Bessemer Venture Partners’ Post

Clarity > Hustle in Sales Most startups don’t fail because the founders didn’t hustle enough — they failed because they hustled in the wrong direction. You can’t out-hustle a broken sales system. You can only out-clarify it. The founders who scale from ₹10 L to ₹10 Cr know this truth — clarity compounds, confusion kills. When you’re clear on: --> Who your customer really is (ICP) --> What exact pain you solve (Value) --> Why they should buy from you (Differentiation) --> How your sales motion runs (Process) …you stop chasing leads and start attracting deals. Hustle might get you to the first crore. Clarity gets you to your first 100 customers. If your sales feel stuck despite working harder than ever — it’s not effort you need, it’s clarity. Follow ScaleX Consulting for daily frameworks that turn chaos into a sales engine. #innovation #management #digitalmarketing #technology #creativity #entrepreneurship #startups #sales #management

Most startups don’t really fail because of “no sales.” They fail because their Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) quietly drains them before the growth even starts. Let’s be real, it’s not hard to get customers if you throw money at ads. What’s hard is keeping them long enough to make that money back. If you’re spending ₹5,00,000 a month and getting 1,000 new customers your CAC is ₹500. Now, if that customer never brings back ₹500 (or more), you’re not scaling… you’re just spending. I’ve noticed this pattern most of the founders chase every paid channel before fixing the basics: Product-market fit Retention Word-of-mouth Real community trust Because honestly, no startup ever died from being patient, but plenty have died from trying to grow too fast. So here’s the truth you don’t have to buy customers to grow, You have to earn them. #StartupLife #MarketingThoughts #Entrepreneurship #GrowthMindset #BrandBuilding #SubhanshiPandey #DigitalMarketing #marketing #marketinghacks #startups #business #today #new #news #linkedin

One mistake I see a lot of startup founders make? Planning only for now. Yes, short term goals are important but what about 5-10 years from now? Most founders don’t even give themselves time to ask, “Then what?” When you have a long term roadmap, you already know where you’re going. Your product or service can be amazing today, but eventually users want more, they want something new. Are you ready for that? Put yourself in your customer’s shoes: what will they want next? Knowing your audience is essential. Focusing only on quick wins may bring revenue fast, but it burns out just as fast. Think bigger. Plan for long term growth. Don’t wait, your future self and your business will thank you. #StartupGrowth #Founder #BusinessStrategy #EntrepreneurMindset

When you’re the first seller at a startup, you don’t just sell - you build. You build your pipeline. You build your process. And yes, you even build your tech stack. I still remember that feeling of starting from zero. No RevOps team. No playbooks. Just a blank page and a goal: find a way to make it work. That’s what I love about Founding AEs by Justin Dorfman. We don’t wait for someone to hand us a system. We create it. This week’s issue of The Founding AE newsletter dives into the real tools early sellers are using to make that happen - the lean, scrappy stacks that actually help them sell (not slow them down). If you’ve ever had to build your own sales setup from scratch, I think this one will feel familiar. Link in comments 👇 #startups #sales #entrepreneurship

🚪 When opportunity knocks… open the door. We had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with 😱 Rayn Ong, 🫶 🙌🙌🙌 Carrie Li, CA from MentorAll ,Ellie Wang, Ankisha Mathur and myself Startup Combined — had a meeting we will never forget!! We walked away with insights that hit deep and were so practical. To say there was one 💡moment was an understatement!! Here are just some key takeaways that stuck with us, that we wanted to share 🥰 ✅ Say yes more often — confidence is built through action. ✅ Don’t just learn from your own failures — learn from others, too. ✅ An investor pitch is not the same as a customer pitch — tailor accordingly. ✅ Know your audience’s KPIs — speak to what matters to them. ✅ Find the person who can say yes — they unlock your next level. ✅ It’s all about metrics — what’s the shortest, most efficient path to your first $1M in revenue? ✅ Come prepared — read, listen, absorb everything so your next question builds, not repeats. We are so grateful for the wisdom generously shared. #startups #founderinsights #growthmindset #strategy #pitchperfect #buildinpublic

When I left corporate innovation, I thought I had the startup playbook: Pick a niche. Follow Lean Startup. Raise capital. Get a mentor. Except none of it worked once I tried to build something myself. Founders I coach hit the same wall. The moment you mention “customer discovery” or “validate a hypothesis,” they disconnect. They don’t speak that language. And when they try to follow the Mom Test dogma, they crash—overloaded, stalled, or chasing theory while sales never happen. That’s when it hit me: no cavalry is coming. Corporate methods simply manage risk. Startups de-risk by creating cashflow through sales. And founders grow by crashing, adjusting, and trying again. That’s why I built my practice around achieving problem–solution fit without losing sales momentum, not cookie-cutter tactics. Founders don’t need another framework. They need a mirror, accountability, and sharp tools to turn mistakes into market learning and sales momentum. I crashed my business years ago by learning the hard way: there is no cavalry. No one was coming to hand me sales on a silver platter, no matter how much market research I'd do. What crash taught you more than any framework ever did? #startups #entrepreneurship #sales #founders

