Partnership after investment
This article is part of our series on N47's GTM approach. Learn more about how we partner with builders.
When we say that we’re Product First at N47, we mean it. As investors who lean in before the numbers do the talking, the strength of a company’s product is undeniable. But even great products can use a go-to-market boost.
We’ve seen time and again that standout products still need a deliberate path to market. They need early clarity on who the customer is, what story truly resonates, and which people are best equipped to scale it. Strong go-to-market is a discipline. It’s structured, repeatable, and most effective when it starts before the market has made up its mind.
We’re designed to help you do just that.
After we invest
We don't believe in slow starts. Once we partner, we move fast.
We set aggressive 90 and 180-day goals for qualified pipeline generation. Our CRMs sync with yours, so every opportunity flows directly to your team. We hunt together, and the results speak for themselves. In many cases, we've driven 10% of booked ARR between funding rounds. That kind of early momentum doesn't just help you win your category. It reshapes the trajectory and valuation of your next raise.
How do we do it? We have a standing network of over 1,000 business customers across buying centers, customer segments, and geographies, and have built specialist communities around CISOs, VPs of Engineering, and other key decision-makers. This enables us to sell higher into an organization than an early-stage startup otherwise might, and helps unlock doors for our portfolio. 25% of our customer connections have bought from at least one portfolio company, and 10% have bought from multiple portfolio companies.
We're also hands-on with building your GTM team, sharing playbooks pulled from the best companies we've backed, and ensuring you have the right leadership in place to scale what's working.
Speed matters. Execution matters. And when you combine both with an outstanding product, you create a pattern that wins.
Working together
We build on the momentum that we created together pre-investment and expand on it. We identify how N47’s resources, including our team’s expertise and global network, can be best leveraged to create tangible value and accelerate growth. If we’ve already achieved a goal prior to investment, we move to the next sprint.
Sprint 1: Customer discovery
Every great GTM motion starts with clarity: who needs your product most, why they care, and how they buy.
In this first sprint, we connect you directly with real customers (enterprise, mid-market, tech, etc.) from the N47 network who pressure-test your product and give candid feedback on your value proposition.
Here’s what to expect:
- The sprint begins with identifying where your product is most likely to address a meaningful customer problem. Based on that understanding, we compile a list of potential target customers and personas, share it with you, and jointly validate which ones make the most sense to engage.
- From this initial universe of prospects, we aim to secure dozens of customer conversations. These meetings are designed to test how well your product actually solves the identified pain points and help you refine your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). You’ll come away knowing what problems resonate and which messages land and why.
- We close the sprint with a concise report summarizing the customer feedback, key insights, and actionable learnings that can guide your next go-to-market steps. Depending on the findings, we jump in to help set up your GTM playbook, design your battle cards, choose your initial sales tech stack, etc.
At this point in our partnership, we aim to have found the sales motion that best supports the intersection between 1) the nature of your product (e.g., hardware, software, a combination of both), 2) the multiple dimensions of your customer profile (e.g., mid-market or enterprise, geography, existing tech stack), and 3) the persona using and paying for your product. Each company will be different, and so are the targets for each of the companies we work with.
Sprint 2: Pipeline acceleration
This sprint builds on the foundation established in Sprint 1 and will look different depending on your unique attributes. For example, if the sales motion we have identified is focused on mid-market and the product has a lower average sales price (ASP), we may run large-scale campaigns to reach thousands of customers. If enterprise customers (where we see long sales cycles) are a better fit for your business, we will leverage our network of over 1,000 tech users/buyers within hundreds of enterprises to create conversations and turn them into qualified leads. If you’re unfamiliar with your target geography, we will leverage our extensive network to build awareness of your business in that region. If the best way to take your product off the ground is to find an active partner who already has strong traction with your target persona, there are dozens of software and hardware VARs and distribution partners in our network that you can rely on.
There are different approaches we can take, but here’s what to expect:
- Our team engages both N47’s network and adjacent connections who may have a strong interest in your solution. As part of this pipeline generation exercise, we attend events, host events with tech buyers, and put all the resources we have available to work. If there are paying customers out there, we’ll find them.
- As responses come in, we qualify each opportunity to ensure relevance and fit before presenting them to you. Once we have a set of validated, high-potential leads, we proceed to the next phase of engagement, focusing on meaningful customer interactions and conversion opportunities.
- The key result of this sprint is the generation of qualified leads. You can opt to lead those intros or keep us informed through our shared CRM. You’ll have a living pipeline, real buyer insights, and the foundation of a repeatable GTM motion built on proof.
Sprint 3: Scaling
The final sprint focuses on helping our companies sustain and scale growth. With early traction and a refined ICP, the goal is to ensure the right people are in place to scale what’s working.
Here’s what to expect:
- We begin by mapping your current GTM structure, including who covers what, where the gaps lie, and how dependent the motion is on the founders.
- From there, we build a hiring roadmap that identifies the next critical roles and the level of leadership required to drive growth.
- Next, we introduce you to top operators from our network so you can see what “great” looks like. Together, we define the right archetypes for your stage and build a plan for attracting and onboarding top talent.
- Lastly, we activate our recruiting network to find top candidates who fit your stage and strategy. By the end of this sprint, you’ll have a clear GTM organization blueprint, a prioritized hiring plan, and a process for bringing on the right people to execute your go-to-market strategy.
An enduring partnership
While our initial integration typically lasts 12 - 18 months, during which portfolio companies can expect hundreds of hours of hands-on involvement from our team, our partnership is enduring, and we consistently seek out ways to support the N47 portfolio on an ongoing basis.
As our portfolio companies evolve, we continue to help them break into new accounts, build relationships with specific C-suite executives, validate new products with customers from our network, explore new geographies, and hire exceptional talent.
Our long-term relationship with Verkada is a great example of this. Six years after we led their Series A, Verkada was a well-established company with a strong US footprint, but they turned to us to support their GTM expansion into Europe. We helped open doors with customers in German-speaking countries, resulting in a focused, high-quality pipeline and landing strategic customers, including a leading automotive company.
We’re committed to working with our portfolio companies whenever they need us, and we consider stories like these the hallmarks of our relationships.
Curious about what this looks like in action? Check out our GTM Impact.
