A Go-To Marketing Strategy and Execution Toolkit for New Startups

Hey, it’s Natalie here, founder of likelike. Last summer, I hired an insanely talented, hardworking, and brilliant Marketing Intern named Jeremiah to help me develop and execute a draft go-to-market strategy I’d put together, but couldn’t execute because I lacked the time and focus to research and validate it properly, flesh out the vision, plans, templates, and content, and then actually execute on all of that, hence why I brought in Jeremiah! Throughout the last half of 2025, he created such a comprehensive, thoughtful, well researched, easy to execute strategy, along with the relevant resources, templates, and plans, that we decided it was too useful to not share more widely.

It’s perfect for founders who are product focused but time constrained, don’t know where to start in marketing their startup company, have ideas for content, growth or outreach but no system to turn ideas into action, and want clarity, structure, and specific examples rather than generic marketing advice.

Over the next six blogs, Jeremiah will take you through how he took a founder’s initial ideas and developed them into a fully executable plan.

I’ll let him introduce himself!

Introducing Jeremiah #

I’m Jeremiah Butawan, an Economics & Politics student at LSE with a strong interest in early-stage startups and marketing strategies.

My internship at likelike was my first opportunity to work on an early-stage startup company and develop my skills and understanding of the marketing industry that I hope to carry with me throughout my professional career.

This internship allowed me to work on the foundations of marketing strategy: understanding the dating-app market and what companies were doing to successfully promote and advertise their company.

I also designed content systems and built practical frameworks that could be activated as the product moved closer to launch. This toolkit captures that process, the thinking behind it, and the tools that emerged from it.

My role was to fill this gap on the marketing side, building the foundations of a scalable marketing system ahead of beta launch, with limited resources and funding.

Working at likelike #

Over the internship, I worked on:

• Competitor and market analysis across mainstream and niche dating apps
• Brand positioning and differentiation
• Social media and content strategy research
• A full in-person booth campaign plan
• Neurodiversity-focused content and partnership research
• A structured content bank, posting calendar, and follower growth strategy The emphasis throughout was on creating clear, reusable assets that the company could use when ready.

Just as importantly, the work was delivered through an efficient async workflow, using Notion for task management and weekly check-ins for alignment.

The result is a launch-ready toolkit that the company can activate immediately when conditions allow.

A Toolkit You Can Actually Use #

This page is not just an internship reflection. It is a Go-To Marketing Strategy & Execution Toolkit built from working inside an early-stage startup with limited time and resources.

If you’re a founder or working on a start-up and you:

• Are product-focused but time-constrained
• Do not know where to start in marketing their start-up company
• Have ideas for content, growth or outreach, but no system to turn ideas into action
• Want clarity, structure, and specific examples rather than generic marketing advice

Then this toolkit is designed for you.

Most early-stage startups do not struggle because the product is bad.

They struggle because their marketing strategy is fragmented, inconsistent, or indefinitely postponed while the product is being developed.

What You’ll Get Inside the Toolkit: #

• What works in startup social media marketing, including content formats, engagement tactics, and approaches that dating apps and consumer startups are already using successfully.
• How to market your startup with minimal resources with practical ways to build visibility without paid ads, big teams, or expensive tools
  
• How to design sustainable content systems so marketing doesn’t rely on motivation, inspiration, or last-minute posting. You’ll see how to structure content banks, calendars, and workflows that scale as the company grows.
• A complete booth campaign plan, including messaging, logistics, costs, permissions, and integration with social media, for founders who want to experiment with physical, in-person marketing
• Clear success metrics for early-stage marketing

If you’re building a startup and want a clear starting point for marketing, this page gives you the structure, frameworks, and examples to move from “we should do marketing” to “we have a system.”

Coming next week: The Founder’s Dilemma: Great Product, No Marketing Plan