Go To Market

Aviv Shalgi
avivshl@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/avivshalgi

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Customer
Acquisition
Aviv Shalgi
avivshl@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/avivshalgi

Founder Institute – Confidential Information

 Who am I?
• Intel officer
• Turned Engineer (EE&E)
• Turned Management Consultant
• Turned entrepreneur / VC

Currently:
• Founder
• Angel investor
• Startup mentor/advisor
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 Fun facts
As a teenager:
• Personal finance fanatic & public markets
investor at 13
• Professional horse back riding at 15
• Professional gamer at 16 (before it was a thing)
• If only eSports or Twitch existed back then…

Lecturer at my free time about BizDev /

Strategy / personal finance

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 Disclaimer
There are 3 kinds of innovations / startups / solutions
• Solving a problem I know I have
• Solving a problem I think I have
• Solving a problem no one knows about

Founder Institute – Confidential Information

 Disclaimer
There are 3 kinds of innovations / startups / solutions
• Solving a problem I know I have

Founder Institute – Confidential Information

 Disclaimer
There are 3 kinds of innovations / startups / solutions
• Solving a problem I think I have

Founder Institute – Confidential Information

 Disclaimer
There are 3 kinds of innovations / startups / solutions
• Solving a problem no one knows / thinks about

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 Where do I start?

• Always start with customer development

• Who should I speak with?
• What will really get me through the door?

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 Identify potential customers
Incentives

Pain Motivation
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 Which matters most?
Incentives

Pain Motivation
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 Which matters most?
Incentives!

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 Asian 90’s airline
market crash

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 Who is the REAL customer
here? Sufferer
aka customer personas

User Banker
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 I think I know who my target
customer is, now what?

•Forget what you think you know

“God created us with two eyes, two ears

and one mouth”…

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 I think I know who my target
customer is, now what?
• Start reaching out to everyone in the industry, regardless of
the personas, and ask questions…
• Don’t force your opinion, listen, take notes and try to read
between the lines
• Assuming you already had customer interviews, ask about
their business model, how are they used to pay for things (in
your niche)

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 Why would someone respond?
• People like to talk (think of yourselves)
• But only when they think it’s genuine interest

• Who’s this and why is he here?

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 Why would someone respond?
• People like to talk (think of yourselves)
• But only when they think it’s genuine interest

• “Ask for money, and get advice.

• Ask for advice, get money twice…”

• If you tell folks you’re interested in them or

their industry/ career, they’ll want to talk.
If you try to pitch to them, they’ll disappear…

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 Why am I telling you this?
The problem / pain aren’t always what they seem

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 How do you get to your
respective markets?
What do you guys think?

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 How do you get to your
respective markets?

What do you guys think?

WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS!

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 How do you get to your
respective markets?

What do you guys think?

WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS!

And don’t forget to A/B test the heck out of everything
Instapages / Unbounced

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 But what is the best way to
get to market?

Referrals / Word of Mouth

Incentivize your customers to share your

joint story

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 Unit economics
Ignoring everything that’s not the product itself, how does a single
sale’s P&L look like?
1. Revenue
2. Cost of Goods Sold
3. Gross Profit (needs to be positive at scale)

If your unit economics is negative:

• You’re doing something wrong
• You’ll run your business to the ground! 

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 Tip before wrapping up
• Whichever method you choose, remember that the best way to
acquire a customer, is to have an existing customer sell them on
your idea… So how can you make it easier for them?

• Strategize how your go to market strategy will work with referrals,

and how you can transform your customers into champions!

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 Questions?
Thank you!

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