In this episode of Demand Gen Studio, we sat down with Aron Schuhmann from QC Growth, focusing on demand generation from a founder's perspective. We discussed the transition from B2C to B2B marketing, the importance of understanding sales functions in startups, and how to identify customer pain points.
Aaron discusses the significance of outbound sales, starting simple with tools and processes, and building consistent habits for success. The conversation concludes with insights on finding the ideal customer profile and the necessity of having a clear point of view as a founder.
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Background and Career Journey
Aron’s path into marketing was anything but linear. After attaining a degree in History, he stumbled into the world of digital advertising just as platforms like Google and Facebook were taking off.
Early in his career, he started with B2C marketing, helping consumer brands navigate the transition from traditional media to digital channels during the recession, when every marketing dollar had to prove its worth.
After moving to San Diego, Aron found himself in a very different job market that led him into the world of B2B startups. At an agency supporting seed and Series A founders, he discovered a passion for helping early-stage companies build their web presence, align product and marketing, and drive their first wins in market.
What began as an unexpected career shift, became a passion: supporting founders through the zero-to-one stage and guiding startups from initial traction to their first millions in ARR.
The Role of Founders in Demand Generation
One of the biggest lessons Aron has learned from his work with early-stage companies - founders play a pivotal role in demand generation. Unlike in B2C, where scale and brand often carry campaigns, B2B demand gen is deeply tied to sales, requiring a mix of art and science.
In those early stages, before a full sales or marketing team exists, founders are often the ones driving demand—building relationships, testing messaging, and creating the first sparks of market traction.
Aron emphasizes that demand gen at this stage isn’t about polished campaigns or massive budgets; it’s about being close to the sales motion, understanding target accounts on a granular level, and laying the groundwork that later marketing and sales teams can scale.
In his view, founders set the tone for demand generation by bridging product vision with market needs until the organization is ready to multiply those efforts.
Identifying Customer Pain Points
Effective demand generation begins with a deep understanding of customer pain points. Founders often succeed early on because they can clearly articulate a problem and convince prospects that they have a unique perspective on how to solve it. The challenge is that this ability is frequently unique to the founder's point of view, and isn’t easily replicated or easy to scale.
Marketers play a crucial role in crystallizing the founder’s message—capturing the “magic” of those early conversations, distilling the pain points being addressed, and turning them into repeatable messaging that sales teams can carry forward.
In Aron’s view, great marketing isn’t about leading with the product, but about marketing the problem itself: showing prospects that the pain is real, offering a clear point of view on how to address it, and creating urgency by highlighting the cost of inaction. He even encourages founders to write a “manifesto” to define and evangelize their point of view, giving the marketing team a strong foundation to scale.
The Importance of Outbound Sales
Although Aron built his career in digital marketing, he’s clear about what truly drives growth for early-stage companies: outbound sales.
In his view, it’s the fastest and most reliable way to generate revenue while also uncovering insights that fuel every other channel. Outbound is hard—it requires process, data, tools, and persistence—which is why many startups delay it in favor of easier or luck-driven growth channels. But Aron argues that doing the hard thing first pays off.
Cold outreach and direct conversations with prospects quickly reveal which messages resonate, what pain points matter most, and which value propositions win. Those learnings can then shape paid campaigns, content strategy, and overall demand generation. A strong outbound motion isn’t just about closing deals, it’s the foundation that informs and amplifies all other marketing efforts.
Sales As Market Research
Aron shared that sales can be a critical tool for market discovery. While marketing can attract attention, it often leaves founders making assumptions about what buyers truly need. Direct conversations through sales provide clarity on pain points, the urgency of problems, and the real reasons customers choose to act.
Aron shared how at OctoAI, tight alignment between sales and marketing created rapid iteration cycles—through outbound, events, and customer feedback—that helped the team pinpoint where their technology delivered the most value.
For early-stage founders: start with simple, scrappy sales motions to learn directly from the market before overcomplicating things with large teams or heavy tech stacks.
Tools and Technology in Demand Generation
When it comes to tools and technology in demand generation, Aron cautions founders against overcomplicating things too early. In his view, success comes from creating wins first, then layering in systems to support them—not the other way around.
He recommends starting with the lightest possible setup, even something as simple as a Trello board to track a handful of deals, before investing in heavy CRMs or complex lead-scoring models.
The key is to run real opportunities through the pipeline, learn from the outcomes, and then decide what processes and tools are truly necessary to scale. Aron also stresses that tools don’t generate demand by themselves. They require ongoing care, feeding, and discipline to be effective.
For early-stage founders, the focus should be less on dashboards and more on habits: consistent outreach, conversations, and marketing activity. Only once those behaviors are in place does it make sense to bring in technology to amplify them.
Finding Your Ideal Customer Profile
The first step in building an effective go-to-market motion is getting absurdly specific about your ideal customer profile. Instead of casting a wide net, Aron advises founders to zero in on the exact type of company most likely to be in market, down to details like geography, recent hires, and revenue stage.
Starting with an ultra-specific ICP allows founders to focus on prospects who are more open to change and more likely to feel the pain the product solves.
While this approach doesn’t scale at first, it validates who the real buyers are and what triggers matter most. From there, companies can expand outward, layering on tools and strategies to make the process more efficient.
The discipline of knowing exactly who you are and who you serve not only improves outbound efficiency but also sharpens messaging, website design, and overall market positioning.
Conclusion
Aron shared a clear philosophy for founders: start simple, stay close to the customer, and do the hard things first. He emphasizes that outbound sales is not only the fastest way to generate revenue, but also the best way to uncover customer pain points and refine your message.
Founders should get highly specific about their ideal customer profile and resist the urge to scale prematurely with tools or broad assumptions.
Instead, they should crystallize their unique point of view in the form of a manifesto that defines the problem they’re solving and why it matters. Know who you are, know who you serve, and let your vision and direct customer insight guide your growth.
Interested in learning more? Check out the rest of the episodes of Demand Gen Studio. We discuss marketing and demand generation topics, with inspiring interviews with thought leaders. See you next time!
