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This Black History Month, we can learn a lot about how to move through challenging times by looking back at leaders who have experienced their fair share of challenges, too. It takes bravery, stamina, guts and a vision to move through dark eras and emerge victorious. As a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consultant, I spend most of my days helping companies big and small navigate challenges, and I often look to Black leaders like Frederick Douglass as examples of what resiliency looks like.

Here are three lessons that all entrepreneurs can learn when navigating trying situations in their professional and personal lives.

Choose the path of self-development

In challenging times, sometimes our best teacher is ourselves. And no one knows that better than Frederick Douglass. Despite being born into slavery, Frederick Douglass knew his ticket to freedom was through education. At the age of 6, Douglass moved to the Wye House plantation, where he was looked after by Lucretia Auld, the wife of a recently deceased slave overseer. Later, she sent him to serve her family members, Hugh and Sophia Auld, in Baltimore. When Douglass was about 12 years old, Sophia Auld began teaching him the alphabet. However, her husband Hugh strongly disapproved as he felt that literacy encouraged enslaved people to seek freedom.

In secret, Douglass would teach himself to read and write and once said, “Knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom.” Douglass taught himself how to spell from Webster’s spelling books and began to read and write with inspiration from posters on cellar and barn doors. In his later years, he went on to write three bestselling biographies: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an enslaved American (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881).

The lesson is this: When it’s time to evolve and change, choose the hard path of self-development for long-term growth and success. Whether it’s getting an executive coach when you’re feeling stuck, honing your fundraising skills, or implementing a new DEI program that stakeholders are skeptical about, do the hard thing that you know will pay off later.

Related: The 3 C’s That Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Can Teach Us Today To Advance Workplace Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Do and say what’s right — even if no one’s listening

Douglass was known worldwide as a vocal abolitionist. He spent two years in Ireland and Great Britain, delivering lectures on the need to eliminate slavery in the United States. Sympathetic Europeans donated money to buy his freedom from the Auld family. When he returned to the U.S. in 1847, he started the first abolitionist newspaper, the North Star, where he advocated the abolition of slavery in writing.

Here’s the lesson: Say and do what you know is right. In business, we often follow our competitors, copy what they do, iterate on it, and try to outdo them. But some of the best entrepreneurs I know chart their own paths, often swimming upstream, innovating along the way, and doing something that no one has ever done. In challenging times, these may feel like risky moves to make. But, these entrepreneurs focus on their vision for the future and do what they think is right, even if others aren’t bought in.

Related: From Faith to Politics: How to Navigate Difficult Conversations in the Workplace

If you’re feeling alone, build coalitions

When you’re stuck in a challenging situation — whether fighting to keep your business afloat or navigating an uncertain market — you can weather the storm by building coalitions and partnerships with those around you. Frederick Douglass did exactly that but with the women’s suffrage movement.

In 1848, Douglass was the only Black person in the room as he attended the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention in New York. When others couldn’t see the connection between women’s suffrage and abolition, Douglass spoke firmly in favor of a woman’s right to vote and equated the rights of Black men with the plight of women to vote. He often said that the world would be a better place if women had the right and power to participate in politics. For this era, this kind of partnership was revolutionary. Douglass wouldn’t be alive to see the 19th Amendment passed, but his allyship and advocacy for civil rights and liberty for all will never be forgotten.

The lesson is this: Build partnerships. No one in business can survive alone. If you haven’t built as many partnerships, alliances, and relationships as you’d like, now’s the time. Douglass understood that by leaning on a community of people who shared similar values and goals, he could elevate his cause and create collective growth. When times get hard in business, it’s the strength of your partnerships that will see you through.

Related: It’s Black History Month. Here’s How to Show Black Employees You Care.

Final thoughts

Sometimes, it’s helpful to look back in order to move forward. Looking to leaders like Frederick Douglass is not only an inspirational choice but a smart one. He was a man who struggled to navigate life in the era of slavery and rose to the occasion to teach himself how to read, write, speak, and eventually become a vocal advocate for freedom and liberation. You can’t help but feel that Douglass would be someone you’d reach out to in need of advice if he were still alive. He’s one of many figures in Black history who can provide us with a guiding light in times of uncertainty and turmoil and can be a model for moving through challenges with fortitude, confidence, and hope.

In October, Dell Technologies told sales staff to return to the office five days a week. Now, the tech giant is issuing a strict return-to-office (RTO) mandate for all employees who live within an hour of their local offices, according to an internal memo exclusively obtained by Business Insider.

