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Market Annealing: Getting to $10M ARR in Early Markets

99 points by yarapavan 4y ago

indus 4y ago
TLDR: - you are effed if you aren't doing sales as a founder. - don't outsource anything that touches customers--basically do everything while bringing functional experts to do those tasks and decrease your load as a founder, so that you can do more sales.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
yowlingcat 4y ago
Very important subject matter for any B2B founder to be conversant in. The problem is that the devil is in the details, and it draws my skepticism to see that this article has not included any examples from A16Z portcos. Why is that the case? I am sure that for each of these principles, the authors could have found numerous examples to serve as mini case studies for each of these principles. That would make the content have a lot more bite.
ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
This is generic advice like the ones found in low effort SEO blogs with nonsensical analogies thrown in.
- zupa-hu 4y ago
  Advice that's generic to some may be novel to others. I'm currently in the phase where I have been struggling as explained in the article and I'm looking to do sales now. It was great reassurance to read.
  - ExxKA 4y ago
    What is your product?
    - zupa-hu 4y ago
      A no-code-first web application platform. Initially I started with a website builder because it was a subset of the entire thing, which was just too big to take on from the get go. I'm currently in a position where the core tech is way ahead of every other aspect of the business.
a5seo 4y ago
Reading this was hard because having failed a few years ago, after 7 years and $3m raised for a B2B content marketing startup, it all rings so true. We hired a VP of Sales (who was previously VP of Sales at a public company) when we had $20k MRR (avg deal size was $3k/mo), non of the four founders /wanted/ to lead sales, we hired a $5k/mo PR firm… we blew so much money trying buy our way out of figuring out repeatable GTM motions. Realistically, as founders, we were not up to the task.
- tuyenhx 4y ago
  I can feel you. I was in the same situation. In the end, my team broken up. Cofounders (my best friends) left. We are not friend anymore. I closed that company and start a new one. Luckily, things are better now. Dont outsource sale, someone need to do that. That is a hard lession
sub7 4y ago
a16z is now a glorified shitcoin criminal enterprise. I urge everyone to never let them participate in a round ever again. Failure of fiduciary duties fucked over their LPs and their shitcoin pump/dumps fucked over retail. They'll now try to salvage their brand but a perma-ban is in order IMO
walterbell 4y ago
There's a small fund run by GTM operators, https://www.gtmfund.com/ https://www.gtmfund.com/ > We're a fund comprised of 250+ GTM leaders. We invested $6M in 2021, $15M in 2022, and plan to invest $50M over the next 2 years. We invest early (pre-Seed to A), writing $200k to $750k checks, and specializing in B2B SaaS.

99 points by yarapavan 4y ago

TLDR: - you are effed if you aren't doing sales as a founder. - don't outsource anything that touches customers--basically do everything while bringing functional experts to do those tasks and decrease your load as a founder, so that you can do more sales.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

yowlingcat 4y ago

Very important subject matter for any B2B founder to be conversant in. The problem is that the devil is in the details, and it draws my skepticism to see that this article has not included any examples from A16Z portcos. Why is that the case? I am sure that for each of these principles, the authors could have found numerous examples to serve as mini case studies for each of these principles. That would make the content have a lot more bite.

ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago

This is generic advice like the ones found in low effort SEO blogs with nonsensical analogies thrown in.

zupa-hu 4y ago
Advice that's generic to some may be novel to others. I'm currently in the phase where I have been struggling as explained in the article and I'm looking to do sales now. It was great reassurance to read.
- ExxKA 4y ago
  What is your product?
  - zupa-hu 4y ago
    A no-code-first web application platform. Initially I started with a website builder because it was a subset of the entire thing, which was just too big to take on from the get go. I'm currently in a position where the core tech is way ahead of every other aspect of the business.

a5seo 4y ago

Reading this was hard because having failed a few years ago, after 7 years and $3m raised for a B2B content marketing startup, it all rings so true. We hired a VP of Sales (who was previously VP of Sales at a public company) when we had $20k MRR (avg deal size was $3k/mo), non of the four founders /wanted/ to lead sales, we hired a $5k/mo PR firm… we blew so much money trying buy our way out of figuring out repeatable GTM motions. Realistically, as founders, we were not up to the task.

tuyenhx 4y ago
I can feel you. I was in the same situation. In the end, my team broken up. Cofounders (my best friends) left. We are not friend anymore. I closed that company and start a new one. Luckily, things are better now. Dont outsource sale, someone need to do that. That is a hard lession

sub7 4y ago

a16z is now a glorified shitcoin criminal enterprise. I urge everyone to never let them participate in a round ever again. Failure of fiduciary duties fucked over their LPs and their shitcoin pump/dumps fucked over retail. They'll now try to salvage their brand but a perma-ban is in order IMO

walterbell 4y ago

There's a small fund run by GTM operators, https://www.gtmfund.com/ https://www.gtmfund.com/ > We're a fund comprised of 250+ GTM leaders. We invested $6M in 2021, $15M in 2022, and plan to invest $50M over the next 2 years. We invest early (pre-Seed to A), writing $200k to $750k checks, and specializing in B2B SaaS.