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Note that I am not focusing on "value" per se. I was focusing on leverage, i.e. where you can find a "multiplier", and arguing engineering is where you can find

Note that I am not focusing on "value" per se. I was focusing on leverage, i.e. where you can find a "multiplier", and arguing engineering is where you can find superlinear amplications of value. It's really hard for me to imagine or come up with an anecdote where a sales process or marketing initiative has had more than a linear multiplier. It could be 10x, but even that is usually very big. Never exponential, or even quadratic (though in network effect businesses the quadratic amplification via marketing sometimes exists.)

JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> It's really hard for me to imagine or come up with an anecdote where a sales process or marketing initiative has had more than a linear multiplier Have you ever started a company that successfully exited? Or managed a product from cradle to grave? There is another comment in here about perspectives gained from taking on multiple roles. If you can’t think of a single case of a great salesperson adding multiples to a product’s performance, I gently suggest broadening your scope.
- mehrdada 9y ago
  > If you can’t think of a single case of a great salesperson adding multiples to a product’s performance more than a linear multiplier Read more carefully.
  - xapata 9y ago
    How would you tell the difference between a high linear multiple and a low exponential coefficient? That hypothesis is nearly impossible to falsify and therefore nearly useless. The value in it is simply the encouragement to look for network effects, which are going to cause exponentiality. BTW, ever heard of word of mouth advertising? That's by definition exponential.
    - mehrdada 9y ago
      Valid points. We could debate this, but I am already sick of this subthread; the point is I never said sales does not add value or that the value it adds is small, which the GP accused me of, in a rather passive-aggressive tone.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

> It's really hard for me to imagine or come up with an anecdote where a sales process or marketing initiative has had more than a linear multiplier Have you ever started a company that successfully exited? Or managed a product from cradle to grave? There is another comment in here about perspectives gained from taking on multiple roles. If you can’t think of a single case of a great salesperson adding multiples to a product’s performance, I gently suggest broadening your scope.

mehrdada 9y ago
> If you can’t think of a single case of a great salesperson adding multiples to a product’s performance more than a linear multiplier Read more carefully.
- xapata 9y ago
  How would you tell the difference between a high linear multiple and a low exponential coefficient? That hypothesis is nearly impossible to falsify and therefore nearly useless. The value in it is simply the encouragement to look for network effects, which are going to cause exponentiality. BTW, ever heard of word of mouth advertising? That's by definition exponential.
  - mehrdada 9y ago
    Valid points. We could debate this, but I am already sick of this subthread; the point is I never said sales does not add value or that the value it adds is small, which the GP accused me of, in a rather passive-aggressive tone.