If you’re not closing deals fast enough, start here. One tech founder I worked with lost 6 months chasing the wrong leads. It turned out it wasn’t a sales issue. It was a focus issue. Introducing: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗩𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 Three points that either accelerate or stall your sales motion: 📌 𝟭. 𝗜𝗖𝗣 𝗙𝗶𝘁 Do your prospects recognize the problem, feel a sense of urgency, and have a budget? → Miss one, and your deal drags, or dies. 📌 𝟮. 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Are you solving a mission-critical problem for this ICP? → Can they clearly see why you do it better or differently? 📌 𝟯. 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 Are you making it easy to say yes, or overwhelming them with too many options or confusing pricing? _______________ Most sales slowdowns can be traced back to a weak link in this triangle. 👉 Which one is breaking your momentum? #b2bsales #startups #founders #salesstrategy #entrepreneurship

12 Epic Startup Tips That Will Transform Your Business: https://lnkd.in/di34cpQN In this video, I’ll show you 12 epic startup tips that can truly transform your business. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to scale, these tips will help you avoid common mistakes and accelerate your startup's growth. I’ve built 2 startups myself and coached over 50 - and these 12 business tips are the exact ones that helped me 10x revenue, get first customers fast, and avoid costly errors. I wish I had these insights from day one. Best of all, they’re actionable, proven, and you can start using them right away - no matter what industry you’re in. We’ll cover everything from customer acquisition strategies and validating your idea, to marketing funnels, managing burn rate, and hiring tips. Let’s get into it! https://lnkd.in/di34cpQN #designwithvalue

I created a carousel below, explaining the ONE thing that brings unlimited value as a startup founder 💯 🚨Revenues, fundraising, product, roadmaps, and clients are the last thing you should worry about as a startup founder. And yes — all of that matters. But you need this one thing as a startup founder to bring max value to your company But here’s the part that gets overlooked way too often: If you can’t connect… you cap your ceiling before you even start. You can have the best product in the world, the sharpest strategy, the cleanest pitch deck — but if nobody sees you, if nobody knows you, if nobody trusts you… your runway gets shorter. Fast. The most valuable skill I’ve learned as a founder at AlgoPear isn’t just how to build. It’s how to network with intention. Because your network shapes your access. And your access determines how far your vision travels. Over the years, I’ve narrowed it down to 5 keys to becoming an elite networker as a founder — the kind of connector that attracts opportunity instead of chasing it: Lead with value, not an ask. Be genuinely curious. Follow up like it matters. Play the long game. Show up where the energy is. When you master these, doors stop being locked. You stop waiting for permission. Your name starts living in rooms you haven’t even walked into yet. Connectivity isn’t a “soft skill.” It’s the infrastructure that everything else sits on. Revenues grow through relationships. Roadmaps sharpen through conversations. Products scale through trust. I wrote a short blog + built a LinkedIn carousel breaking this down — not as theory, but as something founders can use. If you want to build something that lasts, start here: build your network like your business depends on it. Because it does. #founders #networking #connectivity #startups #growth #entrepreneurship #relationships #leadership #foundermindset

Finding the right co-founder is one of the hardest things in startups — maybe even harder than finding product-market fit. They are a lot like marriages and as someone married a few times, I can tell you I learned a lot about choosing the right (or more often wrong) partner. After building companies for 30 years — I’ve learned that the best co-founders aren’t mirror images. They’re your opposite but equal. Someone who’s different in how they think and what they do — but equally capable of driving hard and producing results like you. If you’re the visionary, they’re the operator. If you live in product, they live in customers. If you run on intuition, they run on process. That tension, when it’s rooted in respect and shared purpose, is where real velocity comes from. When its not, it can really slow the pace of your growth and outcome. But what if you’re a single founder? I’ve been there — several times. The temptation is to find another “you” to fill the emotional and intellectual gap of the journey. But what you really need is experience — people who’ve already built, broken, rebuilt, and exited companies. The bigger the scars the better. That’s why today I often step in as that missing piece. Not as a co-founder, but as a fractional partner, operator — someone who brings the playbooks, the systems, and the scars to help founders skip years of trial and error. Whether it’s aligning on ICP, building the first revenue engine, or turning chaos into clarity, my goal is the same: to help founders realize their vision faster — with fewer mistakes along the way. If you have a strong co-founder/partner -- that's fantastic you have what most including myself struggled to find. If you don't and need someone with the scars to help you avoid some of your own, happy to help. —Danny #Founders #Startups #Leadership #Cofounder #GoToMarket #B2BSaaS #FractionalExecutive #VentureCapital #AI #GTMStrategy #Entrepreneurship