Dell staff received the news via email from the company’s CEO, Michael Dell. The RTO mandate begins in March.

“Starting March 3, all hybrid and remote team members who live near a Dell office will work in the office five days a week,” Dell wrote. “We are retiring the hybrid policy effective that day.”

Related: AT&T and Sweetgreen Are Following Amazon’s Lead With Stricter Return-to-Office Mandates

However, employees who live more than an hour from a Dell office can keep working remotely, the email stated, though the company also said last spring that remote employees would not be eligible for promotions without several layers of approvals and red tape.

Dell is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, and has 120,000 staffers worldwide. The company has more than 40 U.S. office locations to house its 43,000 employees in the States.

Dell is the latest major company to bring employees back to the office. The largest bank in the country, JPMorgan, also recently implemented a five-day-a-week RTO mandate. Walmart and Amazon have also brought workers back in-house.

Michael Dell, 59, founded Dell in 1984 when he was 19 years old. He is currently No. 14 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $117 billion.

Related: JPMorgan Shuts Down Internal Message Board Comments After Employees React to Return-to-Office Mandate

Over 1,400 Google employees signed a petition this week calling for more job security and asked the company to implement buyouts, or financial incentive packages to leave the company voluntarily, instead of resorting to mass layoffs.

Now, Google appears to be taking them up on their advice, beginning with a buyout.

Google senior vice president Rick Osterloh sent a memo to all staff on the platforms and devices (P&D) team on Thursday morning informing them about a “voluntary exit program.” All employees in that division were given the option to leave Google on their own in exchange for a severance package of undisclosed value.

Related: Google Is Losing Ground to Unexpected Rivals in Search Ad Revenue and Name Popularity, According to New Estimates

“The Platforms & Devices team is offering a voluntary exit program that provides US-based Googlers working on this team the ability to voluntarily leave the company with a severance package,” Osterloh wrote in the memo. He said that the exit program could benefit those who might not be passionate about the team’s mission of “building great products, with speed and efficiency” or those facing difficulty with their roles.

Google confirmed that the voluntary exit program was happening to 9to5Google. The buyout only applies to U.S. employees in the P&D division, not to other groups like Search or AI.

Google created the P&D unit in April 2024 by merging the team responsible for devices and services, including Pixel smartphones and Chromebooks, with the platforms and ecosystems team, which handled Android and Chrome software.

Related: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says ‘You’ll Be Surprised’ By How Google Search Changes

Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated at the time that the move was meant to “speed up decision-making,” “bring the best innovations to partners faster,” and “help us deliver higher quality products and experiences.”

^{Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images}

In a petition created earlier this week addressed to Pichai by his first name, the Union voices concern about instability at Google due to layoffs.

“Ongoing rounds of layoffs make us feel insecure about our jobs,” the petition reads. “The company is clearly in a strong financial position, making the loss of so many valuable colleagues without explanation hurt even more.”

Related: How Google Is Using AI to Turn Your Daily News Scroll into a Personalized Podcast

The petition, which has been signed by 1,430 Google employees at the time of writing, asks for guaranteed severance that is at least equal to the severance package Google offered in January 2023 of 16 weeks of salary, plus two weeks for every additional year at the company.

Google software engineer and Alphabet Workers Union organizing chair Alan McAvinney told The Register on Thursday in an email that the buyout offer is “proof of what we can achieve when we stand together as Google’s workers and voice our concerns.”

Google let go of 12,000 employees in January 2023 and at least 1,000 more a year later. According to its latest earnings report, it had a headcount of 181,269 employees.

Google posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings in late October, which saw Google Services bring in $76.5 billion in revenue.

Related: Google Says It Won’t Follow Amazon’s Lead With a Return-to-Office Mandate — Yet

Entrepreneurs — take note: 39% of your current skills will be obsolete within 5 years, but this AI revolution is your biggest opportunity yet.

In this video, I’ll reveal how Phase 3 AI, specifically the rise of AI agents, is driving this massive shift and why mastering new skills is no longer optional; it’s critical. I’ll share insights from the Future of Jobs Report, highlighting the six key skills you need to thrive in an AI-driven world and how embracing analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility, creative thinking, motivation and self-awareness will be crucial. You’ll also learn how my new book, “The Wolf is at the Door,” predicted this skills revolution and why entrepreneurs are rushing to get their hands on it to prepare for 2025 and beyond.

This isn’t just about surviving the AI revolution; it’s about thriving in it. Discover how to leverage AI agents to your advantage, creating new opportunities and transforming your business.

