Fellow at Harvard Innovation Labs
Most startups overcomplicate sales — Rob Snyder learned that the hard way.
After two years in what he calls “pre-product-market fit hell,” cycling through every framework and playbook with no success, he found what actually worked: a single case study.- ■ The case study is the core of your business. Everything else revolves around it.
- ■ Sales is about finding customers who already need what your case study solves.
- ■ Product-market fit is delivering one case study that gets customers saying "hell yes" over and over.
- ■ The case study is the core of your business. Everything else revolves around it.
- ■ Sales is about finding customers who already need what your case study solves.
- ■ Product-market fit is delivering one case study that gets customers saying "hell yes" over and over.
Rob Snyder thinks most startup sales advice is bad.
“We complicate every single part of a startup — plans, roadmaps, documents, decks, all that shit,” he says. “But really, we just need one thing: a case study.”
For Rob, it was a single case study that pulled him out of what he calls “pre-product-market fit hell,” a grueling two-year stretch of trying every playbook, framework, and process under the sun.
“I hit my head against the wall for years. Nothing worked,” he says. “Then something clicked, and we went from $0 to $4 million ARR in two years.”
The path to product-market fit, Rob argues, is surprisingly simple: start with one case study. One customer who says “hell yes.” Then repeat it. Again and again.
"We complicate every single part of a startup —roadmaps, documents, decks, all that shit. We just need one case study."
Rob’s approach to sales is just as no-nonsense. “We think selling means convincing someone they need our product, showing off fancy mock-ups, and praying they don’t say no. That’s all wrong,” he says.
Instead, he sees sales as a process of discovery, not persuasion. “Sales is just figuring out what’s on someone’s to-do list and whether it’s relevant to your case study. If it is, great. Let’s explore if we’re a fit. If not, cool, I’ll talk to somebody else.”
Once you have a case study that works, everything else falls into place. “The case study is the atomic unit of the business,” says Rob. “It’s what you design everything else around.”
Start with one case study that proves your product works. Once customer who says “hell yes.” Then. repeat and build everything around that.