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> 39% in B2B/Enterprise SaaS Business newbie here. Is B2B a broad type of shovels business (gold rush)? What ratio of B2C/B2B is going to sustain the economy?

> 39% in B2B/Enterprise SaaS Business newbie here. Is B2B a broad type of shovels business (gold rush)? What ratio of B2C/B2B is going to sustain the economy? (not sure what term of unit to measure here). And how about if B2B2B is a lot more than B2B2C?

curo 4y ago
There are a lot of consumer products without scalable tech (e.g., grocery brands, entertainment, fashion, media, etc). Those consumer companies are B2B customers. So a high B2B/B2C ratio on YC (which funds scalable tech) is probably not indicative of an unsustainable economy.
- Existenceblinks 4y ago
  My question is misleading since I quote the YC's %. I mean, generally speaking, not particular to YC. So I think as long as those consumers companies' profit can absorb/buy all of B2B...2C service chain all the way down, it will keep going?
O__________O 4y ago
One of the biggest potential boosts to being a YC founder is launching a B2B startup to prior successful YC companies - since even landing a few would make a significant impact both in terms of revenue and easy of future sales. Putting aside YC, generally speak B2B businesses have a higher survival rate than B2C — which is saying a lot given that sales cycles in B2B tend to be much, much longer. All that said, in my experience, founders with less experience tend to focus on B2C because by default most people have experience buying consumer products & services, much fewer have significant experience buying business services & products. People tend to focus on what they know. As for the B2X2Z keep it simple, find a business you’re familiar with, model the business, then model another, etc — the practice in modeling existing business will help you actually understand how to model a business. I would start with something like the Business Model Canvas, though no model is prefect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas Googling “business model canvas examples” or “business model canvas [a-z]” where a-z is the first letter of a specific existing business or industry will pull up related examples.
threeseed 4y ago
The economic model of YC and VC in general demand you be a billion dollar startup. It's significantly easier to do that in B2B versus B2C when your target customers have deeper wallets.
nfw2 4y ago
Not affiliated with YC, but here are some reasons about why B2B would be more appealing to YC. YC offers a big competitive advantage to B2B (especially tech B2B) through its network. YC offers a large network of potential customers and early adopters for new or growing B2B businesses. Access to the YC network makes it easier to get a B2B off the ground. Many B2B applicants to YC already have some traction and use YC to help take off. This kind of applicant is obviously attractive to YC because it is low-risk. Also, with B2B companies, it is much easier to avoid the Achilles Heel of B2C, which is that the cost to acquire a user ends up being higher than the revenue that user generates. Even if there is decent product-market fit, consumers generally have tight budgets. With B2B, one sale can generate thousands in ARR, which makes hiring a sales team to close those deals scalable.

curo 4y ago

There are a lot of consumer products without scalable tech (e.g., grocery brands, entertainment, fashion, media, etc). Those consumer companies are B2B customers. So a high B2B/B2C ratio on YC (which funds scalable tech) is probably not indicative of an unsustainable economy.

Existenceblinks 4y ago
My question is misleading since I quote the YC's %. I mean, generally speaking, not particular to YC. So I think as long as those consumers companies' profit can absorb/buy all of B2B...2C service chain all the way down, it will keep going?

O__________O 4y ago

One of the biggest potential boosts to being a YC founder is launching a B2B startup to prior successful YC companies - since even landing a few would make a significant impact both in terms of revenue and easy of future sales. Putting aside YC, generally speak B2B businesses have a higher survival rate than B2C — which is saying a lot given that sales cycles in B2B tend to be much, much longer. All that said, in my experience, founders with less experience tend to focus on B2C because by default most people have experience buying consumer products & services, much fewer have significant experience buying business services & products. People tend to focus on what they know. As for the B2X2Z keep it simple, find a business you’re familiar with, model the business, then model another, etc — the practice in modeling existing business will help you actually understand how to model a business. I would start with something like the Business Model Canvas, though no model is prefect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas Googling “business model canvas examples” or “business model canvas [a-z]” where a-z is the first letter of a specific existing business or industry will pull up related examples.

threeseed 4y ago

The economic model of YC and VC in general demand you be a billion dollar startup. It's significantly easier to do that in B2B versus B2C when your target customers have deeper wallets.

nfw2 4y ago

Not affiliated with YC, but here are some reasons about why B2B would be more appealing to YC. YC offers a big competitive advantage to B2B (especially tech B2B) through its network. YC offers a large network of potential customers and early adopters for new or growing B2B businesses. Access to the YC network makes it easier to get a B2B off the ground. Many B2B applicants to YC already have some traction and use YC to help take off. This kind of applicant is obviously attractive to YC because it is low-risk. Also, with B2B companies, it is much easier to avoid the Achilles Heel of B2C, which is that the cost to acquire a user ends up being higher than the revenue that user generates. Even if there is decent product-market fit, consumers generally have tight budgets. With B2B, one sale can generate thousands in ARR, which makes hiring a sales team to close those deals scalable.