Through the evolution of their start-ups, entrepreneurs will face many inflection points, at which decisions made or not made will determine their future. The painful truth is that a wrong turn may lead to its demise, whereas a right turn leads to another inflection point.
Relevant to ongoing discussions about Blank’s “Customer Development,” I wish to highlight a few of these “inflection points.”
The first step in Blank’s model is “Customer Discovery.” This step seeks to answer this fundamental question: Continue reading “Customer Development Gut Checks” »
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A couple of years ago, a colleague and I began developing a process-oriented way to lead companies toward gaining market traction. The idea was born out of a conversation my colleague had with a partner at Sequoia Capital about how to significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the classic high-burn, low return tactics of typical B2B software start-ups.
So to oversimplify, the classic failure might look like:
- Build financial model based on revenue and go-to-market assumptions and present to the Board;
- Develop product;
- Hire VP of Sales w/ relevant contacts;
- Build sales plan based on promises to the board;
- Hire field sales team;
- Hire marketing person to support sales;
- Burn cash, miss milestones;
- Go back to board with new assumptions;
- Build sales plan based on new promises;
- Rinse. Repeat.
Continue reading “Process-Driven Sales and Marketing” »
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Themocracy