Sneha Lundia Agrawal, Founder & CEO of Step2Growth, is a well-known industry leader who is regarded as a marketing genius and is capable of reviving any dormant business. With her real-time work experience, Sneha has single-handedly turned the tables for several startups that had no idea why they were failing or how to change the tide in their favour. From a simple girl born in India to launching her business in Silicon Valley, Sneha has demonstrated to the world what wonders a single strong decision can create. Two of the startups she supported were acquired by large publicly traded corporations. She was recognized as one of Silicon Valley Business Journal’s “Women of Influence 2021.” She is a contributor at Forbes, a part of Forbes Business Council, advisor at multiple startups and a board member for a nonprofit.
In an interview with Aspioneer, Sneha discusses her thoughts on the marketing industry, her path to success, and her ambition for the organization. Below are the highlights.
A glimpse
Sneha Lundia Agrawal: “We are Step2Growth. We have been in business for more than four years. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have employees in the US, Canada, and India. To describe what we do, we are a growth accelerator, helping early-stage startups in their growth journey my providing coaching, resources, and services.”
Becoming the face of change
Sneha Lundia Agrawal: “Before entering the world of marketing, I was working as a software engineer and then a business analyst. My first job as a marketing lead was with a startup. Like most early-stage startups, I was the only marketing juggernaut in this company. Looking at my background and work with this startup, a few other early-stage startups reached out to me to support them with their marketing infrastructure and foundation. The common thing I observed with all of these startups was the fact that they tried to create a marketing infrastructure and foundation, but something wasn’t right there and they hired me to redo everything. This bothered me because, at an early stage, startups already have limited resources and spending the time and effort to try to do marketing and then getting it wrong and hiring somebody to redo it just did not make sense to me. Since I saw this happen multiple times, I knew that this was the problem I wanted to solve. I want to reduce the number of startups that fail because of not having the right marketing foundation. I also wanted to focus on the early-stage startups because nobody would want to spend a lot of time with them because they did not have the money, but they needed the most help.
42% of startups fail today due to lack of product market fit and many more die out eventually due to poor marketing—I want to change that. The problem is that marketing can be overwhelming for early-stage founders, especially if they do not have relevant prior experience. I aim to provide structure and clarity when founders think about marketing. At an early stage, marketing should not be about trial and error but about being intentional about the time, money, and resources spent on marketing to reach the target audience and convert them into customers.”