... thought we knew We assumed enterprise customers wanted the same things as our small business users, just more of it. More security. More control. More features. We never talked to them. We read blog posts. We looked at competitor pricing pages. We guessed. Here's what we missed: Procurement cycles. Enterprise deals take 6-12 months. We had 30-day sales cycles. We weren't built for that. Security reviews. We needed SOC2. We didn't have it. Customers asked ... ... customer research. You didn't need ten enterprise deals. You needed one honest conversation with someone who actually had to get a vendor approved. Comment from Umadhav Salapu(@umadhav): Classic build trap optimizing for the customer you want vs

... rather build what people actually need than guess. So: what's the conversation you keep putting off? What's the one you replayed in your head after it went sideways? Comment from Kent Wills(@kent_wills): @maisie_eleanor  Amazing, got it, will follow up! Comment from Kent Wills(@kent_wills): @alphathegoat  You might like: https://www.peopling.app/resourc... - We also have a scenario where you can practice this. Comment from Ghost Kitty(@ghost-kitty-9520627): Comment Deleted Comment from ...

... slower compounding (most of the time), more constraints on bets, less ability to brute-force distribution. Beyond "pressure", VC is forced ambition, access to unfair advantages, and sometimes necessary for category leadership. So in the end it not freedom vs pressure but control vs