Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Fiechtner: Enterprise expansion risks derailing an early startup's core product roadmap

Ben Fiechtner · Ben Fiechtner: 12-Week Step-by-Step Framework to Crush Every Sales Quarter | E1185 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Aug 2, 2024 · at 34:58

Ben Fiechtner, CRO at Clari, highlights the operational risks early-stage startups face when attempting to win enterprise deals that demand heavy custom R&D.

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“Even the biggest tech companies in the world, when they're calling on the other biggest tech companies in the world, like you're going to have different requirements. They are a special snowflake. You're going to have to invest R and D dollars, which most startups and most earlier stage companies don't have the capacity to do on the development side. So I think to her point, it's a great one. If you test it with, Hey, I'm going to go after name, big company, X, Y, or Z. And if it requires a huge shift in my roadmap, you're going to have to give up stuff that you were planning on developing, which I think is the hardest part for earlier stage companies.”

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