Download the free “AI Success Kit” (limited time only). And you’ll also get a free chapter from Ben’s brand new book, “The Wolf is at The Door – How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World.”

The startup world is often painted as a land of endless possibilities, where big dreams meet big checks. Entrepreneurs and investors alike revel in stories of unicorn valuations and rapid success. But there’s a side to startups that’s less celebrated — the graveyard of ambitious ventures that, despite raising significant capital, ultimately failed.

Raising millions, even billions, is no guarantee of success. While hefty funding may signal promise to outsiders, it can also serve as a double-edged sword, masking critical flaws such as poor product-market fit, weak leadership or unsustainable business models. In some cases, the very abundance of capital fuels reckless spending, bloated operations or overconfidence in unproven strategies. The result? A fast track to failure despite impressive financial backing.

Below, we delve into the hard truths of startup failures through the lens of ten companies that raised enormous capital only to crash and burn. Each story offers a unique and sobering lesson for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors alike — highlighting the importance of execution, adaptability and sustainable growth over mere monetary success. These cautionary tales reveal that the real measure of a startup isn’t how much it raises but how wisely it navigates the challenges of building and sustaining a business.

Related: How to Set Yourself Up for Success and Avoid the Mistakes That Cause Most Startups to Fail

Theranos

Capital raised: $700 million

Theranos promised a medical revolution with its blood-testing technology. The problem? The tech never worked. Fraudulent claims and lack of transparency brought down this high-flying company.

Lesson: Overselling and under-delivering can destroy credibility, no matter how charismatic the founder is.

WeWork

Capital raised: $22 billion

The coworking space giant imploded due to reckless spending, poor governance and an unsustainable growth strategy.

Lesson: Even the best branding can’t save a business with broken fundamentals.

Quibi

Capital raised: $1.75 billion

With a vision of revolutionizing streaming for mobile users, Quibi failed to read the room. Lack of demand, poor timing and misguided execution doomed it within six months of launch.

Lesson: Market research is essential before scaling.

Jawbone

Capital raised: $930 million

Jawbone failed to keep pace with competitors in the wearable tech market. Poor product quality and lack of differentiation led to its downfall.

Lesson: Innovation must evolve alongside consumer expectations.

MoviePass

Capital raised: $68 million

MoviePass’s unsustainable subscription model of unlimited movies for $9.95/month sounded great — too great. The company bled money and alienated its customer base with constant policy changes.

Lesson: Overgenerosity can backfire without a sustainable revenue strategy.

Fyre Festival

Capital raised: $26 million

Marketed as an exclusive luxury event, Fyre Festival delivered chaos instead. Mismanagement, overpromises and outright fraud turned it into a cultural punchline.

Lesson: Execution matters just as much as vision.

Related: Avoid Going from Riches to Rags: 6 Lessons for Startups

Beepi

Capital raised: $150 million

Beepi aimed to simplify car sales with an online marketplace but couldn’t scale operations effectively. High overhead costs and thin margins buried the company.

Lesson: Operational efficiency is as critical as market demand.

Pets.com

Capital raised: $300 million

One of the most infamous dot-com busts, Pets.com struggled with high shipping costs and poor profitability, despite heavy marketing.

Lesson: Growth without a viable financial model is unsustainable.

Homejoy

Capital raised: $40 million

A cleaning services platform, Homejoy crumbled under legal challenges related to worker classification and inability to retain customers.

Lesson: Ignoring legal risks can sink even the most promising ventures.

Better Place

Capital raised: $850 million

This electric vehicle startup bet big on battery-swapping stations but underestimated adoption challenges and infrastructure costs.

Lesson: Timing and ecosystem readiness are crucial for innovation-heavy industries.

Key takeaways for entrepreneurs

• Validate before scaling: No amount of capital can fix a product that doesn’t meet a real need.

• Spend wisely: Burn rate management is critical. Flashy spending might attract attention, but sustainability drives success.

• Prioritize governance: Strong leadership and clear accountability can prevent internal chaos.

• Adapt quickly: Markets change fast. Companies must evolve their strategies to stay relevant.

• Be transparent: Trust is the currency of long-term success. Overhyping or hiding flaws is a recipe for disaster.

Why startup failures matter

Failure isn’t just a footnote in the startup journey — it’s often the prelude to innovation. Many successful entrepreneurs have risen from the ashes of failed ventures. The trick is to learn from these stories, not repeat their mistakes.

