The Startup Velocity Question: What is the Right Exit Strategy?

Sometimes, the answer is to give up on the Unicorn dream and seek an exit.

It is expensive to build a full-fledged sales organization.

The right answer may be to find a workable Positioning and seek an exit.

The Startup Velocity Question: What is the Right Funding Strategy?

For a venture funded startup facing velocity problems, it is a good idea to remember that before you go out to raise another round of funding, you have to have an answer to the velocity question: WHAT is hindering acceleration?

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 Market?

Entrepreneurs often bet on markets that are yet to develop.

Good entrepreneurs often create new markets. Steve Jobs CREATED the smartphone market.

VCs bet on such bets.

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.