I was riding on the train this morning and was talking to a friend about one of my fund's portfolio companies. She mentioned that the management team had done a great job during a recent sales presentation because instead of going for the "rip and replace" strategy, they went with the "co-exist" philosophy. Too often, entrepreneurs can get too enamored with their own technology and forget that the customer may not need every feature that you are offering today. In fact, while revolutionary technology and vision is great, what the customer may want is an evolutionary approach to implementation. What I am talking about here is reducing the friction in your sales process (See an earlier post on frictionless sales). Convincing a customer that your technology or product can coexist with an existing investment is a much lower barrier to sales than convincing them to "rip and replace" or "forklift upgrade" a significant prior investment. The sales prospect will have a hard enough time buying a product/service from an unproven startup, let alone ripping out an existing investment from a safe choice, a much larger public vendor. Once you land the customer, you will always have the chance to expand your footprint. That is why I continue to be enamored with SAAS and downloadable software because I believe that it is inherently a more efficient and cost effective way of selling and delivering a product or service. Granted, most of the initial target market opportunities will be the small/medium business market but I still firmly believe that this market is untapped and offers great upside.
Revolutionary technology with evolutionary implementation
Oct 5, 2006
in Entrepreneurship, On Demand
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about
Ed Sim is founder of BOLDstart Ventures and co-founder of Dawntreader Ventures. Mr. Sim has over 15 years of venture capital experience having led seed and first round investments in a number of high profile Internet and software companies.
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Martin Wawrusch: Hi Ed, you might want to take a look at http://lea...
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Larry Tutino: Hi Ed, I do the same thing with real estate deals...
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DzNtz: well, for starters these executives can start actu...
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Peter Kadas, MD.: I'm an entrepreneur for 16 years now. I had wins a...
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Chris: Accountability is definitely an ingredient to grea...
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- Larry Tutino: Hi Ed, I do the same thing with real estate deals I follow. I have my favorites/passed on file that I...
- DzNtz: well, for starters these executives can start actually LISTENING to the recommendations of the PROFESSIONALS...
- Peter Kadas, MD.: I’m an entrepreneur for 16 years now. I had wins and losses. To be able to quit is not just a...
- Chris: Accountability is definitely an ingredient to great management but one thing I have seen as essential when...








