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Tagged opportunism

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Customer Development Gut Checks

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” »

Process-Driven Sales and Marketing

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:

  1. Build financial model based on revenue and go-to-market assumptions and present to the Board;
  2. Develop product;
  3. Hire VP of Sales w/ relevant contacts;
  4. Build sales plan based on promises to the board;
  5. Hire field sales team;
  6. Hire marketing person to support sales;
  7. Burn cash, miss milestones;
  8. Go back to board with new assumptions;
  9. Build sales plan based on new promises;
  10. Rinse. Repeat.

Continue reading “Process-Driven Sales and Marketing” »

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