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The Startup Velocity Question: What CANNOT be Fixed?

Within the runway of a venture-funded startup, it is excruciatingly difficult to fix core technology problems. 

The Startup Velocity Question: Is it Positioning?

We are in 2024.

Almost every market is super crowded.

Most often, the problem is not with the sales team, nor with the technology.

The problem is with Product Positioning.

The Startup Velocity Question: Is it the Sales Team?

When things are not going right, especially in B-to-B SaaS, the blame falls on the sales team.

As a company switches from Founder-led Sales to a Repeatable Sales Process, often, sales do falter.

Velocity cannot be achieved without a repeatable sales process.

The Startup Velocity Question: Is it the Product?

Product and Technology are not the same. 

While technology failures are difficult to recover from, product issues can be addressed.

Often, once a startup starts to engage with the market, it develops a more sophisticated understanding of the market’s needs. Features, functions, integrations, APIs – a lot of input comes into the company through customer immersion.

The Startup Velocity Question: Is it Technology?

At the heart of most tech companies is, of course, technology. Today, the market is particularly frothy around Artificial Intelligence. AI is a technology that is notorious for not working as envisioned.

The Startup Velocity Question: What Hinders Acceleration in VC Funded Companies?

I have been running 1Mby1M since 2010. I find myself saying to entrepreneurs ad nauseam that VCs want to invest in startups that can go from zero to $100 million in revenue in 5 to 7 years.

Startups that do not have what it takes to achieve velocity should not be venture funded.

Experienced VCs, over time, have developed heuristics to gauge what constitutes a high growth venture investment thesis. 

Looking to Raise Funds for Your Startup?

Is your startup fundable? The One Million by One Million (1Mby1M) virtual accelerator offers funding diagnostics to its members. If your startup is not yet fundable, 1Mby1M will help develop a funding strategy. If your startup is already fundable, you may access the 1Mby1M network of investors. Learn more through the 1Mby1M Investor Introduction Overview.  

Interested? Apply to win a one-year scholarship to the 1Mby1M Premium program, sponsored by DataStax, valued at $1000. Check out The DataStax – 1Mby1M Startup Challenge.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Geoff Ralston, President of Y Combinator (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Apple SDK was one of the most successful developer platforms. 

Geoff Ralston: This expansion of platforms is something on which you can begin your company. We have a company called Shogun that built their business originally on Shopify and then expanded. There’s enormous availability and possibility by these platforms that get to scale. One other aspect of this that I’m super excited about is, I’ve started a sister accelerator of Y Combinator called Imagine K12 focused on educational technology.