For early-stage startups, viral marketing is often a mistake. The same goes for heavy paid marketing. You might get a lot of views, but not the right ones.
What usually happens is that you miss the true early adopters, the people who would actually love your still-in-progress product. Instead, you attract people who discovered you through hype, try the product out of curiosity, donโt find it ready yet, and leave. Your retention tanks, you get demoralized, and you might even pivot for the wrong reasons.
I think chasing โfastest to X ARRโ or similar milestones is the wrong goal. Your aim isnโt to hit the biggest number this quarter, itโs to build something enduring and exceptional over the next decade.
There are no shortcuts. Hype, huge launches often end up in failure. You canโt skip straight from zero to mass late adopters.
You have to learn from your early users, iterate, and grow with them. Keep launching, many times. Expand the ICP, go up market, do whatever, but keep the focus and keep refining the "right" customer.