I recently conducted a LinkedIn survey to understand why most startups fail. I asked “Most startups don’t fail because of a bad idea — they fail because founders ignore the warning signs. I’m curious — which of these do you think sinks startups the most?”
We had a total of 29 respondents, predominantly at the C level, the survey results were striking. Nearly 70% of respondents said “No real market need” is the #1 killer. 21% pointed to dysfunctional teams. Just 7% admitted weak go-to-market and brand building can sink a startup. See the detailed results in Figure 1.
Figure 1: LinkedIn survey results “Reasons why startups fail early” with a total of 29 respondents.
The truth: most of these failures are preventable, if founders catch the signals early. That’s where an executive scorecard comes in.
There is lots to gain from a Marketing & PMF Audit
An established biotech company stands to gain a lot from a full marketing audit because, even if the company is mature, the environment it operates in is changing rapidly.
Specifically:
- Identify Gaps Between Scientific Excellence and Market Visibility: Translate technical breakthroughs into clear, marketable narratives.
- Ensure Alignment of Marketing with Business Strategy: Confirm marketing efforts support corporate goals (e.g., attracting licensing partners or advancing clinical trials).
- Benchmark Digital Presence Against Competitors: Compare your digital footprint and identify areas of improvement.
- Reveal ROI and Channel Effectiveness: Trace performance metrics to identify effective channels reduce wasted spend.
- Uncover Brand Inconsistencies: Ensures consistent messaging across all platforms.
- Prepare for Growth Inflection Points: Highlight readiness gaps as your company moves towards commercialization.
- Strengthen Investor and Partner Relations: Ensure communications demonstrate momentum, differentiation, and thought leadership.
- Enable Better Use of Data and AI in Marketing: Identify data infrastructure gaps and suggest AI improvements for pipeline targeting.
- Future-Proof Against Market Shifts: Uncover weaknesses in adaptability and crisis communication.
- Clear Target Segment & ICP (Ideal Customer Profile): Ensure your ideal ICPs are well defined and consistent with your target market segment, preventing “everyone” from becoming the customer.
- Problem–Solution Fit (Value Hypothesis Validated): Verify your product solves a specific, urgent problem for the ICP.
- Evidence of Early Traction / Demand Pull: Measure early demand signals like inbound trials and waitlists.
- Retention & Engagement (Actual Use vs. Claimed Use): Ensure real user engagement and retention metrics are tracked.
- Onboarding & Time-to-Value: Assesses onboarding friction and time-to-first-success.
- Referrals & Advocacy (NPS & Net-New Revenue): Analyze demand, retention, and growth measures to define market acceptance.
*Note: These aspects require the audited organization to be audited to share all necessary data via an NDA.
The enlightenbio Marketing & Product-Market Fit Audit
At enlightenbio, we believe every startup should perform a marketing and product-market fit audit. Therefore, we’ve designed a Marketing & Product-Market Fit (PMF) Audit that distills your company’s health into a two-page Scorecard (i.e., dashboard) that a founder, team, or investor can digest in two minutes. It’s quick to scan, clear on strengths and weaknesses, and polished enough to impress without overwhelming.
What You’ll See in the Scorecard
The Scorecard provides an “Overall Health” score from 0-100, blending essentials like website visibility, messaging, and PMF signals. It also includes a “Marketing Visibility Snapshot” and “PMF Snapshot”, each with traffic-light clarity for.
Opening Snapshot
Imagine opening a snapshot that starts with a short-paragraph diagnosis:
“Traffic healthy; under-indexed on non‑branded visibility weak; content cadence irregular; thought leadership absent; pipeline depends on founder network; credibility high with investors; visibility low with customers; PMF signals emerging in oncology sector.”
In one short sentence, you know exactly where you stand. From there, the scorecard unfolds across key areas, as outlined in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Audit scorecard providing a quick and detailed overview of the overall company health across Marketing and Product-Market Fit.
Overall Health
A simple 0–100 score that blends together the essentials: website visibility, messaging, social presence, competitor benchmarks, conversion funnel, and product-market fit signals. You don’t need a PhD in analytics to get it. The gauge makes it obvious whether you’re still developing, scaling, or already strong.
Visibility Snapshot
Visibility snapshot with traffic-light clarity:
- Website & SEO — Are you ranking for the right non-branded terms, or only showing up when people already know your name?
- Content & Messaging — Is your value proposition clear, and are you publishing enough to establish authority?
- Social Engagement — Is LinkedIn and other social media activity steady, or are you lost in the noise?
- Competitor Benchmarking — Who’s outranking you, and what share of voice do you really own?
Each area comes with a red, yellow, or green marker and a crisp one-line summary.
Product-Market Fit (PMF) Snapshot
The “Product-Market Fit (PMF) Snapshot” section goes beyond marketing to cover demand signals, retention, word-of-mouth growth, and investor interest. Are users converting? Are they staying? Would they pay for your product? Is your target market clearly defined and large enough?
Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities at a Glance
Instead of lengthy report, you’ll get three key insights with three key insights:
- Key Strengths: What’s already working (e.g., strong branded search, loyal LinkedIn following).
- Top Opportunities in Marketing: Where to double down (e.g., capture non-branded traffic, build thought leadership, create a lead gen funnel).
- Top Opportunities in PMF: Where to sharpen your edge (e.g., run structured NPS surveys, define user personas, build a Voice-of-Customer program).
Finally, a highlighted next step points to a practical path forward, such as: “We recommend a deeper strategy session to create a roadmap that strengthens visibility and drives qualified leads.”
Designed for Clarity and Impact
The entire audit fits on a clean, professional two-pager, branded to your company colors. Red, yellow, and green signals make blind spots impossible to ignore.
The Takeaway
“Most startups don’t fail because of the idea; they fail because they miss the early signals.”
The Marketing & Product-Market Fit Scorecard offers a clear way to stop guessing and diagnose your company’s true standing for your team, board, and investor.
Learn more and apply for your own scorecard here: Uncover Your Growth Blind Spots – Marketing & Product-Market Fit Audit.
Ready to uncover your blind spots!
Hurry – The first five audits selected are free!
