Moving Upstream: Finding Customers Before Your Competitors Do

​Most businesses try to reach customers at the exact moment they are ready to buy, when competition is fiercest and attention is most expensive. This workshop introduces a different approach: moving upstream in the customer journey to find and engage people earlier, when they are still exploring, learning, and forming preferences.

​In this practical session, Leonard Porcano will show founders how to think beyond crowded bottom of funnel channels and identify where their customers are before the buying moment. Through real examples and hands on exercises, founders will learn how to map the full customer journey, spot lower competition opportunities, and build strategies that create trust and demand earlier.

​What you will learn

​How to map your customer journey from early curiosity to final purchase

​Why downstream marketing is crowded and increasingly inefficient

​How to identify upstream opportunities where competition is lower

​Practical ways to engage customers earlier through content, tools, community, and other strategic channels

​How to create a simple plan to start reaching customers upstream right away

​About Leonard Porcano

​Leonard Porcano is a seasoned entrepreneur and innovation leader with more than two decades of experience driving growth and transformation across multiple industries. As Venture Partner and Head of Technology at Tenney 10 / American Family Insurance, he led the development of AI powered platforms such as Leasebot and Clear Door, helping improve homeowner and renter experiences. At Vertex Inc., he built and led an internal innovation lab, overseeing multimillion dollar budgets and launching market disrupting products, including AI driven tax categorisation tools and enterprise supply chain optimisation solutions.