In today’s venture capital-driven economy, it’s tempting to equate funding with validation — a mindset that often overshadows the core elements of sustainable business growth. Securing millions in funding can create a false sense of security, leading entrepreneurs to believe they’ve already achieved success.

Related: When My Startup Failed, I Was Hopeless and Left in Tears. Here Are the Lessons That Helped Me Restart and Launch Three Successful Companies.

However, as these ten cases reveal, money alone doesn’t make a business successful. Passion fuels the vision, strategy provides the roadmap, execution turns ideas into reality and adaptability ensures survival in the face of unforeseen challenges. Without these elements, even the most well-funded startups can falter.

This article serves as both a reality check and a call to action for entrepreneurs to rethink what success truly means. It challenges the prevailing narrative that financial backing is the ultimate indicator of potential. The unspoken truth? It’s not about how much you raise; it’s about how well you deliver value, create impact and sustain growth over time. Success is defined not by the headlines about funding rounds but by the ability to build a business that thrives, adapts and endures.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek burst on the scene this week with its latest AI model, which the startup claims performs as well as leading AI from OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic — but at a far lower cost to develop. DeepSeek said their total training costs amounted to just $5.576 million — much cheaper than the $100 million to $1 billion Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says it costs U.S. startups to train AI today.

However, in earnings calls on Wednesday, leaders at Microsoft and Meta separately affirmed their plans to continue to spend heavily on AI, even though DeepSeek showed that it was possible to spend less and still develop a competitive AI model. Executives said spending on AI has already led to business gains and spending more on AI is necessary to stay competitive in the long term.

Related: OpenAI Says AI Industry Disruptor DeepSeek May Have Copied Its Work as Rivals Race to Catch Up

Microsoft says AI revenue is up

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on the company’s earnings call that its AI business was up 175% in revenue year-over-year, for an annual revenue run rate of $13 billion. Overall revenue at the company was up 12% from the previous year, reaching $69.6 billion.

“As AI becomes more efficient and accessible, we will see exponentially more demand,” Nadella predicted.

Related: Microsoft Is on Track to Hit a Major Milestone, the ‘Fastest Business in Our History,’ According to Its CEO

He highlighted that Barclays, the University of Miami, and Pearson used Microsoft’s AI for 10,000 or more users for the quarter ending December 31.

^{Satya Nadella. Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Microsoft stated earlier this month that it would spend $80 billion on AI data centers in the fiscal year ending in June. Microsoft’s chief financial officer Amy Hood said on the call that more than half of the company’s AI-related spending was “on long-lived assets that will support monetization over the next 15 years and beyond.”

Meta says AI investments give it an advantage

On Meta’s earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended plans to spend up to $65 billion on AI this year, stating that “investing very heavily” in AI infrastructure “is going to be a strategic advantage over time.”

“At this point, I would bet that the ability to build out that kind of infrastructure is going to be a major advantage for both the quality of the service and being able to serve the scale that we want to,” he said.

Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun stated in a Threads post on Saturday that DeepSeek was able to succeed because of open-source AI models, which allow developers to build on each other’s work. Meta famously made its AI open source in 2023 after spending millions developing it, and DeepSeek used parts of it to create its latest model.

Related: Meta Is Building AI That Can Write Code Like a Mid-Level Engineer, According to Mark Zuckerberg

Meta made $164.5 billion in the twelve months ending on December 31, a 22% increase from 2023.

Is the DeepSeek model the future of AI spending?

With DeepSeek topping U.S. app stores, even ahead of ChatGPT, the competition will be watching to see if massive spending is worth it.

DeepSeek’s popularity has already rattled tech stocks, causing AI chipmaker Nvidia to lose $590 billion in market value in one day on Monday.

“DeepSeek has shown that innovation doesn’t need a trillion-dollar price tag,” Lukman Otunuga, senior market analyst at global broker FXTM told Entrepreneur in an emailed statement. “If US tech leaders fail to convince investors of their edge, AI stocks could face further pressure this week.”

Six months ago, LinkedIn user Lauren Nicholas noticed that something was going on with the casual dining restaurant, Chili’s.

“Chili’s is having a moment,” she wrote, posting screenshots of viral TikToks and noting that “brand love” seemed to be at a “fever pitch.” She also said, “Gen Z is obsessed with the Triple Dipper.” (For example, one video of a mozzarella stick “cheese pull” from the platter has more than 16 million views.)

It looks like Nicholas was definitely right. In an earnings call on Wednesday, Chili’s parent company Brinker revealed that sales at restaurants open for at least a year increased by 31% last quarter—and double-digit sales growth has been steady for three straight quarters.

