Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down GTM in Early-Stage SaaS
Why your first go-to-market choice can determine your trajectory
For early-stage B2B SaaS, few decisions matter more than how you go to market. Do you start bottom-up, winning end-users and small teams? Or do you take a top-down route, convincing executives to drive company-wide adoption?
The path you choose will shape your sales motion, marketing mix, and growth ceiling. Here’s how to think about both.
The Bottom-Up Play
This is the classic PLG-driven motion: start with individual users, build grassroots adoption, then expand across the org.
Key Traits
Target: Individual users or small teams
Pricing: Low per-seat, easy entry
Marketing: Content-driven, low CAC, self-serve onboarding
Sales Cycle: Short, lightweight decisions
Growth: Product evangelism and network effects fuel adoption
Customer Relationships: Broad base, lower-touch
Example: A project management tool like Asana winning a single PM, then spreading across the team.
The Top-Down Play
This is the classic enterprise GTM motion: sell the vision, land a big contract, and roll out across the org.
Key Traits
Target: Executives and multiple stakeholders
Pricing: High-value contracts
Marketing: Brand, thought leadership, ABM campaigns
Sales Cycle: Long, multi-step, often with legal reviews
Customer Relationships: Deep, high-touch, driven by customer success
Growth: Expand accounts through upsell and cross-sell
Example: An ERP platform requiring C-level sponsorship and enterprise-wide rollout.
Christensen’s Disruption Lens
Clayton Christensen’s disruption theory is often at play here:
Bottom-up SaaS challenges incumbents by starting with “ignored” users.
Over time, those tools climb upmarket and become serious competitors.
Slack, Notion, and Zoom all followed this trajectory.
Which Path Is Right?
Bottom-Up First
For most early-stage SaaS, bottom-up is the practical starting point:
Lower CAC
Faster feedback loops
Faster path to early traction
Shift to Top-Down
As ARR goals grow, layering in a top-down motion becomes critical:
Enterprise contracts
Dedicated sales + RevOps
Customer success as a revenue engine
Hybrid Wins
The most resilient SaaS GTM machines blend both:
Bottom-up drives user adoption and product feedback
Top-down locks in enterprise deals and expands ARR
The GTM Vault Take
Your GTM path isn’t fixed. It evolves.
Start with bottom-up to win early.
Layer in top-down as you scale.
Balance both to compound growth.
The smartest operators win by sequencing the right play at the right stage. Want more frameworks like this? Catch them all inside GTM Vault →