Marketing or “growth?” If you’re a B2B SaaS startup, you probably need a VP of marketing and not a head of growth.

Caveat: I love growth tactics and growth roles. Some of the smartest people I’ve worked with are on growth. It’s just that it’s often applied to the wrong problem.

Product success equals desire minus friction.

The thing with most growth tactics and growth roles is they’re really excellent at removing friction, less so at building desire.

Know where this is great though? The exact mega B2C and consumer social products of the last few decades where modern growth tactics were forged. Places like Pinterest, FB, Uber, Airbnb.

These products have giant addressable markets, heaps of existing demand, and often inherent viral loops. Decreasing friction IS the game here.

The problem becomes when you try attaching those same tactics to your B2B app that does like revenue intelligence for car wash owners.

Remove friction all you want, you’ve got a desire problem.

You’ve got to build a brand, and potentially a category, out of thin air. Some growth tactics can be helpful here, but this is a job for old fashioned, capital M Marketing.

Don’t get me wrong. If you’re Loom or Calendly or Docusign or some other B2B with inherent viral loops and giant markets, yeah double down on growth. Otherwise, push your chips toward marketing.