@edwards.kaylee THE CHEESE PULL ?? #chilis #trippledipper #yummy #foodtok #relatable #fyppppp #getmefamous @Chili’s Grill & Bar ♬ Big Back – The Original Parody – thecincomedy

“The investments we have been making over the last three years are working,” said Brinker’s President and CEO Kevin Hochman on the call with analysts. “Marketing is doing a great job of bringing guests in and putting Chili’s back in the culture again. Operations simplification investments in labor and facility improvements are working to get guests to return.”

The company said increased foot traffic—about 20% last quarter—helped fuel the growth. That, and some fancy new ovens.

Related: Popular Buffet Chain Golden Corral Has Racked Up Tens of Millions of Views on Social Media. Here’s How It Keeps Going Viral.

“We’ve been testing Turbo Chefs and restaurants and slowly expanding them for the past three years with very positive feedback from the operators,” Hochman said. “They cook the food much faster and much more evenly. They put out less heat, making the kitchen more comfortable for our team members. And they create superior-tasting products like crispier quesadillas and ribs with a delicious crust.”

On the call, one analyst said the company’s turnaround was “the best one of all time,” per CNN.

Nation’s Restaurant News reports that Chili’s also cut its menu down by 13 items and eliminated a dozen pantry-related SKUs. It also improved the quality of its chicken breasts and began making guacamole fresh, in-house.

Hochman told CNBC that Brinker is planning to redesign some older locations, around “200 of our 1200 restaurant estate that…need some love” as the company tries to become a “third place to come together.”

“We’re always going to be there with that $6 margarita,” Hochman told the outlet.

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it was laying off dozens of workers in its communications and sustainability departments, and earlier this month, the company let go of 200 employees from its North America stores team. It’s only the beginning.

In September, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that the company would be eliminating excess layers of middle management by the end of March. Now, a leaked Amazon Web Services (AWS) sales team guidelines document, obtained by Business Insider on Thursday, sheds light on how those middle-manager cuts will happen.

The document tells AWS sales managers to increase their number of direct reports, pause hiring new managers, and demote some managers down a level to a non-managerial position of less pay. An Amazon spokesperson did not confirm the internal guidance to BI. AWS had about 115,000 employees out of Amazon’s total 1.55 million.

When it comes to direct reports, the leaked document requires managers to have at least eight team members, up from the six that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos required in 2017.

The AWS sales team guidelines also advised a pause on hiring new managers, stating that the team had hired more managers than entry-level employees in the past few years, driving costs up. Amazon’s structure had become more diamond-shaped than pyramid-shaped, the document stated, referring to the heavier middle management layer.

The final recommendation in the leaked documentation was to move managers down a level to individual contributors, which has a lower pay range. Two AWS employees told BI that this had already happened to several managers.

^{Andy Jassy. Photo by Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services}

These changes arrive in response to Jassy’s September note, which asked each senior leadership team to “increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of Q1 2025.”

Related: ‘Not a Cost Play’: Amazon CEO Clarifies Why Employees Have to Come Back to the Office

A Morgan Stanley note to investors in October estimated that Amazon could let go of 13,834 managers under Jassy’s guidelines, assuming that 7% of Amazon’s workforce is management. Amazon had 105,770 managers as of the second quarter of 2024 and would cut that number down to 91,936 managers by the first quarter of 2025, per the note.

Morgan Stanley estimated that if Amazon’s cost per manager ranged from $200,000 to $350,000 per year, Amazon would save between $2.1 billion and $3.6 billion by reducing its manager headcount.

At a November all-hands meeting, Jassy explained that changes to middle management were necessary to keep Amazon competitive. He had created a “Bureaucracy Mailbox” in September for Amazon employees to email him examples of excessive processes or rules that could be eliminated. As of November, that inbox had received more than 500 emails, with Amazon taking action on more than 150 employee suggestions.

“The reality is that the [senior leadership team] and I hate bureaucracy,” Jassy said. “One of the reasons I’m still at this company is because it’s not a political or bureaucratic place.”

Related: I Tried Buying a Car on Amazon. Here Are the Pros and Cons.

What if I told you that the number 385 was the answer to building a solid go-to-market strategy?

Stay with me. I’m Paul Sullivan, author of Go-To-Market Uncovered (GTMU) and an expert in building B2B go-to-market strategy. I also created the ARISE Go To Market Methodology® for background and credibility.

