INDIANAPOLIS, IN (June 26, 2026) — Five Four, the growth agency for B2B startups, today announced a strategic partnership with Midsail Research, naming the firm its exclusive preferred research partner. For early-stage founders who come to Five Four for go-to-market strategy, positioning, or marketing execution, Midsail Research is now the first call when market research is needed.
The partnership is designed to close a gap that derails a significant number of early-stage companies: going to market without knowing the market. Five Four and Midsail operate as a coordinated team, so the research informs the strategy and the strategy shapes the research — without the start-stop friction of bringing in a new vendor mid-engagement.
"Research isn't a nice-to-have for early-stage companies. It's the foundation that everything else is built on," said Sara Croft, CEO of Five Four. "The more you know about who your buyer is, how they make decisions, and whether your product actually meets their specifications, the more successful your go-to-market strategy will be. And what if you could do it without feeling like it's slowing down your business? Now that's a win."
The Cost of Going to Market on Assumptions
Early-stage startups face enormous pressure to generate revenue as fast as possible. 64% cite go-to-market execution as a top concern, according to the High Alpha 2025 SaaS Benchmarks Report surveying more than 800 startups.
While founders generally understand the importance of research for their go-to-market strategy, successfully doing it has historically been a challenge. Founders who know their industry well are tempted to skip research entirely because they believe they know the space, yet inherent biases creep in that can easily derail the product vision. Research firms are often slow moving and can over index on specifics that are great for larger companies but too heavyweight for startups. The arrival of LLMs has proven valuable to DIY-level research, but those products cannot call and interview buyers and users or obtain actual real feedback that isn't already present for the LLM to search and find. Founders are left with a challenge - research firms are historically too big to work with, and LLMs are best for business ideation. Midsail Research is the goldilocks vendor that sits right in the middle.
"Many founders I speak with worry that research will be too expensive, take too long, or simply deliver answers they could generate with an AI tool. But the real value of qualitative and quantitative research isn't collecting more information, it's replacing assumptions with evidence," says Derek Fox, founder and chief research officer of Midsail Research. "When you're making decisions about your ICP, positioning, messaging, pricing, or product roadmap, being wrong is far more expensive than doing the research. Good research helps founders make fewer costly mistakes and move forward with greater confidence."
"Innovative technologies need to experiment with go-to-market strategies. But the less you can pivot your ICP in year one, the more likely you are to have a longer financial runway and a faster pipeline to conversion ratio," says Sara Croft.
One Engagement, One Team
For founders, the practical benefit of this partnership is significant. Five Four already understands the business, the product, and the strategic goals. When Midsail is brought in, that context transfers directly. Founders don't have to onboard a new firm from scratch, re-explain their company, or manage a separate vendor relationship. Five Four's deep expertise in positioning, go-to-market strategy, and marketing execution means they know exactly how to use a research partner and they can translate the startup's product and growth vision on behalf of a founder without their involvement.
Midsail Research offers both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including in-depth buyer interviews, surveys, competitor analysis, customer segmentation, and product market testing. For early-stage companies, the ability to conduct actual interviews with real buyers — and return with direct quotes, behavioral insights, and validated assumptions — is something no secondary research source or LLM can replicate.
"What we can get from an interview with an actual buyer that you cannot get anywhere else is the unfiltered truth about how they think about the problem, how they evaluate solutions, and what would actually make them buy," said Derek Fox, Founder and CEO of Midsail Research. "That intelligence is what makes a go-to-market strategy work."
Research in Practice: Wraptor
Wraptor is a first-of-its-kind tapping safety blanket for PVC pipe, purpose-built to protect water and utility workers from pipe explosions during wet taps. The product entered a market where no comparable solution had existed, which meant the founders needed to understand not just who the buyer was, but whether the product they were building would meet the specifications that market actually required.
Before engaging Five Four, Wraptor hired Midsail Research to conduct primary research into the construction and utilities market.
"Wraptor is the first product of its kind. Therefore, there was no playbook for how to sell it. Knowing exactly who touches a purchasing decision like this, and in what order, isn't something you can find with a Google search or a gut feeling. Midsail deployed surveys across the five or so people who might come into contact with the product during a buying cycle and came back with real feedback and direct quotes from those conversations. That buying committee map is what gave Five Four the foundation to build a go-to-market strategy that reflected how our market actually works — not how we assumed it worked," says Jennifer Merrell, Co-Founder, Wraptor.
For an early-stage company with limited runway and limited time, having that research at the start of the go-to-market engagement was the difference between launching with a strategy and launching with a plan.
About Five Four
Five Four is the growth agency for B2B startups. The firm works with early-stage companies on go-to-market strategy, positioning and messaging, and marketing execution — helping founders build a clear path from product to pipeline. For more information, visit fivefour.partners.
About Midsail Research
Midsail Research is a market research firm specializing in custom-tailored research methodologies for B2B and B2C companies. The firm offers qualitative and quantitative research services, including in-depth buyer interviews, focus groups, customer segmentation, competitor analysis, and product market testing, drawing on a global participant panel of over 500 million individuals. For more information, visit midsailresearch.com.
MEDIA CONTACT
Sara Croft
317-224-4897
s@fivefour.partners
