Why Founders Default to Familiar Channels

Left alone, founders pick channels by habit: the ones they've seen other startups use, the ones their competitors use, or the ones that match their skills. A developer defaults to content and SEO. An ex-salesperson defaults to outbound. Everyone defaults to social ads because they're easy to start.

This is exactly backwards. The book argues the underused channel is often the cheapest, because crowded channels get bid up and noisy while neglected ones sit there with attention going cheap. If every competitor fights over Google Ads, trade shows or engineering as marketing might be where your customers are reachable for a fraction of the cost.

The fix is process over instinct: force yourself to evaluate all 19 honestly before betting. The Bullseye framework exists precisely because gut feel reliably picks wrong.