GTM Zero To One: Applying My Frameworks To My Business
Taking a dose of my own medicine as I refine my solopreneur strategy
Day 26 of writing daily.
It’s easy to dish out advice, but much harder to take your own medicine. Last week, I had a reality check — I hadn’t fully applied my own GTM frameworks to my business as a solopreneur. 😅
I got an email from a friend and someone I admire who shared a simple yet powerful concept: go broad, then narrow your ICP1. As I read it, I realized I hadn’t updated my thinking around my own ICP — and it was time to do so more formally.
His ICP:
My ICP:
⏰ The Wake-Up Call
Despite testing a new ICP around 1-1.5 months ago, I hadn’t fully committed to evaluating or iterating it.
It can be tough, amirite?
🧘🏻 We build deep expertise through lived experiences, but it’s not always easy to capture and articulate our expertise.2
🥸 We struggle with imposter syndrome.
🪞 We find it difficult to synthesize and apply our own frameworks to ourselves.
Well, I’m no exception. But if I want to truly embrace the solopreneur life, I need to practice what I preach.
🚴🏻♂️ My Journey So Far
To understand where I’m headed, here’s a brief snapshot of my journey:
🧗🏻 Full-Time Growth Mode (2020-2021): Worked in various roles at the African Leadership Group and even got accepted to Wharton’s MBA program (and attended for one virtual semester Fall 2020). Realized I wasn’t going to just ‘power through’ and go ‘hero mode’ with a full-time job and full-time MBA, so pivoted to focus on growth x product.
💁🏻♂️ Exploration Mode (2022 H1): Returned to the U.S. without a job, intentionally leaving space for exploration and experimentation.
🫃🏻 Fatherhood Reality Check (2022 H2): Prepared for fatherhood while navigating a job search, landed a role at Reforge but was laid off shortly after.
🧑🏻💻 FT + side hustles begin (2023): I balanced a core gig while also looking for and managing side hustles. I transitioned to two clients when someone else asked for my time. I explored and ultimately deprioritized FT with that client.
🤷🏻♂️ Ok, so now what the hell am I doing? (2024 H2): I’ve fully embraced the solopreneur life after a couple years of dabbling with consulting and side hustles, as I enter my post-FT founder mode.
So while I FEEL like I have more experience, including earning all of my non-investment income in 2023 as a 1099 contractor, I’ve only really embraced the consultant and portfolio lifestyle as of 3 months ago.3
Which is great, because I’ve learnt a lot already.
🌟 The core insight driving me right now: persona
This has been driving me actually for probably the last 6 months. As a default assumption, this assumes my product offering is still my expertise and consulting.
✨ My expertise and consulting offering4 is most useful for early-stage startups, especially those pre-funding. However, they often don’t have the resources to pay for strategic services like mine.
🎯 So, my new ICP is focused on those who can afford it — venture studios, later-stage startups, and larger nonprofits. This requires constant iteration and validation, just like any product.
🔑 Conclusion, Key Takeaways
I’ve spent years helping others refine their ICPs, GTM strategies, and product-market fit. Now, it’s time to turn the lens inward and apply those same frameworks to my business. If you’re on a similar journey as a solopreneur, remember that constant iteration is key. Don’t be afraid to audit your approach and make adjustments as you learn.
As I do the above, I’ll go through the same framework I go through with leaders to audit and provide feedback/insights on (which provides a light roadmap on what’s to come over the next couple weeks):
persona (already done above)
problem/jobs-to-be-done
value proposition
product/service/expertise (offering)
positioning/competitive advantage vs. alternatives
GTM
price
org readiness: product expertise and agility
product-market fit assessment
(side note, if you haven’t already, check out my new section below, FTOTD , favorite tool of the day; not saying I’ll do this every day, but when I do)
🛠️ Bonus: Favorite Tool of the Day (FTOTD)
First Round has put this out, PMF for B2B companies, four levels of PMF from nascent to extreme (you’ll have to click through to find how they named the other two in between): https://pmf.firstround.com/levels. It’s amazing, along with their many case studies breaking down various companies’ journeys. Side note, I’m going to do this (US and globally) for edtech, education and workforce — get in touch if you want to help, get featured, sponsor our inaugural season with drops and bonus content, etc.
Wes Wheless: https://www.developmyip.com/ - I’d encourage you to check out his work, and also he helped inspire me to start publishing daily.
Unless we’ve found a lane that aligns easily with job/org functions and managed to move our way up and want to continue in that lane —> design, product, marketing, sales, ops, growth, finance, etc.
Even though I have close to 2.5 years of a taste of running side hustles and consulting, and nearly 5 years navigating the fun, winding, post-founder mid-career maze.
As an alternative product, I’m doing paid coaching, workshops, and courses to help people advance their ventures where the payer is not the founder or early-stage startup:
I’ve gotten this part-time faculty job teaching entrepreneurs at UPenn.
I’ve done coaching for two cohorts of another incubator.
I’m running a virtual workshop later this year for another incubator cohort (based on this post on sales stack, still my most popular thusfar).
I’m of course doing lots of unpaid engagements too, but I’ve tried to scale these back or balance those.