"Marketing is for companies who have sucky products"

I attended the "Startup Pitch" event hosted by the New York Tech meetup group last week. A handful of start up companies pitched to a panel of venture capitalists to get feedback on their presentations and business models. One of the companies has been around for over a year and is seeking to bring online romance to the real world. The company's model was very strong and was written up by many tech bloggers and newspapers but only managed to sign up 4,000 registered users. They were seeking to raise funds, utilizing the majority of the capital on marketing and advertising costs. At the end of the pitch, one of the panelists referred to the controversial article that Fred Wilson wrote in February. The panelist stated that there may be a flaw with their product if they cannot gain traction after being exposed by the different media outlets.

Yes, I do agree that startups shouldn't spend most of their start up capital on marketing however, startups should consider bringing a marketing person on board at an early stage. This helps determine if you have a viable product before wasting time developing a product that may not have a marketplace for it. By testing the market first, entrepreneurs will have good feedback on the product's viability and suggestions for improvement.