The Costly Mistake Behind Many “Great” Products

I hear this conversation more often than you might expect.

A founder comes to me energised, proud, and deeply attached to what they’ve built. They tell me about their new product, how much they love it, how it feels different, how it has to work because it matters so much to them.

Naturally, the next question is simple: who is this for, and how do you know they want it?

That’s usually where things get uncomfortable.

The answer is rarely grounded in evidence. It’s often intuition, a feeling. A belief that because something is good, useful, or meaningful, demand will follow automatically.

And that’s where many strong products quietly fail.

The invisible gap between building and selling

Many founders overinvest in their products.

They pour time, money, and emotional energy into getting it right. Refining features, improving quality, polishing details. All of that matters if you want longevity.

But what I see repeatedly is this imbalance: an overwhelming share of budget and effort goes into creation, while very little is left for communication.

The assumption is that once the product exists, marketing should be minimal... almost optional.

In reality, this is where the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) shows up in a less helpful way.

Founders often spend close to 80% of their resources on the part of the business that will only generate 20% of the outcome on its own. The remaining 20% (positioning, distribution, visibility, trust) is expected to somehow do the rest.

A great product without marketing is not humble. It’s invisible.

You can think of it as having something genuinely valuable, placed where no one knows to look.

Marketing is not an afterthought, it’s the bridge

For early-stage and scaling brands, allocating 20–40% of revenue to marketing is not excessive. 

It’s strategic.

And marketing does not automatically mean paid ads.

It includes:

• Referral systems that reward sharing
• Strategic partnerships with brands serving the same audience
• Organic lead generation through communities and networks
• Podcasts, PR, and earned media
• SEO and long-term discoverability

When done well, marketing doesn’t “push” a product but clarifies who it’s for, why it matters, and why now.

There’s a reason many successful companies treated marketing as a growth engine from the beginning.

Here are interesting stories:

• HelloFresh spent 30%+ of revenue on marketing during its expansion phase, prioritising customer acquisition to build scale before later optimising efficiency. 
• Uber invested 40%+ of revenue in marketing and incentives in its early years, subsidising rides and drivers to rapidly build network effects in new markets..

These companies didn’t rely on product quality alone but also made being seen and understood a priority.

The real cost of skipping marketing

When founders spend everything on building and nothing on distribution, they limit their growth and access.

The right people never hear about the product. 

The problem it solves remains unsolved for those who need it most and the business struggle because the story was never properly told.

Marketing is how you make sure the value you’ve created actually reaches the people it was meant for.

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