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As a startup founder or marketing manager, you’ve probably heard the mantra “distribution is everything.” But what does that mean really so, how to put it into practice?
Building a great product is hard, but that’s only half the battle. The real challenge is to get that product in front of the right customers — repeatedly and on a large scale.
For most startups, this is where things fall apart. In my experience, many founders either get stuck trying to sell to fewer customers at a higher price or chase thousands of customers at a lower price. As a result, they end up overspending their resources and fail to generate sustainable growth.
The solution is yes build a scalable distribution engine. But how do you set up a system that consistently delivers results while balancing your current channels and marketing strategy?
In a recent Marketing against the grain episodeKieran and I uncover why startups need to prioritize distribution from day one — and how to design a distribution system that works.
Let’s be realistic about the math. Most Series A or B startups sell to mid-market companies with annual contract values of $5,000 to $12,000. To achieve the growth that investors expect, you have two options:
The reality is that most startups never invest enough time in building that engine — and without it, they’re at a standstill.
The key is to design a distribution system that is also predictable and high leverage. Why? Because predictability gives you the power to predict, while leverage allows you to acquire customers efficiently.
Here’s how to approach it.
Having worked with countless startups (and helped build HubSpot’s own distribution engine from the ground up), Kieran and I have learned a thing or two about mastering distribution. Here are our top four tips.
Startups often talk about product and market fit — but also critical product channel fit. In other words: which distribution channels best align with your product, attract customers and enable repeatable growth at scale?
At HubSpot, for example, we built our distribution strategy alongside product development. Since our product is built around inbound marketing, we focused on channels like content marketing and SEO, which engaged our target audience while simultaneously (and appropriately) showcasing the true value of our own product.
By aligning our distribution strategy with what HubSpot was designed to do — inbound marketing — we’ve ensured that both our product and channels grow organically together in a way that’s scalable and repeatable.
One of the most difficult challenges of building a startup distribution engine is balancing predictability with creativity. You need reliable, predictable channels to drive steady growth, but you also need to take creative risks to find high-paying opportunities that will drive your business forward.
A great example here is Abercrombie & Fitch. After the brand was in decline, they reinvented their distribution strategy using influencers and social videos to reach a new, younger audience.
While still relying on predictable channels like social media, they added a creative twist by rebranding their image and using influencers to drive authenticity. This balance has helped them thrive—outpacing even fast-growing companies like Nvidia for a time.
At HubSpot, we followed a similar path. In the early days, paid advertising drove about 50% of our demand, providing predictability. But as we scaled, we invested more in high-performing creative channels like search, shifting the ratio to where search ended up generating 60% of our demand — an absolute game changer for our scaling strategy.
For advice: Look at affiliate programs or collaboration of creators to add creative twists to predictable channels. These types of partnerships can offer unique distribution angles that set you apart from the competition.
As Kieran points out during the podcast, the most successful distribution strategies find a unique angle within existing channels. Especially when the channel is already crowded, it’s no longer enough to just participate — you have to stand out.
A great example of this is Genius.com, which became the top song lyrics site by adding user-generated content like lyrics comments. This feature increased the value of each site and helped them rank higher in search engines – not because they had the best product, but because they found a new way to use user interaction to increase visibility and engagement.
For advice: Segment your distribution channels into “known” (predictable) and “unknown” (risky, high-performing) categories. This helps you balance steady growth while testing new channels with high growth potential.
Distribution success often comes from identifying asymmetric opportunities — channels or strategies that offer disproportionately high returns with relatively low input. These opportunities usually come from the ability to see what others are missing.
As Kieran explains, “To get a real edge in distribution, you need someone who can creatively explore unproven areas while applying process and rigor.” This means your team can’t just be focused on optimizing what they’re already doing – they have to be competitive, inventive and not afraid to experiment.
A strong example of this was a company I worked with in Brazil, which targeted logistics managers in a niche B2B market. Instead of looking for traditional channels, we found an asymmetric opportunity by licensing popular business content (such as James Clear Atomic habits) and adaptation to Portuguese. This created a unique, localized offering that resonated with their audience in a way that no one else did.
Distribution is not a secondary concern for startups – it is all. In order to grow your business, you need a driving distribution engine that is both predictable and capable of delivering high-margin growth.
By focusing on the right channels, balancing predictability with creativity, and always looking for asymmetric opportunities, you’ll be in a much stronger position to grow your business.
To know more about the marketing strategies of distribution drivers, see the whole episode of Marketing against the grain below:
This blog series is in partnership with Marketing Against the Grain, a video podcast. Explore deeper ideas shared by marketing leaders Kipp Bodnar (HubSpot’s CMO) and Kieran Flanagan (SVP, Marketing at HubSpot) as they discover growth strategies and learn from prominent founders and peers.