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I vowed after my first startup never again to build an enterprise product for this reason. Plus I don't like golfing and drinking with some random guy in Omaha trying to convince him my product solves one of this top three problems.

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During my 3 years doing enterprise sales at Akamai, I learnt a ton of things from my customers and met some really interesting people. Not all enterprise sales involves golf and drinking and schmoozing.

Edit: I would also add that you tend to learn a lot more about your product from your customers. In addition, once you target a certain industry and speak to all the major players, you get some insight that helps with product, sales, marketing.

Yeah I didn't mean to sound like that's ALL there is. But I was time and again surprised how often buying decisions had nothing to do with the product, company's need etc. I guess I was perhaps a little naive :)

So was I when I started. There are so many reasons folks buy that doesn't involve our product or company, it's mind boggling.

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