Post-close is a rush. The deal is done. The urgency begins. Every move from here on out is measured against the clock: value creation, revenue acceleration, and proving the thesis fast.
But here’s the pitfall: too many teams defer Go-to-Market (GTM) investment until signals turn red. That delay is costly.
Because the first 100 days? That’s the window.
It’s when the organization is most open to change, before legacy habits resurface and resistance builds. And it’s when the right GTM strategy and execution work can be performed with the least effort. Yet most wait. They assume things are fine… until they’re not.
What happens next is familiar:
- Teams default to old patterns. Legacy muscle memory sets back in before alignment to the new thesis ever happens.
- Gaps start to show. Market realities expose cracks that were not fully visible during diligence.
- Fixes get expensive. GTM work becomes reactive, fragmented, and slow (right when speed is everything).
There’s a better way. Investing early in GTM capability changes the game. It creates clarity on where value will come from, aligns leadership, and builds the systems and teams that scale.
Waiting to act is a choice, and it often ends in scramble mode.
This article unpacks why early GTM action creates compounding ROI. It lays out the first questions to ask, the signals to watch for, and the critical moves to make now before the window closes.
If you’re not starting GTM work on day one, you’re already behind. Someone else is building the engine that will win the next deal.
Set the Stage Early or Pay Later
Too many portcos follow the same trajectory. Everyone agrees to “steady the ship” first. But the market doesn’t wait. Neither does revenue. It feels stable, but it is a trap.
The early GTM gap looks like:
- Confidence in the team’s ability to hit numbers without validating how.
- Assumptions that the market has not shifted when it has.
- Aligning to the deal thesis without the operating model to back it up.
What happens next is a pattern we’ve seen repeat:
- Numbers stall or decline.
- New strategic priorities confuse teams who never got onboard.
- Urgent GTM fixes begin but at four times the cost and half the speed.
The moment for change management was missed. And once employees settle back into their old rhythm, transformation becomes much harder.
But we’ve also seen the opposite: leaders who invest at the point of entry.
They prioritize GTM alignment early. They clarify roles, reframe strategies, and reset expectations right away. And the results speak for themselves:
- Teams adopt new systems faster.
- Leadership decisions align with the commercial vision.
- Progress toward the deal thesis accelerates.
The cost of waiting isn’t just lost revenue. It’s momentum, morale, and market credibility.
Diagnose Before You Scale
Before any big GTM push, ask one critical question: Does the CEO truly understand Go-to-Market?
If they don’t, that’s not a red flag. It’s a call to action. CEOs can ramp up quickly with the right framework. But only if someone is asking the right questions early.
Start with these:
- Has the leadership team aligned on the deal thesis and how GTM supports it?
- Do they know their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and core personas?
- Can they map the full buyer journey from awareness to close?
- What does pipeline inspection actually look like in practice?
- Are conversion rates and attribution tracked, benchmarked, and understood?
If the answers are vague or met with silence, there’s work to do.
Each of these questions maps to key areas of GTM readiness. At Cortado Group, we use a diagnostic framework that ties directly to execution. For example:
- ICP → Revenue Intel: Market Segmentation
- Personas → Revenue Intel: Buyer Personas
- Pipeline → RevOps: Pipeline and Forecasting
- Attribution → Data Analytics and Reporting
These diagnostics aren’t about checking boxes. They’re early warning systems. They reveal whether a portco has the foundation to scale or if they’re flying blind.
Asking these questions at exit is too late. Ask them on day one.
Build Once, Scale Without the Bumps
Short-term GTM fixes are common. A playbook here. A new hire there. But unless they’re part of a complete system, the impact doesn’t last.
The alternative? Build once, scale many.
We’ve worked with companies that waited too long. In one case, a company was trying to move into the enterprise space. They had great tech but no personas, no buyer journey, and no aligned messaging. They had to pause everything and rebuild. It cost them nine months.
Had they started from day one, they’d have been scaling by then. Not resetting.
Smart Dealmakers Don’t Wait
There’s a reason GTM issues show up late. They’re invisible at first. You don’t feel the friction until the engine revs and hits its stress points. But by then, realignment is costly, time is lost, and returns get squeezed.
That’s why the smartest operators invest at the point of entry.
Use the 100-day window to reset GTM strategy and execution. Prioritize leadership alignment. Surface the right questions. Ensure teams are equipped to scale from a strong foundation.
What separates the smartest operators isn’t what they do. It’s when they do it.
So here’s your takeaway:
- Don’t wait for numbers to slip to start asking GTM questions.
- Don’t assume the team is aligned unless you’ve tested that alignment.
- Don’t patch GTM later when you can build it right now.
If your portco can’t confidently answer the questions in this article, it’s time to talk. Because someone else is already building the system you’ll compete with tomorrow.
