ENT105 · Marketing, Sales and Growth for Startups
About Course
Build an evidence-based go-to-market system: sharp positioning for a defined ideal customer, a repeatable founder-led sales process and a growth engine run through prioritized, measured experiments.
Who it is for
Founders and early team members who have an MVP or first customers and need a structured way to find, convert and keep more of them.
Prerequisites
ENT103 and ENT104, or a live product with at least a few active users.
What you will be able to do
- Define an ideal customer profile and a positioning statement grounded in customer evidence
- Design a sales pipeline with stage definitions, conversion rates and a discovery conversation guide
- Map the AARRR funnel, choose a North Star metric and prioritize growth experiments with ICE scoring
- Analyze retention by cohort and decide which channel deserves the next month of effort
Lessons
- Lesson 1 · Positioning, ideal customers and channels
- Lesson 2 · Founder-led sales and the pipeline
- Lesson 3 · Growth systems and experiments
- Lesson 4 · Lab and assignment
Lab: Go-to-market dashboard and experiment backlog
You set up a free CRM pipeline with clearly defined stages, import or simulate at least 30 leads and build a Looker Studio dashboard showing funnel conversion and weekly cohort retention. You then create an ICE-scored backlog of ten growth experiments and run the top one for a week.
Free tools: Google Sheets, Looker Studio and HubSpot free CRM
Assessed assignment
Produce a go-to-market plan of three to four pages. Include your ideal customer profile, a positioning statement with competitive alternatives, a pipeline with stage definitions and current or estimated conversion rates, and your North Star metric with its input metrics. Add a funnel and cohort dashboard and an ICE-scored backlog of ten experiments, then report the result of the one you ran. Every claim in outbound messages must be truthful, and outreach must comply with CAN-SPAM or the applicable law in your market.
| Criterion | Weight | What excellent work looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Positioning and ICP | 25% | The ICP is specific enough to build a lead list from, and the positioning is based on real alternatives and differentiated value proven by customer quotes or data. |
| Sales process | 25% | Stages have entry and exit criteria, conversion rates are tracked, and the discovery guide focuses on the customer's situation and impact. |
| Growth system | 30% | The North Star metric reflects delivered customer value, inputs are measurable, the backlog is scored consistently and the experiment is reported with a clear result. |
| Analysis and decision | 20% | Cohort and funnel data are interpreted correctly and lead to a focused, justified channel decision for the next month. |
Portfolio piece
A go-to-market plan with a live funnel and cohort dashboard and a prioritized growth experiment backlog.
Next step
Continue with ENT106 · Finance, Legal Basics and Funding Options · 8 hours · $56.00
Course Content
ENT105 · Marketing, Sales and Growth for Startups (8 h)
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Lesson 1 · Positioning, ideal customers and channels
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Lesson 2 · Founder-led sales and the pipeline
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Lesson 3 · Growth systems and experiments
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Lesson 4 · Lab and assignment
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ENT105 Assessment · Marketing, Sales and Growth for Startups