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E

Emily Kramer

Co-founder & General Partner

MKT1 / MKT1 Capital

🎯 Product Strategy (1)⚡ Execution (1)👥 Team & Culture (1)

Key Takeaways

  • 1.Diagnose growth issues by categorizing them as either 'Fuel' (messaging/content) or 'Engine' (distribution/ops) problems before hiring.
  • 2.Avoid hiring senior marketers from large public companies (e.g., Salesforce, Google) as your first startup hire; they often lack the 'builder' muscle required for 0-to-1 work.
  • 3.For PLG companies, the 'Marketing-to-Product' handoff (signup to onboarding) is as critical as the traditional 'Marketing-to-Sales' handoff.
  • 4.Stop measuring marketing success by activity (e.g., 'wrote 10 blog posts'); measure by impact (e.g., 'traffic generated' or 'conversion rate maintained').
  • 5.Use 'Roadmap Week' to invite Marketing into product planning early, preventing the 'throw it over the wall' launch dynamic.
  • 6.When interviewing marketers, ask them to explain a complex topic simply; if they can't do this, they cannot effectively position your product.
  • 7.Product Marketers are often the best first hire because they straddle the line between understanding the product/audience (Fuel) and launch mechanics (Engine).

Methodologies(3)

🎯 Product Strategy

Instead of getting lost in marketing sub-functions (demand gen, brand, content), view marketing as a system requiring two components: Fuel (value creation) and Engine (distribution). Growth stalls when these are unbalanced.

Core Principles

  • 1.Step 1: Audit 'Fuel' - Do you have high-converting copy, clear positioning, and valuable content? If users land but don't convert, you have a Fuel problem.
  • 2.Step 2: Audit 'Engine' - Do you have the ops, automation, and channels to get content to the right people? If you have great content but no traffic, you have an Engine problem.
  • 3.Step 3: Hire for the deficit - If you lack Fuel, hire a Product Marketer or Content Lead. If you lack Engine, hire a Growth/Demand Gen Lead.
  • +1 more...

"Just think of marketing as you need a fuel and you need an engine... Fuel is all the things that you're creating... An engine is how you get it out to the right people."

#engine#diagnostic#strategy
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The GACCS Launch Brief

by Emily Kramer

⚡ Execution

A structured brief format that Marketing shares with Product (and vice versa) before any creative work or launch execution begins. It forces clarity on the 'Why' and 'Who' before the 'What'.

Core Principles

  • 1.Goals: Define the specific metric impact (e.g., signups, feature adoption), not just 'launch the feature'.
  • 2.Audience: Be hyper-specific about who this is for. 'Everyone' is not an audience.
  • 3.Creative: Define the 'hook' or unique angle. What makes this stand out from competitors?
  • +2 more...

"GACCS sounds more fun to say... but this is just a marketing brief that I recommend you do before you make anything big."

#gaccs#launch#brief
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👥 Team & Culture

Rather than looking for a T-shaped marketer (broad knowledge, one depth) or a specialist, early-stage startups should hire 'Pie-shaped' (π) marketers who have broad knowledge but *two* distinct spikes of deep expertise.

Core Principles

  • 1.Spike 1: Usually Product Marketing (understanding the customer/market).
  • 2.Spike 2: Either Content (creating the fuel) or Growth (building the engine).
  • 3.The Bar: The horizontal line represents ability to set strategy across all areas and manage contractors for non-spike areas.
  • +1 more...

"You want to hire Pi-shaped marketers... like the Pi symbol has two vertical lines... an expert in one of those three areas... and proficient in another one."

#pie-shaped#talent#team
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