Dmitry Trofimets
Get First Sales in 2 Months Without a Product | Advisor to Early-Stage Startups | 12 years of 0-1> Startups
I had the pleasure of working with Dmitry and cannot recommend him highly enough. Dmitry specializes in helping brand-new startup founders get clarity on critical issues, and that's exactly what he delivered. He took the time to really listen, asked the hard questions, and provided thoughtful insights on everything from runway projections to my marketing strategy and ideal customer profile. What I appreciated most was his willingness to act as a respectful devil's advocate. He challenged my thinking and perspectives I'd gotten from others, but always in a way that was supportive and constructive. That's the kind of feedback you need as a founder - someone who believes in you and wants to see you succeed, but won't just rubber-stamp your ideas. If you have hte opportunity to meet with Dmitry, I highly suggest you do it. He's the real deal.
Dmitry brought the perfect mix of clarity, honesty, and strategy, and somehow made a potentially overwhelming conversation actually fun!! We came in torn between two paths (B2B vs. B2C), with traction, but a lot of emotional and energetic weight around the decision. He not only helped us break it down logically, but also challenged our assumptions in a way that felt productive and energizing, not heavy. What really stood out is how approachable and down-to-earth he is. You’re talking to someone with deep expertise, but it never feels intimidating. Just a genuinely cool person who knows how to meet you where you are and help you move forward! We appreciated that he didn’t just give cookie-cutter advice but listened deeply, spotted patterns quickly, and offered concrete next steps we could actually execute. And his idea to frame it all as a testable sprint? Exactly what we needed to move forward without spinning in circles. You can tell he’s been in the trenches. He’s sharp, no-BS, and genuinely wants you to win. If you’re wrestling with strategy, clarity, or just need someone to pressure test your thinking, talk to Dmitry. Easily one of the most valuable conversations we’ve had in a long time!!
Dmitry was direct, practical, and exactly what I needed. He helped me zoom out and see that Amazon vs D2C are fundamentally different business models with different economics and skill sets. He pushed me to prioritize go to market, test channels quickly, and avoid guessing. I left with clarity, next steps, and a more realistic view of CAC and distribution. Highly recommend if you want strategic honesty without fluff.
Bio
I spent the last 12 years building 0->1 startups across six US, UK, and EMEA industries. Which was when I realized: → You don't need a product to get your first traction. Yet, most founders tend to think otherwise. The result? 42% of startups (in reality, even more) fail because they lack product-market fit. They end up: → Wasting over a year building a product that no one wants; → Spending >$100k while developing the wrong product; → Launching products that gather dust on the shelf. All to eventually pivot... or worse. So, I got obsessed with answering one question: How do you figure out what to build before you build it? (thus saving a ton of $$$) I did it while: 1) Building a $10M ARR mental health marketplace in Eastern Europe; 2) Helping an R&D team reshape the mobility industry within the largest IPO in the UK; 3) Pivoting a SaaS product to unlock $30M in GMV in EMEA. These are success stories. The failures are too many to count. I can't promise you a product-market fit (no one can). I can promise you one thing: building a product or raising money before getting traction NO LONGER WORKS for most startups. Sell first, build and fund later. Book a free mentoring session if you want to learn how.
Expertise
Go to market strategy
Built a research studio that helps founders define TAM, segments, and competitor advantages as well as verify existing pain and solutions with no coding.
Product market fit
9 of the 10 startups I worked with pivoted in the first two months without writing a line of code. They could have wasted a lot of money, but I saved it. I teach founders to do no-code validation to reach product-market fit faster.
Toolkit
Zendesk
4 years of experienceBuilt a whole email support for two-sided marketplace, both demand and supply side, with several support lines, automation and knowledge base. Set up analytics to track performance of the support function.
ConvertKit
2 years of experienceBuilt different forms, slow and quick nurture sequences, automation through Make.com, and used personalization, tagging and other boring basic feature any email mailer has.
Mailchimp
5 years of experienceArranged an email strategy with both transactional and marketing communication in Mailchimp for segmented base in 2 types of audiences of a healthcare marketplace
Industries
Psychology
Built the second largest mental health marketplace in Eastern Europe, helped 5 mental health startups across the US and EMEA find their way to validate demand early.
SaaS
Built 3 SaaS startups (one survived!) and helped a dozen find their product-market fit, define pricing, assess feature parity and pick the key north star metric at the early stage.
Marketplace
Built 2-d largest mental health marketplace in Easter Europe with $10M ARR and a TravelTech marketplace with $15M ARR. Solved issues of marketplace liquidity, cross-functional strategies between supply and product, and figured out the chicken-and-egg problem.
Mobile Apps
Helped 6 mobile-first AI startups find their first clients in under 2 month; frequent lecturer at various Mobile Founders communities, talking about how to pick a thriving niche in mobile, based on available public data.