National Incubation Center Hyderabad ran a Build a Smarter Go-to-Market Strategy session with Nidhal Shaikh, marketing advisor at Touchgrass, built around a distinction that trips up many early-stage founders, that go-to-market work is not simply about pushing a finished product out into the world but about figuring out precisely where that product fits and how to get it in front of the right people specifically. Framing go-to-market planning as a matter of fit rather than volume challenges the instinct many founders default to, where broader distribution is treated as inherently better than a narrower, more deliberately targeted approach, when in practice a poorly targeted launch can burn through limited marketing budget without ever reaching the customers most likely to convert.
Shaikh brings a background as co-founder and chief marketing officer of Touchgrass, an agency built around strategy that actually moves measurable business outcomes, systems designed to generate leads rather than passive brand awareness, and automation intended to keep marketing functions running consistently without constant manual intervention. That operating philosophy shaped the structure of the session itself, which organizers described as hands-on from start to finish, moving founders away from passively absorbing marketing theory and into direct engagement with their own specific go-to-market questions in real time.
Founders took part in structured activities, shared their own ideas openly with the group, and worked through genuine go-to-market questions tied directly to their individual businesses rather than working through a generic, one-size-fits-all case study disconnected from their actual products and target markets. NIC Hyderabad described the resulting conversations as open and practical, noting that they often challenged the way founders normally think about marketing and growth, suggesting the session succeeded in surfacing assumptions about audience and positioning that founders had not previously examined closely.
The emphasis on founders actually working through their own strategies during the session, rather than simply listening to a presentation about go-to-market frameworks in the abstract, reflects a broader pattern that has emerged across NIC Hyderabad’s curriculum this year, where sessions increasingly prioritize direct, applied problem-solving over passive instructional formats. NIC Hyderabad specifically thanked Shaikh for keeping the room engaged throughout, framing the session’s success around its interactive structure rather than the credentials of the speaker alone. The session was supported by Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Ignite National Technology Fund, PTCL, LMKT, and Tech Destination Pakistan, continuing NIC Hyderabad’s ongoing curriculum connecting founders with practitioners across business, marketing, and technical disciplines.
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