How FOAK Startups Find Their Clients?
- Emin Askerov
- Jan 13
- 1 min read
“If the technology is good enough, customers will find us.”
Sometimes they do.
Most of the time, they don’t.
I’ve seen world-class #climate and industrial technologies stall for years — not because the product failed, but because founders were pitching everyone, hiring the wrong sales profiles, and waiting for “inbound” that never came. Cold emails. Demo days. Visibility.
All useful — occasionally.
But not a strategy.
After watching the same mistakes repeat, I distilled what actually works into a 5-step framework for how FOAK startups find their first real clients.
It starts with a simple shift most teams miss: not all clients behave the same. Some are hungry. Some are cautious. Some are indifferent. Treat them the same — and you lose years.
I’ve laid out the framework in the slides below. It’s not flashy and it’s not marketing theory. It’s how first conversations turn into real contracts in FOAK environments. If you’re building something that has to work in the real world — this will save you time. Let me know which step hits closest to home!
