Why Most Startups Fail Before They Launch—and How This Ex-Pro Golfer Solved It

Most founders build products nobody wants to buy. By the time they realize it, their runway is gone.

Pablo Gerboles Parrilla saw this pattern destroy promising ventures again and again. The Spanish serial entrepreneur

• a former Division 1 golfer turned technology strategist—decided to flip the entire process. Instead of building products and hoping someone would buy them, his firm Pabs Marketing starts with one question: what will the market actually pay for?

It's a subtle distinction that's produced dramatic results. Clients report 60% increases in lead generation and 40% jumps in qualified prospects—metrics that reflect genuine market alignment rather than promotional polish masking poorly conceived products.

The Fatal Flaw in Traditional Product Development

The pathology is familiar to anyone in the startup world. A founder identifies a technical problem, assembles a team, spends six months building an elegant solution, then discovers nobody will pay for it.

By the time market indifference becomes undeniable, runway has evaporated and momentum has died. The postmortem inevitably concludes the team "didn't validate product-market fit"—as if this were an exotic failure mode rather than the default outcome when you build first and sell second.

Pabs Marketing runs the process in reverse.Before discussing feature sets or technology stacks, Gerboles Parrilla's team addresses fundamental questions most founders gloss over: What specific problem does this solve? Who will actually pay for it? How does it fit into existing market dynamics? What's the realistic path to the first hundred customers?

"We start with clarity," Gerboles Parrilla explains. "Even if the idea feels abstract, we help founders define why it matters. We map out the minimum viable product, build fast, test faster, and get real feedback early. The goal isn't perfection—it's building something that works and evolves based on what customers actually need."

From Fairways to Startups: The Discipline Advantage

Gerboles Parrilla's unconventional background gives Pabs Marketing a unique edge. As a professional golfer who competed at Florida Atlantic University and the University of South Alabama—including a standout performance at the 2013 Cobra PUMA Invitational—he learned principles that translate directly to business strategy.

"Golf forces you to think clearly under pressure," he says. "You could be on the 18th hole, the wind shifts, and you have to make a split-second decision that could change the outcome of the game. That's the same muscle I use in business when the stakes are high."

The discipline of professional athletics—where every decision matters and small mistakes compound—mirrors the startup journey perfectly. It's not about one brilliant shot or one big win. It's about showing up consistently, making calculated moves, and adapting when conditions change.

That athletic foundation has shaped how Pabs Marketing operates: with precision, speed, and an unrelenting focus on what actually moves the needle.

Marketing-First Philosophy: Building What Sells

Most development shops and agencies function as order-takers. They build what clients ask for, deliver it, and move on. Pabs Marketing takes a different approach.

"We only work on projects we believe in," Gerboles Parrilla says. "When we commit, we're strategic partners focused on what the business actually needs to generate revenue—not what founders think sounds impressive."

This marketing-first philosophy means commercial viability governs every decision. Technical deliverables are designed from the ground up to generate leads, convert prospects, and drive sustainable growth. It's the difference between creating impressive technology and building revenue-generating systems.

Speed Without Chaos: The Rapid Launch Framework

Pabs Marketing routinely takes ventures from concept to revenue-generating operations in months, not years. The velocity stems from operational discipline honed across multiple successful launches.

Rather than treating each engagement as a novel experiment, the team applies proven frameworks to rapidly validate ideas, then builds lean initial versions optimized for fast learning cycles.

"Speed without clarity is chaos," Gerboles Parrilla explains. "But clarity without speed is just a well-documented idea that never happens. Markets move fast. Timing matters—especially in tech and emerging industries."

The process begins with understanding the founder's vision—not just for the business, but for their life. Where do they want to live? How far do they want to scale? Are they prepared for what success actually looks like when it arrives quickly?

"One of the philosophies we live by is: stay small long enough to become big enough," he says. "It means building a business with strong foundations—team, culture, systems, structure—before trying to scale. Too many businesses grow too fast without the internal maturity to support that growth."

Building Teams Like Products: Custom and Lean

Scaling creative services presents a fundamental tension: structure enables growth but can constrain innovation. Too many rules and the work becomes formulaic. Too few and chaos prevents sustainable operations.

