Founder-led growth: what to fix in your first 90 days

You just launched. Growth is your job — not your marketing team's (you don't have one). Here's the 90-day playbook.

Days 1-30: Fix what's broken

Week 1: Audit your own site

Use Fixly or any tool that gives you specific, prioritized issues. Look for technical problems (broken links, slow pages), trust gaps (no social proof, vague copy), and conversion blockers (buried CTAs, confusing navigation).

Week 2: Fix the critical issues

Rewrite your homepage headline to clearly state what you do and for whom. Add one form of social proof above the fold. Make your primary CTA impossible to miss.

Week 3: Set up basic analytics

Google Analytics 4 is free. You need to know: how many people visit, where they come from, and what they do.

Week 4: Set up monitoring

Use Fixly Watch or any service that pings your site regularly. Know immediately if something breaks.

Days 31-60: Get your first real traffic

Weeks 5-6: Write three pieces of content

Answer questions your ideal customer is already Googling. Not thought leadership — specific, practical answers to specific questions.

Weeks 7-8: Start manual outreach

Identify 50 potential customers. Send each one a personalized message — not a pitch, but a genuine observation about their business and an offer to help.

This doesn't scale, and that's the point. You need conversations, not conversions yet.

Days 61-90: Build your growth loop

Weeks 9-10: Analyze what's working

Which content pieces drive traffic? Which outreach messages get replies? Double down on what works, cut what doesn't.

Week 11: Set up a weekly routine

• Monday: Review last week's numbers (30 min)
• Tuesday: Publish or update one content piece
• Wednesday: Send 10 outreach messages
• Thursday: Fix one thing on your site based on data
• Friday: Review and plan next week

Week 12: Decide whether to invest

If your site is converting at a reasonable rate, it's time to scale — paid ads, SEO investment, or your first marketing hire. If not, go back to Days 1-30.

The founder mindset

Growth in the first 90 days is not about hockey sticks. It's about building the base that hockey sticks grow from. Fix your site, talk to customers, learn what works, build a routine. 90 days from now, you'll have something most founders don't: a clear, data-backed understanding of how your business grows.