How Harvard's I-Lab Teaches 0-1 Sales
Guest Post: Phil Green, Senior Advisor B2B & Tech, Harvard Innovation Labs
This week I’ve got something special for you! Phil Green, Senior Advisor B2B & Tech at Harvard Innovation Labs, offered to share some wisdom on how he thinks about 0-1 and sales. You’ll see why Phil & I are friends - enjoy!
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If you’re building a startup, you’ve probably been told to “talk to customers” and “build repeatable sales.” That advice is solid… but too often, it’s just recycled tactics from companies that already have Product-Market Fit (PMF).
The problem? Pre-PMF startups live in a completely different world.
Big company sales playbooks are optimized for selling to the Late Majority.
But startups should be focused on the Innovators and Early Adopters.
This blog post unpacks why the typical sales advice doesn’t work for early-stage founders — and introduces a more effective model: Case Study Selling.
The Core Problem: PMF-Stage Mismatch
Most sales content — books, courses, LinkedIn threads — is built for companies with:
A large, successful customer base
A stable product
A market that already believes
But when you’re pre-PMF:
You’re still validating the problem
You don’t have a brand
And no one is coming to you yet
So the strategies that work for Salesforce or Snowflake just don’t apply.
Instead, we need to return to the fundamentals of how new technologies are adopted.
This classic graph maps out how different customer segments adopt innovations:
Innovators
Early Adopters
Early Majority
Late Majority
Laggards
Your go-to-market approach should change as you move through each segment — and that’s where Case Study Selling comes in.
Stage-by-Stage Go-To-Market Playbook
1 - Innovators
These customers live in disequilibrium — they’re actively seeking new solutions.
They want to be first.
What to do: Share a case study that proves you understand the job-to-be-done.
How to sell: Founder-led conversations, deep customer discovery, and rapid feedback loops.
2 - Early Adopters
They have a real problem. They want it solved. But they need proof.
They need a story they can believe in.
What to do: Deliver robust case studies — name the problem, walk through the solution, and showcase the outcome.
This is where initial revenue and momentum builds.
3 - Early Majority
These customers are skeptical but open.
They want reduced risk.
What to do: Show volume — multiple success stories, references, predictable outcomes.
PMF starts here: customers start to come to you.
4 - Late Majority
These customers are risk-averse and require justification.
They want guarantees.
What to do: Deliver ROI calculators, TCO comparisons, and detailed onboarding plans.
This is where traditional sales teams and playbooks finally work.
5 - Laggards
They adopt only when they must. Don’t focus here until you’re dominant.
Why Traditional Sales Fails Pre-PMF
Most sales books focus on managing pipelines, selling benefits over features, and optimizing outbound sequences.
That’s fine — if you’re Salesforce. But it’s a trap for startups.
Startups need to be laser-focused on finding disequilibrium:
The customer knows they have a problem
They feel urgency
They’re willing to take a risk
Case studies are your bridge across this gap. They help early customers understand:
That you’re not guessing
That you’ve done this before
And that it worked for other customers just like them
Case Study Selling: Your Superpower
Here’s what founders should do instead of using big company sales tactics:
Talk to Innovators. Listen closely. Build with them.
Turn early success into a story. Your first case study is gold.
Use that case study to win Early Adopters.
Repeat until the market starts coming to you.
Once you have PMF, scale with traditional methods.
Final Thought
If you’re a founder trying to land your first 10 customers, skip the pipeline spreadsheets and outreach hacks for now.
Focus on solving a real problem for one customer.
Turn that into a compelling story.
Then use it to find the next.
That’s how startups actually grow.
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PS, Rob again:
Finding Pull (my founder bootcamp that helps you find intense demand & sell) pricing increases next week. Watch the new intro video, grab time with me and/or reserve your slot here: findingpull.com
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