5 Counter-Intuitive Go-to-Market Lessons from Boldstart Ventures
The traditional playbook for enterprise software startups needs a rewrite. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, Shomik Ghosh of Boldstart Ventures shared insights that challenge conventional wisdom about scaling B2B companies. Here are five crucial lessons that emerge from their experience backing companies “from the first line of code.”
- Start with Pain Points, Not Technology Trends
While many founders rush to capitalize on trending technologies like AI, Shomik warns against this approach: “In certain times there’s a zeitgeist that captures everyone. And so that right now, for example, it’s very exciting what’s happening in generative AI.” The problem? “The question is one of defensibility, right? How are you doing that in a way that somebody else couldn’t?”
Instead of chasing trends, Shomik advises founders to “focus more on the deep pain points that an end user needs to be solved and start there.” Only then should you “think about how to apply AI to the data that you collect from getting that product into the hands of users.”
- The Hidden Risk of Early Success
Counter-intuitively, early success can be dangerous. Shomik explains how companies often misinterpret initial traction: “What happens though sometimes is people find the first ten users and then they say, you know what, this is product Market Fit, we’ve found it, we know everyone loves this.” This premature conclusion often leads to scaling too quickly, particularly in sales.
- Market Pull Over Sales Push
Rather than forcing growth through sales capacity, wait for clear market signals. Shomik describes the right indicators: “Your early customers are all saying, hey, here’s a product that we love your product. Here’s three other product ideas. If you build these, we will pay you more money.” This organic pull from the market is more valuable than any amount of sales push.
- Category Creation is Optional
Many founders obsess over creating new categories, but Shomik suggests this isn’t necessary: “Salesforce is a… very large company, a huge company that started off essentially reimagining an existing category created by PeopleSoft.” The key is solving real problems, whether in a new or existing category.
- Let Customer Usage Guide Product Evolution
Instead of planning product expansion in isolation, let actual usage guide your direction. Shomik shares a story of a portfolio company that discovered a major opportunity this way: “Customers were saying, hey, we have invoices that are flowing through your platform. Do you think you could actually handle the payments for us?” This customer-led discovery revealed “a whole new product line that they never thought they would build.”
The New Rules of Efficient Growth
The current market environment actually offers unique advantages for disciplined founders. As Shomik notes, “Right now it’s like, frankly, one of the best times to be a Founder.” Why? Because market conditions force companies to stay lean longer, allowing for deeper customer relationships and more thoughtful product development.
This approach might seem slower, but it builds more sustainable businesses. As Shomik explains, “The most fun of a job, right, is when you’re in the early days with your tight team working together and just discovering new things and working with your early customers hand in hand to figure out what to build.”
The goal is to grow in lockstep with genuine market demand, avoiding the trap of artificial scaling. As Shomik concludes, “That’s the sort of lockstep growth that you want to do and not get ahead of it. Because if you get ahead of it, your burn gets too big, the expectations for how quickly you’re going to grow also get bigger because you need to satisfy that burn and then you get into this cycle.”
This measured approach to growth might not grab headlines, but it builds the kind of sustainable enterprise software companies that can weather market cycles and create lasting value.
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