The Wondering, which soft-launched in October 2025, is shifting from its initial quiet introduction to a more targeted visibility push aimed at a specific segment of the startup ecosystem. The service focuses on North American startups at pre-seed and seed stages, as well as select early Series A companies if they remain founder-led in their go-to-market strategy. Its primary audience consists of B2B software and tech-enabled services companies, particularly those where systems, data, and churn metrics provide critical insights into business health.
Gerdus "Gus" Byleveld, Founder of The Wondering, explains that most early-stage teams face a repeatability problem rather than a motivation issue. Growth often feels random because work is sustained by individual heroics rather than systematic processes. The shift toward sustainable growth occurs when founders gain clarity on why customers buy, why they don't, and how to consistently execute that process week after week. This approach is designed for lean teams of 2 to 25 full-time employees where the founder is still actively involved in sales and the first go-to-market hires are joining the organization.
The service also caters to global startups expanding into the U.S. market, where go-to-market design is rarely plug-and-play, and to accelerators, incubators, venture studios, university programs, and founder communities that run cohorts of pre-seed and seed startups. For these groups, The Wondering offers GTM support that founders can apply immediately, reducing guesswork, speeding learning, and helping teams build traction responsibly. More information about these programs can be found at https://thewondering.net.
In practical terms, The Wondering helps founders build a go-to-market system that withstands pressure, especially in complex B2B environments with longer sales cycles and enterprise-like dynamics where retention is as crucial as pipeline generation. This involves tightening the product's market wedge by precisely defining who it is for and why it wins, pressure-testing positioning against real buyer language instead of internal assumptions, and turning customer behavior into actionable signals to identify what's working, what's leaking, and what's misunderstood.
A key principle emphasized by Byleveld is treating churn as a message rather than a mystery. If churn is rising, it indicates misalignment in areas such as value delivery, onboarding, expectations, targeting, pricing, or how the offer is framed. The solution isn't generating more noise but achieving clarity and implementing a systematic approach. Additionally, the service helps build sustainable operational cadences that teams can maintain without burning out, ensuring growth isn't dependent solely on the founder's stamina. For global teams, it assists in designing go-to-market strategies for the U.S. market with fewer false starts and faster learning cycles.
For business and technology leaders, The Wondering's approach highlights a growing recognition in the startup ecosystem that sustainable growth requires moving beyond initial hustle to establish repeatable, data-informed processes. This is particularly relevant as investor scrutiny increases and markets become more competitive, making systematic execution a critical differentiator for early-stage companies aiming to scale efficiently and reduce reliance on unpredictable growth spurts.
