Too many good quotes in one post! "Horizontal products are only as good as their best vertical use case" is a standout. Thanks for sharing the lessons learned, Jake 🙏
I worked 9 years in corporate and I founded and run a data company called dyvenia, we do well, but we are still mostly consulting revenue even though I am shifting some revenue to services and licenses. I basically started my data journey with Alteryx and Tableau. On Alteryx you forgot to say they grew a lot by siding with Tableau, they had their ICP well defined in that case: Tableau users that needed to do quick data modelling for their dashboards. Tableau Prep came a lot later and now PowerBI has its own modelling tool, so in fact I think Alteryx is in trouble now, less so 3 years ago. I likes your analysis, especially your insight on horizontal tools, I am in fact trying to go vertical myself now after trying to sell an horizontal tool for about 1 year. I would recommend to include in the team someone who has done enterprise work or sales next time, UI is never the problem with Enterprose tools, you need to fit in the internal narrative of the Enterprise buying committee, and they will always go for whatever they thing is “standard” or “best practice” at the moment.
Great post and thoughts, thanks! It really shows how difficult it is to break a habit, and that 10x better product mantra can actually be a fact as being even "much better" may not be the reason for existing audience to switch. Thanks a bunch Jake and good luck in your next ventures!
""Those forces can be incredibly strong, working to ensure that inferior products can still win (have you ever used Bill.com, Concur, or even Salesforce?). ""
Thanks for a great read and shared experience. I'm glad I didn't read this before I started and sold a business LOL, but everyone considering a startup should read these great guidelines.
This is something everyone in sales should read and internalise. Excellent post, thank you Jake!
"Generally, teams think about switching costs as the amount of time and money needed to install one solution and remove another. But true switching costs are much more than that: they include the politics, emotions, career ambitions, esoteric business processes, competing priorities, and sheer laziness that all favor the existing solution."
Lessons learned from a startup that didn’t make it
Too many good quotes in one post! "Horizontal products are only as good as their best vertical use case" is a standout. Thanks for sharing the lessons learned, Jake 🙏
I worked 9 years in corporate and I founded and run a data company called dyvenia, we do well, but we are still mostly consulting revenue even though I am shifting some revenue to services and licenses. I basically started my data journey with Alteryx and Tableau. On Alteryx you forgot to say they grew a lot by siding with Tableau, they had their ICP well defined in that case: Tableau users that needed to do quick data modelling for their dashboards. Tableau Prep came a lot later and now PowerBI has its own modelling tool, so in fact I think Alteryx is in trouble now, less so 3 years ago. I likes your analysis, especially your insight on horizontal tools, I am in fact trying to go vertical myself now after trying to sell an horizontal tool for about 1 year. I would recommend to include in the team someone who has done enterprise work or sales next time, UI is never the problem with Enterprose tools, you need to fit in the internal narrative of the Enterprise buying committee, and they will always go for whatever they thing is “standard” or “best practice” at the moment.
Thanks for sharing a really great post. We have to be open to learning from failure as much as success.
Great post and thoughts, thanks! It really shows how difficult it is to break a habit, and that 10x better product mantra can actually be a fact as being even "much better" may not be the reason for existing audience to switch. Thanks a bunch Jake and good luck in your next ventures!
We need more stories like this. As valuable as the successful ones. Thanks Lenny and Jake!
What does this mean?
""Those forces can be incredibly strong, working to ensure that inferior products can still win (have you ever used Bill.com, Concur, or even Salesforce?). ""
–– How do you rate this products and why?
Thanks for a great read and shared experience. I'm glad I didn't read this before I started and sold a business LOL, but everyone considering a startup should read these great guidelines.
This is something everyone in sales should read and internalise. Excellent post, thank you Jake!
"Generally, teams think about switching costs as the amount of time and money needed to install one solution and remove another. But true switching costs are much more than that: they include the politics, emotions, career ambitions, esoteric business processes, competing priorities, and sheer laziness that all favor the existing solution."