The AI era has changed how fast startups can grow. Startups can grow so fast that they hit high annual recurring revenue (ARR) numbers, only to crash and burn a few months later. At this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt, Lovable go-to-market lead Luke Arno, Ben Broca of the AI platform Polsia, and Theory Ventures’ Tomasz Tunguz gave founders some tips on how to set their companies up for success in those first 90 days.

Broca, whose company Polsia uses AI agents to build and run businesses with almost no human staff (Broca says he is its only employee), said that product-market fit is one of the hardest things to find right now, especially in an era where so many products can easily be copied by competitors. In response, Arno said that durable go-to-market strategies are those that can be reliably repeated.

“The most critical thing for founders or earlier-stage companies to do is develop learning density or pattern recognition for where your customers are,” Arno said. “Don’t rush to build out a top-down go-to-market motion if you’re not there yet.”

That’s why, in those first 90 days after launching a commercial product that’s ready to sell, founders should not mistake early, fast revenue for a sign that the startup is ready to scale, Arno said.

Once a startup finds use cases that work, it will only be ready to build out a sales team and go for growth after it can attract new customers by repeating what has worked. If every sale requires new tactics, the startup hasn’t truly hit product-market fit.

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