The biggest misconception fast-scaling companies have about marketing
Most fast-growing companies don’t have a marketing problem. They have a scaling problem disguised as one.
Here is the thing: what got you here won’t get you there. The tactics that fuelled your first million in revenue often become the very things that hold you back at 10 million. Teams that thrived in chaos start to drown in it. Managers who once moved at lightning speed find themselves stuck in meetings about process, alignment, and systems – things that never mattered before, but suddenly feel urgent.
This isn’t a marketing failure. It’s a transition misstep.
Two worlds, one marketing
As someone who has both worked in corporate marketing and mentored early-stage startups with limited resources, I’ve seen two very different approaches to marketing.
Corporate marketing is about process, alignment, and systems. It’s methodical, data-driven, and built for scale. Budgets are generous, teams are specialised, and every decision is vetted. The focus isn’t just on results – it’s on how you get them, and whether you can do it again and again.
Startup marketing, on the other hand, is about survival. It’s scrappy, fast, and relentlessly focused on impact. There is no time for perfect – only for what works, right now. The only metric that matters is traction.
The mistake? Assuming that what works in one world will work in the other.
A fast-growing company isn’t a startup anymore. But it’s not a corporate, either. It’s in the messy middle – a phase where the old rules no longer apply, and the new ones haven’t been written yet.
The scaling trap: why most companies get stuck
When you misalign your marketing approach, two things happen: you hire a corporate marketer too early. Suddenly, you’re building systems for problems you don’t yet have. Meetings multiply. Decision-making slows. The team that once moved like a speedboat now feels like a cargo ship.
You keep a scrappy startup marketer too long. Campaigns that used to work stop delivering. Every initiative feels like starting from scratch. You hit a ceiling – not because the market is saturated, but because your approach can’t scale.
The real issue isn’t the tactics.
Your key to scaling marketing
The solution isn’t to choose between startup agility and corporate structure. It’s to build the right marketing team and find leadership suitable for your company’s stage.
If you’re looking for a marketing executive, this is someone who:
- Builds systems without bureaucracy. They create repeatable processes, but know when to break them
- Moves fast without sacrificing strategy. They pivot on a dime, but always tie actions back to long-term goals
- Challenges assumptions with data. They’re as comfortable with a spreadsheet as they are with a whiteboard
- Executes with limited resources. They turn constraints into creative fuel
These marketers are rare. But they’re the difference between companies that plateau and those that break through.
How to know if you’re stuck
The companies that thrive are the ones that recognise the shift and adapt their marketing function accordingly.
As a mentor and marketer, I’ve seen too many promising companies stall because they failed to evolve their approach.
If your marketing team is struggling, ask yourself:
Are we still acting like a startup? If every campaign is a one-off, if ‘process’ is a dirty word, and if you’re constantly firefighting, you’re still in startup mode.
Are we pretending to be a corporate? If you’re drowning in meetings, if ‘alignment’ is slowing you down, and if you’re building systems for problems you don’t yet have, put the cart before the horse.
The answer will tell you exactly what to fix.
