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GTM Strategy
The ICP Trap: Why Being Too Broad Kills Early-Stage GTM
Every investor tells you to go broad. Every operator tells you to go narrow. The operators are right. Here's why niche positioning wins early — and how to find yours.
The Broadness Trap
"We help B2B companies grow revenue." That sentence describes approximately forty thousand software companies and about six thousand consultancies. It says nothing. It attracts no one specifically. And yet it's how most early-stage founders describe their company.
The temptation to be broad is understandable. It feels safe. Every potential customer looks like a possibility. But possibility isn't pipeline, and breadth at the top of the funnel creates noise at every stage below it.
Why Narrow Wins Early
When you're specific, you become the obvious choice for a smaller group instead of a vague option for a large one. The founders who close their first ten customers fastest are almost always the ones who can name a specific job title at a specific type of company experiencing a specific condition right now.
Narrow doesn't mean small market. It means a specific entry point into a market. You're not turning away the broad market — you're earning it incrementally, starting with the wedge where you win most easily.
Finding Your Wedge
Look at the problem you solve. Who experiences the most acute version of it? Who experiences it most frequently? Who has the least tolerance for the status quo? That intersection is your wedge customer.
Name them specifically. Not "marketing leaders" but "VP of Marketing at a Series A B2B SaaS company with 10-50 employees that just hired their first SDR." That specificity lets you write copy that makes that person feel immediately seen. Everyone else will still read it. But your person will feel like you wrote it for them.
