What makes you say that? For early stage startups, it seems especially likely that increased awareness can (though usually will not) create a material amount of additional success.
I know that a few fortunate tweets my startup received drove tons of traffic our way, and likely resulted in the press coverage we received soon after. And that press coverage brought more users, and also the proof points of having been covered by major media. That makes fundraising and partnerships easier, etc.
Incorrectly, unless you define success as a local maxima. You usually can’t influence your way to broad user adoption