Startups Think They Don’t Need Strategy – Until They Do
Every few months on , I come across the same confident declaration: “Startups don’t need strategy!”
Recently, a consultant friend shared a post making exactly that claim. An entrepreneur replied instantly: “Bro, I’m a startup. I don’t deal with strategy, positioning, brand, marketing. I need sales. I need customers. Bring me customers first, then we talk.”
This reaction isn’t unusual. I’ve heard variations of it many times throughout my career. Entrepreneurs often assume strategy is a luxury — something you deal with after growth, not before it. But the story below shows why this thinking can quietly limit a startup’s potential.
How It Started: A Young Team and a Simple Idea
A few years ago, before I had my share of disappointing startup experiences, I joined an initiative that matched early-stage teams with experienced advisors. One day, they paired me with a four-person team building something in my domain: customer experience measurement.
Their setup was simple:
They placed freestanding tablets in stores. Customers tapped a smiley–neutral–frowny scale to express satisfaction. The team collected these responses and reported them to the retailer.
That was it: a device, a simple interface, and a report.
When we first met, they introduced themselves as a software company building customer-feedback devices. Their success metric was clear: “How many devices did we sell?”
In their minds, they were a product company.
But I told them something I’ve believed for years: Every product eventually becomes a service.
Their device was similar to this, but not mobile
My First Recommendation: Stop Seeing Yourself as a Device
I explained that customer experience doesn’t begin or end at a store entrance. It spans dozens of touchpoints — before, during, and long after the purchase. A single device capturing in-store feedback was just one fragment of a very long journey.
My suggestion was simple but strategic:
“Don’t position yourselves as a device company.
Position yourselves as a company that monitors the entire customer experience.”
They liked some of what I said… but later I learned they thought the advice was exaggerated. They continued focusing on device installations as their core success metric.
End-to-end customer experience
Reality Forces the First Pivot
Then something interesting happened.
Retailers began telling them:
“We sell as much – sometimes more – through e-commerce.
That’s where we need feedback.”
Suddenly, the in-store device didn’t look so strategic anymore.
The team came back to me, and we started exploring what feedback collection could look like across all touchpoints, not just physical ones. They implemented several ideas and even began getting international clients.
It felt like healthy progress.
Second Recommendation: From Reporting Data to Designing Experiences
As they expanded, they began collecting feedback from multiple points in the customer journey. At this stage, I introduced them to customer-identity unification and deeper analytical approaches.
Then I told them:
“You’ve outgrown being a feedback-reporting company.
It’s time to become a company that designs customer experience.”
Most companies claiming to “design CX” do so superficially — with workshops and sticky notes. They rarely use actual data. But this team had data. They could identify not just what customers were doing, but why they felt the way they did.
Still, they thought claiming to design customer experience was too ambitious.
After all, they were all software developers with limited CX background.
The Moment Everything Changed
Despite their hesitation, the company grew. They even made the shortlist for two global brands — one with stores in Turkey.
Both brands told them almost the same thing:
“We already have all the data.
What we need is not more feedback collection.
We need root-cause analysis and clear actions to reduce dissatisfaction.”
That was the moment the team realized something:
They were competing not against device vendors…
…but against companies that could translate customer signals into operational change.
They did not win those global clients. But the loss was a strategic awakening.
A colleague reminded them: “What did Uğur tell you?”
So, Do Startups Need Strategy?
The story doesn’t end there — dashboards, journey design, communication frameworks, and more followed. But we can pause here, because the central lesson is clear:
Many entrepreneurs proudly say:
“I’m a startup. I don’t do strategy.
Just bring me customers.”
Some even find mentors who reinforce this belief.
But the pattern repeats itself:
Teams who avoid strategy grow in the wrong direction — or not at all.
Teams who embrace strategy build something that survives.
I’ve seen both outcomes many times.
Maybe I’ll share more of those stories in another post.
1981 yılında ODTÜ – İşletmecilik Bölümünden mezun olduktan sonra, Price Waterhouse Consultancy’de iş hayatına başladı...
