishing its authority in the industry. Effective PR creates a drumbeat of news items, a steady flow of strategic media coverage, press releases, thought leadership articles, and key industry mentions. Consistent visibility helps build credibility, positioning the startup as a leader in its field.  When potential customers, investors, and partners see the company consistently covered in reputable publications, it strengthens their confidence in its vision, technology, and leadership.

Other areas that become important at this stage are customer retention, referrals, and upsells. This means that marketing should nurture not only prospects but also existing customers and turn them into loyal customers and advocates.

Series C: Scaling Smartly Towards Market Leadership

At this stage, the startup has validated its business model and focus shifts towards aggressive expansion. Marketing evolves from experimentation to structured, data-driven strategies that drive scalable growth and market dominance.

A key priority is establishing multi-channel growth, expanding efforts across various platforms, geographies, and audience segments to reach a broader market. To maintain efficiency while scaling, marketing teams invest in automation, analytics, and other marketing tools, to maximize resources and ensure that operations run smoothly and effectively. One of the most impactful tools at this stage is intent engines, which help identify and prioritize leads based on their online research activities. Intent data can help marketing focus their outreach on high-intent prospects, optimize ad spend, reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC), improve sales efficiency, and increase conversion rates.

Account-based marketing (ABM) also becomes essential, as it enables companies to target high-value customers with personalized strategies that drive conversions and long-term partnerships.

Continuous thought leadership efforts—such as industry reports, speaking engagements, and executive branding—help cement the startup’s position as a leader in its space.

Series D and Beyond: Market Expansion and Domination 

Once a startup reaches Series D, marketing is expected to focus on brand dominance, and ensure the company is seen as the category leader. At this stage, marketing is no longer just about growth, it becomes a strategic driver of business sustainability and expansion, ensuring the startup’s lasting success. It should enable the company’s expansion strategies by driving its entry into new global markets and verticals. 

Marketing also becomes instrumental in shaping the company’s narrative for potential IPOs, acquisitions, or strategic exits by strengthening corporate storytelling. Thought leadership, PR, and investor communications all contribute to positioning the startup as a long-term industry player.

How Well Does Your Marketing Strategy Support Your Startup’s Growth? 

Marketing evolves as your startup moves through different growth phases, each requiring a tailored approach. Navigating these changes can be complex, but with the right guidance, you can ensure your marketing strategy aligns with your goals and drives success at every stage.

If you're a startup looking to refine your marketing approach or need expert support in scaling your efforts, I’m here to help! Let’s collaborate to craft a strategy that works for your unique journey. Contact me today to explore how we can transform your marketing and fuel your startup’s growth.

Schedule a 30 minute call: https://calendly.com/contact-danatamir/30min