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While building brands, entrepreneurs must answer many questions, and pose questions for themselves time and again. 

One of the most important questions to be answered at the onset of their entrepreneurial journey is—what is the right go-to-market (GTM) strategy for their brand? 

A GTM strategy for brands is interlinked with various facets of brand building across different parameters like pricing strategy, target audience, product strategy, and so on. 

So, how does one make this ginormous decision?

YourStory’s Brands of New India presents a new series called ‘Whose Brand is it Anyway?’, in collaboration with Fireside Ventures. We aim to create a platform where budding entrepreneurs can learn the inside out of building businesses from those who have been able to create successful brands.

Bengaluru-based Fireside Ventures is a focused early-stage investment platform for consumer brands. Anchored by a slew of marquee investors, including Premji Invest, Westbridge Capital, Mariwala Family Office, Unilever Ventures, Emami, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Family Office, Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise Investment Office and ITC, Fireside invests in exciting consumer brand startups in multiple rounds—from seed to Series A funding. 

Founded in 2017, Fireside is also building a first-of-its-kind ecosystem for entrepreneurs in this space, with a strategic support network of in-house and partner resources.

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In the third episode of ‘Whose Brand is it Anyway’, host Prayag Mohanty (Principal, Fireside Ventures) is joined by guests Shauravi Malik (Co-founder of Slurrp Farm) and Sneh Jain (Co-founder of The Baker’s Dozen) to talk about the journey of deciding on a brand’s GTM strategy. 

“There are two fundamental ways in which any entrepreneur can look at GTM. First, you have a product, and you go see who is the target customer for this product, and where are they buying it from. The other way is when an entrepreneur says that this is my target customer, and then you look for a product which that segment is buying and where are they buying it from,” says Sneh Jain, Co-founder of The Baker’s Dozen. 

There are three fundamental questions to answer are—what you are selling, and whom you are selling to, where you are selling. In either of these processes, the founders point out that the channel comes last.

The episode progresses to talk about the biggest challenges that the founders have faced, and their biggest learnings. According to Shauravi, and Sneh, the biggest challenge when a player is new or small, is getting the cash back. 

“The biggest challenge when you are small is the old saying—revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is reality. Getting cash back in the offline channel when you are a small or a new player is exceedingly difficult,” says Shauravi Malik, Co-founder of Slurrp Farm. 

In February 2022, Slurrp Farm raised $7 million in a round led by Fireside Ventures, and Investment Corporation of Dubai, the sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Dubai.

The founders then talk about one of their key learnings—to make choices that prioritise a certain product range, geography, and channel based on the offering and the resources available.

“When you are looking for a GTM strategy, pick one product range, one city, and one channel. When you are starting out, you can say my product is available in Agartala and also in Kanyakumari. That is great to say. But does it move, and what are the resources you are putting behind it? Would it be better if you were entrenched more deeply in Delhi or Mumbai itself?” Sneh points out. 

In July 2022, The Bakers Dozen raised $5 million in a mix of debt and equity, led by Fireside Ventures.

In the course of the conversation, Prayag Mohanty points out how one of the most important facets of building the GTM strategy is the structure of the organisation, and the team that is put together to carry out the strategy. 

“Initially, you have to get people who are more comfortable doing everything and train them. Now, when you are looking to scale, you can say, can we look at specialists now,” he advises. 

The episode concludes with the learning that the GTM strategy is always a work in progress, and can evolve over time. 

Tune into this session to hear about the journeys of The Bakers Doze, and Slurrp Farm, and the founders’ own adventures in making these companies the Brands of New India.