This is great advice (that we need to follow) but needs to be updated for 2026. The information value of providing (or receiving) a demo has dropped to roughly zero with vibe coding. Today, an apparently functional and useful product can be produced and demoed in minutes, but that demo provides absolutely zero information into the technical capabilities of the demoing team to follow through on promises with polish and at scale. It doesn't reflect a studied architecture or edge case handling. It basically only shows a vision, which can be tailored to perfectly mirror the recipient's expressed desire even though it's absolute vaporware. This makes it even harder to sell to enterprise in 2026 when the scene is awash in such noise.
>that demo provides absolutely zero information into the technical capabilities of the demoing team to follow through on promises with polish and at scale.
With vibe coding comes vibes-based capital. I'm only half kidding.
Speed to market has always been a factor. Venture prioritizing this factor due to AI accelarating speed is probably expanding ... for now. In bubbles, speed tends to rise to a higher priority.
Yes, first/fast is sometimes a negative factor (e.g. first to market doesn't mean best, second to market can take advantage of proof of market proviced by first, etc.)
The described enterprise sales process sounds a bit odd to me. I come from the perspective of existing codebase that is tailored to the specific customer processes/org structure etc. so maybe it's different for a completely blue ocean type of product.
It's usually initial contact + demo or feature talk of sorts. The next step is some small project with customer specific data which is billed. They get a quote and either do it or don't. Scale up, SLA etc. follow after that (basic outline of what's possible is usually given in the initial contact). Alternatively this small project can be some consulting package but it's always billed.
The type of sales at your company is the top down approach where you already have a solution. There's a lot of enterprise sales where the solution doesn't fully exist or requires extensive customization that it's the blue ocean demo that sells the product, the product doesn't exist until the deal is signed.
Yep, "enterprise" sales will kill ya. And when you do "close" you then get beaten up by "vendor mgmt". And when you finally get the invoice in, it's the finance dept and 90 day terms.
I think new founders are sometimes intimidated by customers, especially well-known brands, we don't want to upset or annoy them instead of being open about not being able to afford to run loads of pre-sales technical work. We also see the dollar signs for one large customer when we should be seeing smaller dollar signs for many customers.
For the customers, to be fair, they are partly trying to derisk the purchasing decision by making sure everyone and their dog has seen the demo, shown that it definitely does exactly what they want with their data and processes etc. and they have no skin in the game at this point, so why not?
Believe in the product you have built already and as the OP says, be certain of product market fit and ABC (always be closing).
31 comments
>that demo provides absolutely zero information into the technical capabilities of the demoing team to follow through on promises with polish and at scale.
With vibe coding comes vibes-based capital. I'm only half kidding.
Yes, first/fast is sometimes a negative factor (e.g. first to market doesn't mean best, second to market can take advantage of proof of market proviced by first, etc.)
It's usually initial contact + demo or feature talk of sorts. The next step is some small project with customer specific data which is billed. They get a quote and either do it or don't. Scale up, SLA etc. follow after that (basic outline of what's possible is usually given in the initial contact). Alternatively this small project can be some consulting package but it's always billed.
before I read that book and tried to sell some stuff I realized in org's there' more than 1 buyer.
in a typical b2b / gvt deal - you've 4 buyers at least.
The headline is borderline clickbaity. Specifically the word "Ruthless" made me think of something unethical like Delve's business.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47634690
> What would you mean "more like this"?
He means things that actually matter to entrepreneurs. All we've been seeing lately are hype-chasing AI submissions.
> As an aside, I love the website design. Very early 2000s vibe without costing readability (on desktop).
I read it on mobile and, while not optimised for it, it was very easy to zoom into the middle column to read.
I wish more blogs did this: simply setting your content to 38em and doing nothing else makes the content readable on mobile.
>We’re excited. When can you come back and show us a prototype?”
When you've put your hand in your pocket.
I think new founders are sometimes intimidated by customers, especially well-known brands, we don't want to upset or annoy them instead of being open about not being able to afford to run loads of pre-sales technical work. We also see the dollar signs for one large customer when we should be seeing smaller dollar signs for many customers.
For the customers, to be fair, they are partly trying to derisk the purchasing decision by making sure everyone and their dog has seen the demo, shown that it definitely does exactly what they want with their data and processes etc. and they have no skin in the game at this point, so why not?
Believe in the product you have built already and as the OP says, be certain of product market fit and ABC (always be closing).