GTM & Growth for SportsTech Founders
You built the product.
Now let's build the growth engine.
I work with early-stage SportsTech founders to sharpen positioning, find repeatable acquisition channels and turn founder-led traction into a scalable go-to-market engine.
Marcos Castro — Founder → Operator → Fractional GTM Partner
20+ years across sports, entertainment, marketing and technology — including building and scaling B2B SaaS across international markets.
The bottleneck
A good product isn't the same as a growth engine.
If you have early traction but growth still feels improvised, the bottleneck is usually not “more marketing”. It is a go-to-market problem.
“We have customers — but we don't know what is actually repeatable.”
“Our ICP keeps expanding instead of getting clearer.”
“Most sales still depend on the founders.”
“We're trying too many GTM channels at the same time.”
“We're not sure whether the problem is product, positioning, pricing or distribution.”
“We need senior GTM leadership — but hiring a full-time executive is premature.”
These are not isolated marketing problems. They are GTM system problems.
The shift
From scattered traction to a repeatable GTM system.
Before
After
Broad target market
Clear ICP
Feature-led pitch
Problem-led positioning
Opportunistic sales
Repeatable sales motion
Random marketing
Prioritized acquisition channels
Founder dependency
Defined GTM processes
Activity metrics
Revenue metrics
“Let's try everything”
Evidence-driven experiments
Scope of work
The problems we can work on
Positioning & ICP
- Who should we actually sell to?
- Which use case should we own?
- Who is the economic buyer?
- Why should customers choose us now?
Go-to-Market
- Founder-led sales
- Sales motion
- Partnerships
- Distribution
- Market entry
- International expansion
Growth
- Channel prioritization
- Acquisition experiments
- Activation
- Retention
- Monetization
- Growth metrics
GTM Operations
- Funnel
- CRM
- Processes
- GTM cadence
- Team structure
- Hiring priorities
Proprietary framework
The Sports GTM Engine
Diagnose
Customer / Problem / ICP / Buyer / Current traction
Focus
Positioning / Use case / Offer / Pricing
Validate
Customer conversations / Founder-led sales / Channel experiments / Paid pilots
Build
Repeatable motion / Playbooks / CRM / Metrics
Scale
Core channel / Hiring / Automation / International expansion
Strategy only matters when it survives contact with the market. The work moves from diagnosis to evidence, then into a repeatable operating system.
Engagement models
How we can work together
GTM Diagnostic
A focused assessment of your ICP, positioning, funnel, acquisition channels and GTM priorities.
Deliverables
- Diagnostic
- Bottlenecks
- Priorities
- 90-day GTM plan
GTM Sprint
A fixed-time engagement to solve one critical GTM problem without turning it into a six-month consulting project.
Examples
- Find our ICP
- Redesign our GTM
- Build founder-led sales
- Validate a new market
- Design partner strategy
4–6 weeks, fixed time, focused scope.
Fractional GTM Lead
Senior GTM leadership without hiring a full-time executive.
I work directly with founders and teams to define priorities, implement the GTM cadence and help get the work done.
Possible scope
Not another advisor telling you what to do. I work with you to get it done.
Why Marcos
I've worked on both sides of the table.
Founder / Operator
Co-founder and operator in B2B SaaS/AI, leading GTM, growth, operations and international expansion.
Sports Industry
20+ years across clubs, federations, ticketing, events, brands and sports technology.
Marketing & Growth
Hands-on experience across marketing, CRM, acquisition, digital, sales enablement and growth.
Ecosystem
Founder. Operator. Angel investor. Advisor. Academic.
Work directly with Marcos — a founder-operator with 20+ years across sports, entertainment, marketing and technology.
No junior team, no agency layer, no handover. The person diagnosing the GTM problem is the person doing the work with you.
I don't advise founders based only on frameworks. I've had to make the same decisions with limited time, limited money and incomplete information.
Experience across organisations including
Experience across sports, entertainment and technology.
B2B SaaS and GTM experience across multiple international markets.
Selected operating experience
Scaling an AI B2B SaaS internationally
- Problem
- Turn early product traction into a more structured GTM operation across markets.
- Work
- Positioning, marketing, GTM, business operations and international expansion.
- Outcome
- Commercial experience across multiple markets and with sports and entertainment organisations.
Operating across the sports commercial stack
- Problem
- Growth in sport rarely sits in one function.
- Work
- Experience across brand, club, federation, events, ticketing, technology and startup environments.
- Outcome
- A cross-functional view of how product, commercial, marketing, partnerships and operations interact.
Fit
This works best when the problem is real and the team wants to act.
Good fit
- You are a SportsTech founder
- You already have a product in market
- You have some customer traction
- GTM is still highly founder-dependent
- You want senior support without prematurely building a large team
- You want someone willing to challenge assumptions
Not a fit
- You only need someone to execute social media
- You are looking for a traditional marketing agency
- You want a 60-slide strategy deck
- You are not willing to talk to customers
- You want to scale before proving the sales motion
Point of view
How I think about early-stage growth.
- 01Problem before product.
- 02Revenue is better evidence than interest.
- 03Distribution should evolve alongside product.
- 04Founder-led sales is a feature, not a bug, in the beginning.
- 05Don't automate what hasn't been validated.
- 06One working acquisition channel beats five mediocre ones.
- 07Don't hire for scale you haven't earned yet.
Next step
What is the GTM problem you need to solve next?
Tell me where growth is getting stuck. If I think I can materially help, we'll discuss the right next step.
FAQ
Questions founders ask.
Do you only work with SportsTech companies?
SportsTech is the core focus, especially where sports, technology, data, fan/customer engagement, ticketing, SaaS or marketplaces intersect.
At what stage do you usually get involved?
Usually after the product exists and there is some early market signal, but before GTM has become predictable or the company has built a full senior commercial team.
Do you execute or only advise?
Both. The model depends on the problem: diagnostic, sprint or fractional leadership.
Can you work alongside our existing marketing or sales team?
Yes. The role can complement founders, internal teams, agencies and specialist freelancers.
Do you work outside Portugal?
Yes. Based in Portugal, working internationally.