Early-stage tech startups often face steep competition and limited resources, so it’s essential to find creative ways to stand out. While many founders focus on product features or fundraising, there are lesser-known strategies that can provide a powerful edge.
Here, 19 members of Forbes Technology Council share underrated tactics that savvy startups can use to gain traction and build trust with their target audiences. From deeply engaging with early customers to partnering with established market players, these strategies can help any startup outmaneuver the competition.
1. Get Your Security Certifications
When I first advised startups, most saw security certifications as bureaucratic hurdles. In reality, they’re trust accelerators that transform client perception. Enterprise clients fear security risks after seeing countless breaches. By pursuing ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certifications early, you speak their risk management language and gain a competitive edge others overlook. – Ben Ben Aderet, GRSee Consulting
2. Deeply Engage With Early Customers
Dedicating time to deeply engage with early customers can create long-term loyalty and provide valuable feedback. This could involve offering exceptional customer support, having a regular feedback cadence about the product roadmap and developing a community. Strong relationships can create advocates who feel valued and heard, which leads to organic word-of-mouth growth. – Charles Yeomans, Atombeam
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3. Release Your MVP And Get Fast Feedback
Most often, a minimum viable product is better and cheaper than long-lasting, full-fledged market research. Ship fast and get real feedback from real users—they will help to tune your product strategy and navigate the market more accurately. – Andrius Buinovskis, NordLayer
4. Hire For Judgment, Not Just Skill
Hiring people with good judgment is crucial to defining what is necessary for a system and balancing the many considerations and constraints that contribute to thoughtful software architecture. If you hire people without excellent taste, it’s easy to get large, messy repositories due to AI’s impact. You can write 1,000 lines easily, but is it the right code? That really hinges on judgment. – Mike Conover, Brightwave
5. Generate Revenue Before Product-Market Fit
In the current tough fundraising environment, an underrated strategy for early-stage tech startups is to start generating revenue from day one through consulting, paid proofs of concept or other means based on the skills that the founders possess. Then, continue to do so until you find product-market fit. A famous successful example is Microsoft, which never needed to raise VC money. – Tokumasa Yamashita, Qlay Technologies
6. Prioritize Interoperability Over Feature Creep
Early-stage tech startups gain an edge by prioritizing interoperability. Many focus on features, but businesses prefer seamless integration. Designing APIs for platforms like SAP or Salesforce reduces onboarding friction. A supply chain AI startup cut onboarding from six months to three weeks, outpacing feature-rich competitors. Prioritizing integration over feature bloat drives faster adoption. – Ashutosh Synghal, Midcentury Labs Inc.
7. Leverage Cross-Channel Marketing
Never underestimate the power of cross-channel marketing and the impact it can have on your presence. Think five to seven touchpoints across different media. It doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg; it just needs to be consistent and compelling. Thought leadership is real, and it resonates when positioned in the right place at the right time. – Georgia Leybourne, Linnworks
8. Combine Customer Obsession With AI Agents
An underrated strategy is combining deep customer obsession with agentic AI for real-time insights and competitive analysis. Startups can deploy AI agents to monitor customer behavior, gather feedback and analyze competitor offerings, allowing them to rapidly tailor solutions that meet evolving needs better than rivals. This dual focus builds loyalty while staying one step ahead in the market. – Sourav Sethia, Amazon
9. Partner With Established Market Players
Partnering with firms that are established in your target market and have a solution that is complementary to your product is a great way to obtain early validation and credibility. It differentiates your offering by including your company in the ecosystem alongside other trusted providers. For customers, the benefit is lowering their risk while enabling them to benefit from innovation. – Zornitza Stefanova, BSPK
10. Build A Community That Markets For You
A huge overlooked strategy is community building. When a startup can turn a community that likes them into one that loves them, every single member becomes a marketing agent. – Anthony Green, Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (CPABC)
11. Solve Urgent Problems First
Instead of focusing on the “idealistic development” of your product and its market fit, find a few prospects in your ideal customer base with urgent “hair on fire” problems. Then, solve these problems with consulting and product delivery. By doing this, you learn what the market actually needs, and you’ll increase cash flow and build advocates for your business. – Keith Moore, AutoScheduler.AI
12. Stay Focused On Your Core Mission
It becomes really difficult to gain a competitive edge if you don’t have an identity and mission for your business. That can change and pivot over time, but you started your business for a reason and with a goal in mind. Focus on that, and don’t try to be something you aren’t. – Bill Bruno, Celebrus
13. Target Niche Communities For Loyalty
Startups should leverage niche, community-driven product development. Instead of competing directly with industry giants, they can cultivate strong relationships with a small but highly engaged user base. Nothing, a UK-based startup, is already using this strategy by using its social media and YouTube channel to target tech enthusiasts and actively engage with them. – Melkon Hovhannisyan, Direlli
14. Build Your Technical MVP And Iterate
Early-stage tech startups should recognize that, just like a product MVP, there’s also a technical MVP. Build that first, gather customer feedback and iterate to refine. – Su Belagodu, ContextQA
15. Tap Into Advisory Talent Networks
There is a rise in consultant and advisory talent in today’s workforce. Early-stage startups can tap into this experienced group of leaders to advise and guide, many times for no upfront cash but rather advisory equity. – Ray Culver, CWsolutions Group
16. Use AI Strategically
Early-stage startups underestimate the power of AI agents. A solopreneur today can rapidly scale by creatively leveraging accessible AI tools. With AI-driven efficiency, startups can pinpoint niche problems, swiftly build frictionless solutions and dramatically outperform established players. Thinking about building an AI agent or using one can be a game changer. – Yusuf Sar, Hardwarewartung 24 GmbH
17. Conduct Solid Market Research
To break the entry barrier and find a competitive advantage, companies need a solid market research strategy to disrupt the market. One of the best I have seen is Orangetheory Fitness, which changed the fitness world for working professionals. – Hari Sonnenahalli, NDBS
18. Get Curious And Listen To Your Customers
Listen! Tech startup leaders need to lean in with curiosity about the customers. They need to put aside what they think they know and engage with customers by asking questions with raw curiosity. Dig deep and invest in learning both about the user and the buyer (which are not always the same person). – Teri Thomas, Volpara Health
19. Lead Early Sales As The Founder
In the early stages, founders need to focus on closing and generating revenue. Oftentimes, they are the best salespeople because they invented the technology. Scaling via a large sales force comes after you’ve closed the first 50 deals. – Vivek Bhaskaran, QuestionPro
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