Agency vs. In-House Marketing: What Should a Startup Hire First?
Compare an agency, freelancer, and employee by the work required, management capacity, continuity, and total cost for an early-stage startup.
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15 articles · Page 1 of 1
Company building
Choose people, processes, and partnerships around the work the company needs done. Practical guidance for hiring, onboarding, customer learning, and operating discipline.
Articles
Building as a Second-Time Founder: Bring Judgment, Keep the Questions
Matt Pru's perspective on using founder experience without assuming the next startup has the same customer, economics, or path to growth.
2 min readHow to Choose a Startup Advisor Who Changes a Decision
Evaluate startup advisors by relevant judgment, working style, access, and a concrete engagement instead of reputation alone.
2 min readCustomer Interviews: Ask About the Last Real Decision
Run useful customer interviews by studying recent behavior, alternatives, buying decisions, and evidence instead of collecting compliments.
2 min readThe Customer You Win Can Still Be Expensive to Serve
Map onboarding, support, implementation, and ongoing delivery costs before treating every new startup customer as equally valuable.
2 min readA Startup Meeting Should End With a Decision or Better Evidence
Design startup meetings around a decision, a clear owner, and the evidence needed to move work forward without adding recurring overhead.
2 min readA Startup Hiring Scorecard That Starts With the Work
Define a role through outcomes, evidence, and operating constraints with a practical scorecard for a startup's next hire.
2 min readBefore a Startup Enters a New Market, Test the Whole Customer Journey
Evaluate international startup expansion through demand, buying behavior, support, delivery, and a bounded market test.
2 min readA 30-Day Startup Onboarding Plan Built Around Useful Work
Give a new startup employee context, ownership, and a bounded first project with a practical four-week onboarding plan.
2 min readA Startup Partnership Evaluation Template
Evaluate a proposed startup partnership through customer value, distribution, delivery effort, ownership, and a measurable first test.
2 min readBuild a Referral Program Around a Customer's Reason to Recommend You
Design a startup referral test with a clear customer moment, relevant audience, simple handoff, and measurement beyond invitation volume.
2 min readWhy Are Customers Leaving? A Startup Retention Diagnostic
Separate customer fit, activation, product value, delivery, and commercial changes when investigating startup churn.
2 min readWhat a Startup Mentor Should Help You Do
Matt Pru's view of useful startup mentorship: sharpen the problem, challenge assumptions, improve decisions, and connect founders to relevant help.
2 min read10 Startup Communities for Founders to Learn and Connect
Find a startup community that fits your stage: compare founder networks, bootstrapping groups, product communities, and official membership routes.
5 min read10 Customer Research Tools for Startups
Compare 10 customer research tools for recruiting, interviews, usability testing, surveys, and analysis, with official links and practical selection tips.
5 min read