Presentation I gave at Heavybit Industries (www.heavybit.com), describing the optimal business model for a B2D (business-to-developer) company.
For example, when is the right time to build a sales organization?
6. Historical Barriers to
Developer Adoption in the
Enterprise
• Access to Software
• Access to Hardware
• Cost / Pricing
• Setup, Config, Integration
• Proof-of-Concept
• Budget
• Politics
7. 1990s Early 2000s 2010s
Software for
developers becomes
mainstream category
Web
Top-Down,
High-Touch
Sale
High Friction
“Enterprise Software”
Friction Removal:
Downloads
Open Source
Move to Lower-Touch, Bottom-Up Sale
Friction Removal:
IaaS
PaaS
SaaS
Cloud
Late 2000s
Web 2.0
Friction Removal:
Freemium
Free Trial
Pay-as-you-go
Social Marketing
Marketing
Automation
14. The New Model:
Early Phase
• Early phase:
• Inbound marketing
• Low Touch, Bottom-Up (self-service, credit
card, free trial, etc.)
• Emphasis on removing friction, e.g.:
• Marketing automation
• Product onboarding
• Measurement
15. The New Model:
Transition & Late
Phase
• Build sales org and processes
• Triage sales
• Gradually move to inside sales and field
sales
16. Why not transition
sooner?
• Sales people need a clear value prop
and a repetitive process
• Sales people influence product
development
• Sales people influence marketing
• Sales people distract from friction
removal
17. When to make the
transition?
• Self-selected queries about large deals
• Somewhere between $50K-100K MRR
• Year 2 from GA
18. When to make the
transition?
• We have a clear understanding of:
• Positioning
• Pricing / Usage Metrics
• What an “elephant” lead looks like
(how to triage)