So, here’s the thing. The Arise GTM Methodology has five steps:

• Assess

• Research

• Ideate

• Strategize

• Execute

But to start solving your go-to-market strategy, you must answer the following three questions:

1. How do I convey the value of my product or service to my end user or customer?

2. How do I enable my buyer to buy from me?

3. How do I plan to onboard, retain and expand my buyer?

Related: How to Build a Solid Go-to-Market Strategy for 2025

To answer these questions, you must then understand these eight pillars of GTM strategy:

1. Discovery

2. Personas, Segmentation and Jobs to be done

3. Positioning, Messaging and Value Proposition

4. Pricing Strategy

5. Sales Enablement

6. Marketing Tactics

7. Onboarding

8. Product/Service Development

So, there you have it. Three questions, eight pillars and five steps. 385 is the magic number for go-to-market strategy. Let’s get into it.

When I wrote GTMU, I first divided the go-to-market process into three questions to simplify your understanding of what is required. Whenever I explain it this way, people always get it. No more “sales is go to market” or “marketing is go to market.” One founder told me it was the first time they had clarified what “go to market” meant. In that situation, I explained that go-to-market is how the organization executes the business strategy. That is an explanation I stand behind, but 385 is how it becomes easy to remember.

Related: 6 Key Things to Consider When Bringing a Product to Market

The three questions that matter

Question one: How do I convey the value of my product or service to my end user or customer?

When you approach this question, I want you to consider your current situation. It requires brutal honesty and a long, hard look in the mirror. You must review your situation thoroughly and understand the factors currently impeding your success.

To start, assess the business and perform reviews on your content, website performance, personas, strategy, social media, technology stack, the team’s skillset, a CRM review, KPIs and product performance, notably attrition and retention rates.

Your next job is to perform a competitive intelligence assessment, SWOT analysis and Porter’s five forces analysis. You will also interview at least 7-10 current and former clients and reevaluate the size of your available market. Understanding how you fit into today’s market will significantly affect your pivot with a new GTM.

Once you understand your current situation and place in the broader competitive landscape, you can generate new ideas for differentiating your communications strategy for your market segments. You do this by brainstorming, big-picture, blue-sky thinking, checking your positioning, value proposition, storytelling, messaging and rebuilding it all together.

Question two: How do I enable my buyer to buy from me?

Now, we get into the strategic element of your go-to-market strategy. Customer acquisition. This involves a series of processes, including content mapping, keyword analysis, segment hypothesis, customer content, SEO content, paid marketing strategy, sales and marketing asset requirements, sales enablement programs, website updates/redesign, goal and objective setting, KPIs, reporting requirements, lead scoring and the jobs to be done.

This activity will help you align marketing, sales and customer service, which all teams seek. It will also drive you into a revenue operations model as you consider the strategy and the technical requirements to help deliver it.

Sounds like a lot, right? It is — and if you want to win, you will do this comprehensively and not cut corners. Segmentation is critical at this juncture, and you’ll be thinking about how you position your product or service to the different buyers in the internal buyer committee. We widely accept that there are multiple decision-makers in today’s sales process, so your marketing team must adapt its strategy to incorporate content that engages them all.

Question three: How do I plan to onboard, retain and expand my buyer?

Your strategy needs to include an onboarding playbook or playbooks. You must map your complete customer journey through the business, from a stranger to an advocate. I first mapped this in an Excel spreadsheet back in 2023. My first row was about my brand marketing strategy. From there, I moved through my pre-launch initiatives into sales enablement, marketing strategy and customer onboarding, and then my upsell and cross-sell strategy into my referral program.

Again, it sounds like a lot, but it profoundly impacted our bottom line and many clients.

Here, at the execution stage, that is a primary objective. Additional requirements will include a segment audit to ensure your new segments have a customer journey lifecycle mapped out for each. They will also include new copywriting, execution of web design/development, new social media production, revamped ad campaigns, updating/consolidating/removing older and underperforming content, new reporting, consistent quarterly reviews, new digital asset development, including sales enablement materials, new sales and marketing emails, CRM workflow sequences, as well as other automation and new KPIs.

Related: 5 Lessons to Follow as You Take Your Product to Market

Where are the eight pillars? As you can see above, I have addressed the three questions and five stages of the ARISE GTM Methodology®, which is transparent. But if you carefully read the eight pillars and examine the actions and requirements of ARISE, they are all there, entwined perfectly for you and your team to adopt and build a winning go-to-market strategy.

So there it is: 385 is the winning number for a successful GTM strategy. It involves three questions, eight pillars and five steps.