Pabs Marketing has resolved this by designing systems that enhance rather than restrict creativity.

"Creativity brings ideas to life, but systems make them sustainable," Gerboles Parrilla explains. "We allow space for experimentation, but once we see something works, we systematize it fast so we can move on to the next opportunity. Think of it like jazz: we improvise when needed, but we always come back to the structure."

The same principle applies to team building. Rather than forcing companies into predetermined frameworks, Pabs Marketing builds custom structures aligned with specific business models. A tech-heavy SaaS platform requires fundamentally different commercial infrastructure than a sales-driven B2B service.

"We build teams like we build products—custom, lean, and aligned with the business model," he says. "The first step is identifying the core drivers: Is it tech-heavy? Sales-driven? Operations-focused? Then we plug in people who thrive in that environment."

Geographic Arbitrage as Strategic Asset

Pabs Marketing's footprint across the United States, Latin America, and Europe isn't merely geographic expansion—it's a structural competitive advantage.

By assembling distributed teams that draw from specialized global talent pools, the firm maintains low overhead while accessing world-class expertise. This provides clients with round-the-clock operational capacity and diverse market perspectives—particularly valuable for ventures targeting international audiences or navigating complex multi-jurisdictional regulatory environments.

"There's no reason to limit yourself to local talent when you can build teams globally with specialists who've already solved the problems you're facing," Gerboles Parrilla notes. "That flexibility lets us keep costs low and execution quality high."

The AI Multiplication Effect

Gerboles Parrilla sees artificial intelligence fundamentally compressing development timelines across every business function. Market research, customer segmentation, copywriting, basic coding—tasks that traditionally required months can now be accomplished in days or hours.

"AI won't replace good judgment—it'll amplify it," he predicts. "Founders who are clear on their vision and fast on execution will use AI as leverage. Those who treat it as a replacement for strategic thinking will struggle."

Pabs Marketing has already integrated AI-powered tools throughout its service delivery, automating roughly 80% of backend processes. This allows human talent to concentrate on the 20% of activities that genuinely drive growth: vision, strategy, and relationship building.

Operating From Peace, Not Pressure

Despite operating in one of the world's most competitive sectors, Gerboles Parrilla has developed what he describes as a peace-centered approach to entrepreneurship.

"Early on, I chased money, recognition, success," he reflects. "But those were surface-level goals. I eventually realized what I truly wanted was peace—for myself and the people around me. Once you operate from that place, your mind is sharper, your intuition is clearer, and opportunities align more naturally."

This mindset shift has practical implications for how Pabs Marketing engages clients. Rather than optimizing exclusively for rapid scaling or exit valuations, the firm emphasizes building sustainable businesses with strong operational foundations.

His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs reflects this philosophy: "Meditate and get to know yourself deeply. Ask yourself, 'What do I really want?' Many will say money, cars, recognition, or success. But often, that's just surface-level. Once you operate from peace, the mind is sharper, intuition is clearer, and opportunities align more naturally."

Beyond the Agency Model

What ultimately distinguishes Pabs Marketing from conventional agencies is its refusal to remain confined to promotional activities.

The firm functions as a strategic partner involved in virtually every dimension of business development—from initial market validation to team structure, commercial strategy to operational systems. It ensures that when ventures succeed commercially, they're built on genuinely solid foundations rather than clever marketing masking structural weaknesses.

"We go far beyond development," Gerboles Parrilla says. "We're selective about projects—we only work on ideas we truly believe in. When we commit, we become strategic partners invested in the entire business ecosystem."

The bootstrapped, seven-figure success of ventures built on this marketing-first methodology validates the core thesis: that starting with commercial viability and building backwards produces sustainable businesses with genuine market traction.

For founders navigating the journey from concept to sustainable enterprise, that comprehensive strategic support may represent the difference between ventures that generate impressive vanity metrics and those that build lasting value.

Sohaib is a technology enthusiast and writer specializing in blockchain and Web3 development. With a passion for innovation, they help businesses leverage cutting-edge software solutions to achieve success in the digital era.