When Founders Should Engage with Industry Analysts
Founders commonly misjudge the right time to work with industry analysts. The typical view from founders is that the right time to enlist analysts is when the product is broadly available, or once they have a stable of reference customers ready to speak with the analysts. Worse, some wait until they’ve achieved product-market fit.
This perspective is out of date and puts founders at a disadvantage. Founders can and should engage analysts far earlier in their company’s lifecycle.
The best time to work with analysts is when you’re building your minimum viable product (MVP). The product is still forming, and analyst input can be crucial at this stage to help focus what should — and shouldn’t — be in the MVP. This feedback can speed up your MVP, help you land your first beta customers faster, and accelerate PMF. Another advantage of outside input is you may also lower your risk.
Advanced engagement is also crucial for founders with little to no practical experience in the domains in which they’re building products. (If this sounds absurd, it happens more often than you’d think. The number of companies in, say, the observability or cybersecurity spaces, founded by people that have never worked in either field, is staggering.) Analysts can identify problems in current solutions in aggregate. Even better, they can help identify the white space no one is solving for today.
Another advantage of earlier engagement is brand awareness. Analysts want to know what’s happening in their space as it allows them to better inform their clients, and it also gives them an edge on their own competitors on breaking new ground in research. The earlier analysts are aware of a company, the sooner they’re likely to write about it. Analyst mentions are great fodder for investors, sales enablement, and social capital.
Last, working with analysts isn’t transactional. It’s a strategic relationship that can endure for years. Like any relationship, they take time to develop. Waiting for the perfect moment means you’ve missed countless opportunities. Starting building and nurturing those relationships before achieving PMF and both parties will benefit.
Got a question about analyst relations? Let me know in the comments.
