GTM (Go-To-Market)
Definition
GTM (Go-To-Market) is the plan for how a company will reach, acquire, and sell to its target customers. It covers who you're selling to, how you'll reach them, how the product is priced and positioned, and the sequence of steps to launch.
What is GTM (Go-To-Market)? How to Build a Strategy
A GTM strategy answers five questions before you spend money on acquisition: who is the ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), what problem does the product solve for them, which channel reaches them most cheaply, how is it priced, and what's the sequence for launch (private beta, waitlist, public launch).
GTM motions fall into three broad types: product-led growth (the product itself drives adoption, users self-serve, common for developer tools), sales-led (a rep-driven process for higher-priced, higher-touch deals), and marketing-led (content, SEO, and paid acquisition drive signups). Most early-stage companies mix these, but pick one as the primary motion rather than spreading thin across all three.
Example: Superhuman's GTM was deliberately narrow at launch, inviting only power users of email through a waitlist, onboarding each one personally on a call, and pricing at $30/month when competitors were free. That constrained GTM let them nail retention with a small cohort before opening up, rather than acquiring broadly and discovering the product didn't fit.
A GTM plan should be revisited at every stage. What got you your first 10 customers, founder-led outreach, communities you're already in, rarely scales to your first 1,000. Reassess the channel, not just the messaging, as you grow.
Examples
A dev tool startup's GTM: ICP is engineering leads at 20-200 person companies, primary channel is open source and developer communities, pricing is usage-based with a generous free tier, launch sequence is Show HN, then Product Hunt, then paid ads once conversion data exists.