Scrappy marketers > big brand résumés

Why growth at a startup is a different beast

My friend Peep Laja shared a new study from Tracksuit this week on Linkedin and found that as brand awareness increases, performance marketing conversion rates improve by 186%. That’s 2.86x more efficient ad performance when buyers know who you are.

No surprise in B2C. But this dynamic hits just as hard in B2B—and maybe even more so since you aren’t buying a t-shirt but a $30k piece of software.

But here’s the thing—I’m not writing this to rehash the tired “brand and demand work better together” narrative. That horse is dead.

What I want to talk about is this:

Growth marketing at an unknown company is a lot harder than doing it at a brand everyone knows, actually about 2.86x harder.

I know this first-hand.

If I’m being honest when I was running growth at G2, driving growth was easier.

Everyone had heard of us. They knew the category. Knew the brand. My work wasn’t about education or convincing—it was about optimization and driving action. Fine-tuning hooks, running tests, improving performance. Scaling up to match the growth of the company.

But rewind to my days at a tiny Series A startup?

Totally different game.

We had zero brand recognition. We weren’t in a clearly defined category. And no one had any idea who we were, let alone why they should trust us.

And that’s what makes growth at a scrappy, unknown company so brutally hard.

Here’s what that really looks like:

When you’re marketing from zero, every campaign has to pull triple duty:

1. Educate: Explain what your product is and why it exists

2. Build trust: Convince people you’re legit and credible

3. Drive action: Create urgency to take the next step

At a known brand, you can skip straight to #3. That’s a luxury. When you’re unknown, every single touchpoint - your ads, your homepage, your outbound messaging has to do all three.

Which means every impression is more expensive, every click-through is harder won, and every conversion takes more effort.

So here’s the advice part, especially for founders:

Next time you’re hiring a marketer, don’t just go straight for the resume that says Salesforce, GONG, or Ramp.

Sure, they’ve seen scale. But unless they were there in the super early days, they haven’t had to build from scratch.

If you’re early-stage, look for someone who’s done a lot with a little. Someone who’s built awareness, trust, and demand simultaneously, because that’s what early-stage growth really requires.

Big brand marketers know how to optimize.

Scrappy brand marketers know how to survive.

And survival is the first step to scale.

Thanks for reading,

Adam

P.S. If you’re tired of the usual marketing fluff and want a team that actually gets B2B growth, check out Growth Union. We’re not for everyone—if you just need someone to run some ads, we’re probably overkill. But if you want a team that digs deep, builds real demand, and drives results, let’s talk.