Forget the Funnel. Here’s What Actually Builds Growth.
There is a model of marketing that most founders inherit by default, because it’s the one that’s been written about most, taught most, and it was the only lesson YouTube served up.
Identify your audience. Build a funnel. Pay to reach them at the top. Nurture them toward conversion. Measure cost per acquisition. Optimise. Spend more.
For a certain kind of business, at a certain scale, with a certain margin, this works. It’s just becoming progressively more expensive, less efficient, and increasingly irrelevant for the founders who most need a growth strategy, the early-stage ones, with limited budgets, building things that don’t fit neatly into existing categories (or are maybe creating a new one).
What’s changed?
Attention has been deteriorating for a decade. What’s new is the speed of that deterioration, and the compounding effect of two forces arriving simultaneously.
The first is AI search. Buyers who once Googled their way through a research process now ask AI tools for recommendations and receive synthesised answers. The brands that appear in those answers aren’t the ones that optimised their ad spend. They’re the ones with clear, consistent positioning across every place they appear, and the strongest network of external voices carrying their story. Paid advertising doesn’t build that. Ecosystems do.
The second is trust collapse. In an environment where content can be generated at scale and the line between editorial and promotional has dissolved entirely, the only currency that still compounds reliably is genuine belief.
Manufactured enthusiasm fades. What lasts is the belief that forms naturally around a founder who genuinely stands for something - and the community that grows up around it.
You can’t buy that. You have to build it.
What building belief actually looks like.
It starts with being clear about what you stand for. Specific enough that the right people feel immediately recognised. Strong enough that some people feel it isn’t for them - have a point of view.
From there, it’s about finding the people in your ecosystem who share your conviction - not as targets for conversion, but as potential allies. Customers who could become advocates if you give them something worth carrying. Partners who serve the same people you serve, differently. Communities where your ideal customer already gathers and where you have something genuine to contribute.
The relationship you build with those people isn’t a marketing relationship. It’s an ecosystem relationship. You contribute real value. They carry your story. The exchange is honest and the belief it generates is real - and, it lasts.
Every advocate you cultivate becomes a source of referrals, credibility, and reach that doesn’t stop the moment you stop paying for it.
How to do it.
You can start building your ecosystem the moment your idea forms. But whatever stage you’re at, it’s always worth it. Some questions to ask youself:
Who believes what you believe?
What companies share your purpose?
What organisations could help you build credibility?
Who are people of influence who are aligned on your beliefs?
Who would like to bathe in your afterglow?
Where are the places that your people gather?
What do you have to trade? Content, introductions, insight, access…
Where are the networks that you can become part of?
The founders who are growing most efficiently right now aren’t the ones who found a cheaper way to run the funnel. They’re the ones who stopped running it altogether - and started building the forest instead.
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