025: No, searching for People in Pain is not marketing. Marketers have knowledge that founders don't

This is a follow-up episode in response to a listener question regarding Episode 022. The listener asked: Isn't searching for People in Pain just marketing? No. Marketing deploys the knowledge a business already has. Searching for People in Pain is the project of figuring out whether it's even worth it to try to get that knowledge in the first place. This episode unpacks the most-abused word in startups ("customers") and contrasts how marketing works in an established, conventional business with customers versus an attempt at marketing for a customer-breakthrough tech startup with no customers. In brief, marketers run a knowledge-flywheel powered by existing customers' data. By contrast, startups with no customers are a data disaster. In this episode:(00:00) A data disaster (02:49) The most important and misunderstood word in entrepreneurship: "customer"(03:53) Recap of Ep 022 — the People-to-Prospect Funnel (05:09) In conventional businesses founders can LEARN about existing problems and solutions (06:56) Customer-breakthrough startups require founders to CREATE knowledge about problems and solutions(07:28) Audience question in detail(08:26) Effective marketing requires knowledge of messaging + economics(10:27) The invisible chain of events behind marketing(12:56) The cold-start problem that blocks tech startups Are you new to the Nascent podcast? Start with Episode 019: https://www.nascentstartups.com/p/019-the-next-100-episodes-on-nascent Let's connect:Newsletter: https://nascentstartups.comMiro board with visuals and frameworks: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVGhU2Xoo=/Work with Mike: https://nascentidea.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikevladimerYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nascentideaSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5BtFtYF6nVUkLu7d7VVnSYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nascent-startups-podcast/id1728760830Twitter: https://x.com/NascentIdeaReach Mike at Podcast@NascentIdea.com Links and sources:Nascent Ep022: Yes, search for People in Pain. But they're invisible. https://www.nascentstartups.com/p/022-yes-search-for-people-in-pain"The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries https://theleanstartup.com/John Wanamaker quote on advertising https://www.azquotes.com/author/15273-John_WanamakerTypical advertising conversion rates and costs:- https://www.ruleranalytics.com/blog/insight/conversion-rate-by-industry/- https://firstpagesage.com/reports/digital-marketing-conversion-rate/- https://totalproductmarketing.com/marketing-insights/conversion-rate-display-ads-all-industries/- https://www.cometly.com/post/typical-conversion-rate-guide Nascent frameworks referenced:People in Pain™ — The first signal a startup might have a customer. Every customer starts as a Person in Pain, but they're invisible.People-to-Prospect Funnel™ — A 5-layer funnel showing the path of any person to becoming a customer.