"Fred, this nails it for me.....Awesome summary. I don't agree with those who want to replace marketing with advertising. The starting proposition was - startups should not have marketing budgets, not that they should not have marketing.... Marketing is core to any startup, it is HOW you get your adoption. But marketing now takes the forms Fred mentioned. I do think marketing starts with the product. Does it fit the users you are targeting? Do they love it. Is it better than all the alternatives at nailing the users needs/desires? Can they dump other things they do and use it to accomplish existing tasks? Will they want to? This marketing happens before a user has even seen the product. Its close to sociology and cognitive science and psychology as a discipline. Not to forget art and design. Get this wrong and Fred's other advice won't save you...Get it right, and you still have to excel at the other stuff." - Keith Teare