For start-ups & new ventures
Build trust, grow sales
Could the shortest path to commercial success simply be to get to know your clients, fall in love with their problems, and be worthy of their trust?
A dedicated offering, based on support 150+ startups across Europe and beyond. As seen in Founders Institute program (French, Swiss, Italian, Benelux, German and Israeli chapters) and Startup Weekend by TechStars.
Get to know your clients, first.
Tech stacks, sales analytics, marketing automation, mass scraping, GenAI personas — technology has never been more present in sales and marketing. The promise of efficiency and global coverage has many ventures believing digital solutions alone will grow the business - provided the Solution/ Offering is amazing. That's simply not the truth. If you too are struggling... you're simply doing just as wrong as hundreds of other founders before you.
The problem: many startups are obssessed, in love with their solutions, and simply don't know who their clients are.
Featured story
“With AI automating technical tasks, the core of entrepreneurship is knowing how to sell — not just how to code.”
On 19 January 2026, Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch told students at École Polytechnique that entrepreneurship now hinges on selling rather than building alone. Scaling a business, he added, demands navigating difficulty and patience — and putting sales ahead of product creation on its own.
Coming from one of Europe’s most technical founders, that is a striking admission — and precisely the gap we help new ventures close.
Read the full story on polytechnique.eduWhy new ventures fail - are you safe?
Tackling problems that are interesting to solve for the founders, rather than serving a real market need is the number one reason for failure. Rapid execution matters, but far less than most founders assume.
- No market need
- 42%No market need
- Ran out of cash
- 29%Ran out of cash
- Not the right team
- 23%Not the right team
- Out-competed
- 19%Out-competed
- Pricing / cost issues
- 18%Pricing / cost issues
- UX / UI issues
- 17%UX / UI issues
8 of the top 10 reasons start-ups fail relate to poor market understanding or client engagement.
Source: CB Insights, 2019 — Top 20 reasons start-ups fail
Three gaps you must address
Bridging the gap between entrepreneurs and their market is what gives a new venture its best chance of success.
Poor market-fit / lack of client conversations
Engaging in client discussions only once the product or service is finalised.
Engage prospects early, approach them with genuine curiosity and not only with hypotheses to validate.
Missing commercial checks and balances
Financial management, business and commercial talent are the most cited missing pieces to add valuable checks on product design.
Many product roadmaps are executed for too long before necessary adjustments and pivots. You might have bright ideas, clients are still the experts of their own business.
Calibrate to client willingness to pay
Testing the market late, and letting design and development proceed unchecked, leads to difficult price points and self-imposed market barriers.
Great ideas are fantastic, but they don't create tangible business. Chase real intense needs, assess how clients are currently trying to fix the problem matching your solution. Stop developing solutions in a theoretical vacuum.
Frequent client-related challenges in start-ups
Every team is different, but many are confronted by the same five issues.
Passionate about the technology
Most founders are technical and obsessed with their product. In love with the brilliance of their idea. Many conceive in a vacuum. That's ego. Not business.
Lack of business acumen or industry experience
Coming from research, academia or consulting, market-fit is a new dimension to conquer — a common blindspot. You don't what you don't know. Most advisors and incubation programs will have mixed feelings about killing your enthusiasm. We are more worried about you wasting your time, energy and life chasing dreams rather than business potential
Insecure about approaching clients
What are you supposed to talk about if not your solution? It feels daunting, so many simply avoid it. If you feel that this resonates - congratulations! You are normal. It takes skills, frameworks and training to do this effectively. But no university, engineering degree or PhD prepares you for this.
Sales seen as "dirty" — a necessary evil
Talented people dream of being inventors and disruptors, not salespeople. So selling gets delegated — if there is anyone to delegate to. No the answer is not to make a priority of hiring your first Head of Sales.
Revenue operations deferred to later
Clients and revenue are treated as a scale-up problem. Product, MVP and PoC come first. Tragic. Market validation, pricing, positioning, nailing GTM that's what investors, business angels and any savy entrepreneur will prioritise. It's potentially less exciting.
Building A customer-centric start-up
Getting closer to clients and the market fast-tracks the commercial success of new ventures.
Targeted approach
Segmentation. Markets and customer needs.
- Realistic business model
- Defined customer profiles
- Clear market positioning
- Efficient allocation of resources
- Greater focus
Market-fit
Customer jobs. Client priorities. Fit-for-purpose.
- Product development priorities defined
- Backlog prioritised
- Abortive work avoided
- Reduced development cost
- Motivation and momentum
Go-to-market
Marketing and sales. Direct approach. Sales effectiveness.
- Differentiating sales experience
- Sales aligned with company culture
- Negative feedback avoided
- Faster market development
- Strategic clients targeted
Our start-up support services
We help craft compelling value propositions and clear messaging, we make sales accessible to non-experts, and we push sales teams further. Not sure where to start? That is fine — we can help you think it through.
Value proposition design
Go-to-market
Customer engagement
Sales effectiveness
Talent development
How we work with Start-ups
Stay focused — we will adapt. From e-learning to hands-on coaching or execution support, we adjust to your needs and constraints.
Face-to-face & on-site
We will come to you anywhere in Europe. Happy to travel further if you can afford it. Individual and team sessions, executive retreats, workshops and sprints.
Remote & digital
E-learning, videoconferencing, on-demand or retainer, with premium emergency support.
Execution support
Part-time only, short to long-term: Commercial Director, Key Client Director, Partnerships Director.
Board advisory
Building internal trust, customer centricity and sales culture transformation at board level.
Keeping an open mind on commercial matters
As a start-up ourselves, we know the pressure of resource allocation, cash-flow and protecting equity early.
Consulting
Daily rates with flexible payment schedules for a specific scope or short-term mission.
Retainer / ongoing
Agree a flexible envelope so you keep control of the level of investment.
5–10% success fee
To help prepare, coach and negotiate pre-seed, seed and series fund-raising.
10% min. equity
Sweat equity, depending on the maturity, scope and intensity of the engagement.
Money is the last reason for us not to collaborate. We are flexible and creative. Let’s talk.
Building a venture and unsure how to open the client conversation? That is exactly where we help.
The booking calendar can’t show here because scheduling cookies are off. Click the button to pick a time on the Calendly booking page in a new tab, or allow cookies through “Cookie preferences” in the footer to book without leaving this page. You can also email julien@trustfoundry.eu.