Essay

How to Sell if Your User is not the Buyer

Nate Ritter · Founder Labs (Substack) Free Intermediate

Written for exactly the founder-market moment you are in: a developer or junior employee uses your product, someone above them controls the budget. Ritter's point that power does not automatically sit with whoever holds the credit card is a useful correction if you assume the org chart tells you who to sell to. Short, concrete, and free.

  • In smaller, faster-moving companies, the user often has real influence over the buying decision because their time is the constraint
  • In larger companies, security and compliance concentrate power back with leadership, away from the daily user
  • Arm your user-champions with business-language materials so they can sell upward on your behalf
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The question it answers

  1. Should my ideal customer be the person who pays or the person who uses the product?

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