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Comment by bob1029 | Hacker News Reader

B2C is virtually impossible compared to B2B. This may not be immediately apparent but it is so obvious in hindsight.

The biggest reason I think founders are going for B2C is because they have zero clue about how to network and sell to other businesses. It's easy to set up a shopify account. It's hard to cold call your first prospect. Do you even have any prospects? Do you know how to find them?

The advantage of B2B is that once you figure it out for the first customer, you are on an exponential path to happiness. You can practically cancel your marketing budget at that point. B2C requires an ongoing assault on the dopamine economy. Unless you can get someone on a subscription and program them to forget about it, you're gonna get steamrolled by TikTok & friends.

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My experience is the complete opposite. B2B is almost impossible, even when you have a great product for a great price. B2C on the other hand is a delight, with much better prospects for growing your clientele.

B2B puts you at the mercy of "your next customer's wished feature".

The bigger the "B" you're trying to sell to, the bigger the desire to say yes. This is a very dangerous path.

If you're DHH, you can say no. If you're responding to RFPs for a living... It becomes complicated. Not impossible of course, but it's a different path altogether.

> B2B puts you at the mercy of "your next customer's wished feature".

Yes.

> The bigger the "B" you're trying to sell to, the bigger the desire to say yes.

Absolutely.

> This is a very dangerous path.

You lost me here. What you term "a very dangerous path" I call "a roadmap".

The bigger the customer, the more they can pay. Also, just because it's 'B' and not 'C' doesn't mean there aren't humans involved. You can go a long way (often, all the way) with a simple 1:1 conversation with the most senior person responsible for your project on the customer's side.

> What you term "a very dangerous path" I call "a roadmap".

It's dangerous because the wishes of the next customer might contradict the wishes of the previous customer ; or worse, the wishes of the next next customer, etc...

Building your roadmap becomes a balancing act of "staying on course", "changing course when you realize there are other opportunities there", "guessing the opportunity costs of everything", etc...

I'm not in a marketing position, but I suspect there is a slight difference between "we're hearing it from customers, and it would be a good idea to work on X, Y" vs "X is item n°2345 in a 5000 items RFP, and if we don't do it we're not getting the contract at all".

> The bigger the customer, the more they can pay.

Also, the more they can "not pay" ;) Meaning that if, for some reason, you can not fully implement all their wishes (you're going to try to avoid that, but it can be hard), they might be in a possible to just pull the plug altogether.

Sure, you might deem they demands unreasonable, but then it comes down to:

- realizing that they might know better than you do (by definition, they've been in the business longer than you do)

- the old adage: "can you stay solvent longer than your customers stay unreasonable ?"

The only B2B ideas I have would apply to one company i'm familiar with, maybe a couple of similar companies in the same space. How is that better than B2C?

I guess the logic behind B2B vs B2C comes down this belief: It is easier to sell one unit for $1 million than one million units of something for $1.

How big is that space in terms of businesses? Can you reach them more easily than you could reach a similar $ value of customers? Can you expand your reach and learn more about the market once you're embedded? Are they easier to sell to than consumers? Can you sell them support or maintenance contracts?

etc...

> because they have zero clue about how to network and sell to other businesses. It's easy to set up a shopify account. It's hard to cold call your first prospect. Do you even have any prospects? Do you know how to find them?

How do you learn this skill? Any resources or books you recommend?

Sure, a lot of people have written about this but this isn't a skill that you can learn from a book.

Which is why it feels virtually impossible to many founders. Some people may claim B2B is easier, but only if you have the skill and it is hard to figure out how to obtain it

Not everyone needs to be on the sales team. You only need ~one person who knows how to do it. Once they get the channels opened with the client and the technical people are sending emails directly & regularly, even the most closeted nerds (including those who might also be founders) can begin to contribute meaningfully.

This is what being a "non-technical" founder is all about - building bridges between people and organizations.

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