We live in uncertain times. Over the last decade, we’ve had Brexit, Covid, war in Ukraine and a second Trump presidency. Add today’s tightening on venture capital funding and the overall economic malaise, and uncertainty has become the only constant for startups.
Having scaled Pharmacy2U Group to become the UK’s largest online pharmacy and guided countless startups through turbulent markets, I’ve learned that uncertainty isn’t just an obstacle, it’s often where the strongest foundations for sustainable growth are laid.
When markets turn unpredictable, they tend to double down on performance marketing, thinking that more leads are the key to solving all their problems. They are wrong.
As a growth marketer at a tech startup, your leadership approach needs to balance agility with strategic vision. Here are five key pieces of advice to help you in times of uncertainty.
1. Build trust, not just traffic
If a startup’s customer acquisition cost rises due to increased competition, it can be tempting to panic-spend on more ads. My advice?
Instead of panicking, ask: Do you truly understand your audience? Have you built trust into your customer experience? Are you focusing on retention as much as acquisition? Focusing your resources on improving onboarding flow could be a much more cost-effective way of compensating for the increased costs.
At Pharmacy2U, we faced the uncertainty of introducing a service most people didn’t know could exist when we started moving repeat prescription management online. Rather than investing in broad digital campaigns, we placed our messaging in GP surgeries where patients felt the pain of waiting for prescriptions. We identified the moment of maximum frustration and positioned our solution right there.
An approach like this costs less than throwing money at paid channels and creates sustainable value that persists through market fluctuations
2. Unite your teams around common goals
During uncertainty, teams often retreat into functional silos. Marketing blames product for poor retention. Product blames engineering for delays. Everyone looks at their own metrics rather than company-wide objectives.
The solution? What I call “must-win battles”—cross-functional initiatives that align every department around key challenges that are crucial to achieving business goals, prioritisation and focus.
At Pharmacy2U, we created a holistic customer team that owned the entire journey. When acquisition costs rose (as they inevitably do), we compensated by improving conversion and retention rates instead of cutting back on growth.
3. Empathy is your growth engine
To be a good marketer, you have to have empathy. If you don’t have empathy, you can’t understand your audience, engage with them, or navigate uncertain times.
Consider an edtech platform facing economic uncertainty. Customer research could reveal that parents need tools to support their children’s learning at home, opening new positioning strategies.
When cash is tight, you can use the ‘Jobs to Be Done’ framework to understand what progress your customers are trying to make and what forces push or pull them toward your solution.
Many founders think they know their customers, but when I ask them to articulate their customers’ anxieties, desired outcomes, and inertia factors, they struggle. This superficial understanding becomes a critical weakness when customer priorities shift during uncertain times.
4. The Rule of 40: balance growth and profitability
In uncertain markets, the balance between growth and profitability becomes critical. I use the “Rule of 40” with my clients: your growth rate plus your profit margin should exceed 40%.
At Pharmacy2U, despite being in a low-margin business, we targeted customers who typically had multiple medications and were therefore more profitable. This meant our cohorts were profitable from day one, giving us runway when we faced headwinds.
The businesses that survive downturns aren’t those with the highest growth rates, but those maintaining financial health while continuing to expand.
Should a B2B software company face pressure to show growth, instead of accepting any customer, analysing which segments have the highest lifetime value and lowest churn could benefit the entire go-to-market strategy.
5. Fix your engine before adding fuel
“Channels come last” is a mantra that bears repeating. When founders secure investment, they immediately think, “Great, now I can spend more on Google and Meta.” That’s the wrong instinct.
Before pouring more fuel into your marketing engine, ensure the engine itself is optimised. Look for conversion leaks and understand your customer journey deeply before scaling acquisition.
When a marketplace startup has raised investment but the conversion rate from signup to first transaction remains low. Instead of immediately doubling ad spend, spending two months optimising the user experience can mean every pound of ad spend delivers far better results.
The strongest businesses I work with don’t have bigger budgets. They just refuse to waste a single pound on marketing that isn’t working. This discipline becomes crucial when extending runway and building sustainable growth.
To put it simply, the companies that thrive during uncertain periods can turn volatility into advantage. The question isn’t whether more disruption is coming. It’s whether you’ll be ready to capitalise on it.
