Your next 30 customers, with a GTM sparring partner
A 4-week coaching sprint for founders who still close every deal themselves. We pressure-test your ICP, personas, messaging and first sales motion while you validate the market. You run the plays; we bring the checklist and hands-on help between meetings.
- 4 weeksone meeting a week
- €2,000fixed price, excl. VAT
- 1–2 ha week from your team
What is a GTM kickstarter for founder-led sales?
The GTM Kickstarter is a fixed-price, 4-week coaching sprint for B2B founders who have their first customers and are still the only person selling. It turns what works in the founder's head into a written ICP, buyer personas, a value proposition and a first sales motion the team can repeat.
The first ten customers usually come from the founder's network and sheer persistence. Customers 10 to 40 need something you can repeat and measure. That is the gap the sprint closes, before you hire a first sales rep or commit to an agency retainer.
Good fit
- Pre-seed to Series A, B2B, with first paying customers or pilots
- The founder still runs discovery calls, demos and closing
- Outbound, partners or content have started, but nothing is repeatable yet
- Open questions on which segment, persona or use case sells first
Not the right fit
- You already have a sales leader and a team of reps: see GTM consulting
- You want someone to run outbound for you: see programmatic outbound
What the sprint covers
First-customer checklist
What it takes to win customers 10, 20, 30 and 40. We score you against it in week one, and the gaps set the agenda.
ICP and buying personas
Who you sell to and who you do not. Budget owners against end users, champions against blockers, and the triggers that make an account ready now.
Value proposition
The value you deliver in cost, time and risk, positioned against the status quo and the do-it-yourself option, not just against named competitors.
Website and content proof
What outbound promises, the site has to prove: comparison pages, a first case study and content that answers the buyer's questions.
90-day experiments
Outbound, partner and content tests, each with one metric and a scale-or-stop threshold, so you know what to double down on.
Four weeks, one meeting a week
About 10 hours in total. Half go into the meetings, half into async work: we draft and review scripts, sequences and pages between sessions.
Kickoff workshop
Two hours, remote or in Berlin. Score your business against the first-customer checklist, agree priorities, build the experiment backlog.
ICP and messaging
60 minutes on personas, value proposition and the first outreach copy. We review call recordings and draft between sessions.
Results and proof
60 minutes on the first numbers: dials, replies, meetings. Website and content drafts reviewed against what outbound promises.
Scorecard and plan
60 minutes to re-score the checklist and hand over a 90-day plan. You decide whether to continue, with no commitment beyond the sprint.
What it takes to win customers 10 to 40
Eight questions we score in the kickoff workshop. Most founders can answer three or four of them confidently; the rest become the sprint agenda.
- A written ICP. Geography, size, stage, industry and tech stack, plus the segments you deliberately do not sell to.
- Mapped buyer roles. Who signs, who champions, who uses the product every day and who can block the deal.
- Buying triggers. The external signals that say an account needs you now, not next year.
- A value proposition against the status quo. Why change at all, before why you over the alternatives.
- A repeatable first meeting. One discovery path that reliably earns a second meeting.
- Proof behind the promise. A website, comparison pages and a case study that back up what outreach claims.
- Numbers you track weekly. Dials, replies, meetings and pilots, in a CRM rather than in the founder's memory.
- Experiments with exit criteria. Every channel test has a metric and a threshold to scale or stop.
A fixed price, and no commitment beyond it
GTM Kickstarter Sprint
- Kickoff workshop and first-customer scorecard
- ICP and buyer persona document
- Value proposition and messaging, reviewed against real calls
- Scripts, sequences and pages drafted or reviewed between meetings
- 90-day experiment backlog and final scorecard
Ongoing coaching
- One meeting a week, half the hours async
- €195 per hour instead of our €245 list rate
- Cancel with 30 days' notice, so you only pay while it moves your numbers
What we need from you
- The founder at the kickoff and at least one more session; one person day to day
- About 1 to 2 hours a week from the team
- Your numbers: dials, replies, meetings, pilots
All prices in EUR, excl. VAT. Builds such as a CRM setup or a GEO content engine are quoted separately.
Kickstarter, first sales hire, or fractional sales lead?
| Hire a first sales rep now | Fractional sales leader | GTM Kickstarter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to start | 3 to 6 months to hire and ramp | A few weeks | Within two weeks |
| Who runs the plays | The rep, on a motion nobody has written down | The fractional lead, part-time | The founder, with drafts and reviews from us |
| Commitment | Salary, ramp time and notice periods | Monthly retainer, usually several months | €2,000 fixed, then month to month if you want |
| Main risk | The rep fails because the motion is not repeatable yet | Knowledge leaves when the engagement ends | Needs 1 to 2 hours a week of founder time |
Operators who have built this before
Noah Charak
Founder · GTM strategy and outbound. Ten years in sales and revenue operations, including leading global RevOps teams.
Carolina Decastri
GTM consultant · 0-to-1 go-to-market for early-stage startups, from ICP work to first outbound stacks.
Esther Widmann
CRM and process design · Turns the sales motion into pipelines and fields your team will actually use. German-speaking.
“Checkpoint was instrumental in setting up our GTM and sales motion at a critical early stage. Their expertise in structuring our customer journey, optimizing our CRM, and refining our outbound strategy gave us the foundation to scale with confidence.”
VP of Growth, B2B data platform
Common questions about the GTM Kickstarter
What is a GTM kickstarter for founder-led sales?
It is a short, fixed-scope coaching engagement for founders who are still the main seller. Ours runs four weeks with one meeting a week and covers the ICP, buyer personas, value proposition, website proof and a 90-day experiment plan. The founder runs the plays; we bring the checklist, the drafts and the reviews.
How much does the GTM Kickstarter cost?
The sprint is €2,000 fixed, excl. VAT, for four weeks and about 10 hours of work. Ongoing coaching afterwards is optional at €1,560 per month for 8 hours (€195 per hour), cancellable with 30 days' notice.
When should a founder hire the first salesperson?
When the motion is repeatable enough to hand over: a written ICP, a first meeting that reliably earns a second, and numbers you track every week. Hiring before that usually means the rep fails on a process nobody wrote down. We cover this in the playbook in your founder's head is not a playbook.
Do you run outbound for us?
Not in the sprint. You run the calls and emails; we draft and review scripts, sequences and pages between meetings, so the skill stays in your team. If you want the outbound engine built and run for you, see programmatic outbound.
How much time does it take from the founder?
About 1 to 2 hours a week from the team. The founder joins the kickoff workshop and at least one more session; one person owns it day to day.
What happens after the four weeks?
You get a final scorecard and a 90-day plan. If the coaching is moving your numbers, you can continue monthly in the same rhythm. If you need a build, such as a HubSpot setup or a GEO program, we quote it separately.
Is the sprint remote, and in which language?
Remote by default, with the kickoff workshop optionally in person in Berlin. Sessions run in English or German.
How we think about founder-led GTM
The ten meetings rule
Founder-led GTM starts with ten ICP conversations, not a marketing budget: the falsifiable test to run before hiring help.
Read the article →The playbook in your founder's head is not a playbook
The exit from founder-led sales is not a hiring problem. Codify the playbook before the first rep starts.
Read the article →Your messaging is blocked on a decision nobody has made
Weak outbound is rarely a copy problem. It is an open positioning decision leaking into every channel.
Read the article →Start with a 30-minute fit call
Tell us where you are: customers, pipeline, what you have tried. We will tell you honestly whether the sprint fits.
- A 30-minute fit call with the founder
- A one-page brief with scope, coaches and start date
- The sprint starts within two weeks