Start-ups & Downs
I love working with start-ups and CEOs with amazing ideas. The brightest minds and bright eyes committed to changing the world. Full of possibility they are inspiring and inspired by the democratization of technology and the ability to hang a shingle, declare themselves in business powered by amazing solutions whose wizardry is positively miraculous.
Three companies are in stealth mode so there is scant to say right now. But one thing I’ve come to see and learn over the years is that the start-ups whose technology or solution can be pointed a million directions often have the hardest time focusing and staying focused.
There is a line here in Silicon Valley that there is alchemy in saying ‘no.’ Leader after leader says the best leaders say no an inordinate percentage of the time. And the companies whose solutions have ubiquitous application are where the leader often has the most challenging time.
New solutions for company information that can be applied a zillion places. Weather data ditto. Water data. Or software capabilities that can be pointed myriad ways like enterprise search eons ago or martech solutions that every enterprise on the planet could buy. CRM or accounting software ditto.
Money pouring into AI solutions and people believing they’ll start the next big thing in a garage. Today, it’s about AI Everywhere All at Once: The Journey Continues — our 2024 meta-theme for the Outsell Signature Event co-produced with JEGI CLARITY.
When companies are well-funded, and the market education is limited, it’s easier to take a pragmatic approach of opening the high-end and then moving down market over time vertical by vertical or geography by geography or by whacking away at individual users or smaller workgroups and companies and then migrating up to enterprise packages ultimately moving up market. We’ve seen it work both ways.
Where companies get into trouble:
· Start-up.
· High market education curve.
· Ubiquitous offering.
· Complex offering and/or complex sale — CEO, CTO, CMO, CFO (and sometime CDO digital or data involved)
· Long sales cycle and high ASP.
It’s a kiss of death and requires extraordinary resources or discipline or both especially in a B2B context. Bootstrapping is hard. It’s essential to be able to:
· Start with a target market or two in mind.
· Clearly state who you are.
· Explain what your offering does in simplest terms.
· Describe tangible outcomes and benefits.
· Communicate who initially is the best fit — what’s the criteria for an ideal customer?
· Be found.
Keep the technical bells and whistles and ‘feature-speak’ to yourself. Right now, it’s about getting to yes.
These tips are not perfect because bootstrapping can be a slog. But they will support half a chance at surviving and thriving.