Ask HN: Bad idea to sell to geeks before enterprise (starting off B2C) | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Bad idea to sell to geeks before enterprise (starting off B2C)

5 pointspain_perdu4 comments

So we’ve built a product that seems deeply resonate with the hacker community (we built a next/gen RF device). We have dozens of peer-orders and even small business LOIs for significant quantities which is all super exciting after just a week or so of marketing. But we know that in order to be a venture-backable company, we need markets much larger than hobbyists and hackers. Has anyone else ever started their startup by serving the hacker community then using their support and product feedback to evolve to a primarily enterprise business (we already have deals there too much slow sales cycle threatens to kill us at this stage if we don’t start making some revenue and selling to hobbyists seems like the obvious choice).

So do we start serving the market that wants our product today or do we focus on the large customers who will ultimately be what makes or breaks us? Is starting off B2C a mistake?

This decision really depends on how much runway you have and how much enterprise sales experience you have. If you have a lot of both, then yes absolutely target the enterprise, go for the homerun. If not, then your primary strategy should be to make decisions that extend the life of your startup and give you a path to success. Create a B2C side and sell to the hacker community and small businesses and on your website add an enterprise contact us link. This will bring in revenue, creates a community of people using your product/builds external technical expertise and better yet, offers marketing/sales opportunities. Some of your audience works for or with enterprise companies and may be willing to push to use your product internally. Frankly, this is how many businesses grow, build a B2C and then add on enterprise options as they build sales expertise (think Dropbox, etc).

Selling to geeks before enterprise is definitely not a bad thing, not least because enterprises almost invariably take a very long time to sell to (unless it's individual departments) even if you're shit hot at enterprise sales. Geeks will pay now, give you better product feedback, and ultimately (i) enterprises hire geeks and (ii) having an existing and engaged userbase builds credibility when you actually go and talk to enterprises.

I don't have a personal experience - but I prefer a B2C given its low overhead and the less presales involved. If I remember correctly, many startups started as B2C (Github, Basecamp, ...) - but your market size might be different.

Yeah we sell relatively inexpensive hardware (sub $1000) but combined with powerful software we can do some pretty crazy things at scale. So hobbyists want to play, but enterprise is where we ultimately add the most value and represent the big bucks. Interesting story about basecamp though, thanks!

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