The Startup Velocity Question: Innovator’s Dilemma Kills Fundability

Say, you have a non-AI SaaS product with a $5M ARR. 

A competitor has come into the market with a new AI SaaS product addressing the same target customer.

You have to defend your turf and refurbish your SaaS product with AI to get the renewals. 

The Startup Velocity Question: Positioning Drives Exit

There is a commonly held misconception among operators who do not understand positioning: We don’t want to invest in Positioning. We will be selling the company.

The Startup Velocity Question: Repeatability Drives Exit

Perhaps you have come to the conclusion that you will not seek further funding.

Instead, you will look for an Exit. 

The Startup Velocity Question: Repeatability Drives Fundability

Founder-led sales is acceptable for the Seed round.

It is NOT acceptable for Series A or beyond.

At the minimum, you need a Repeatability Hypothesis to raise a sizable venture round.

The Startup Velocity Question: Positioning Drives Repeatability

There’s a common problem with Founder-led Sales: Positioning changes on the fly on a daily basis.

The Startup Velocity Question: Positioning Drives Segmentation

What problem does your product solve with a unique unfair advantage?

What ideal customer has that problem?

These questions are at the heart of Positioning.

The Startup Velocity Question: Segmentation Drives TAM

I see segmentation errors left, right and center.

As such, I see sloppy TAM models left, right and center too.

Segmentation requires a precise profiling of your ideal customer with a host of parameters each of which can individually slash your TAM down by 10%.

The Startup Velocity Question: TAM Drives Fundability

More often than not, an honest Total Available Market (TAM) analysis yields small or medium sized markets. This could range from $50M, $100M, $200M to $500M.