[jliptzin]

Agreed. If your product just works, “sales” is a piece of cake. If it doesn’t and you find yourself hiring a fancy expensive charismatic sales team just to convince people to buy your product then that’s borderline fraud imo.

[xyzzy123]

Perhaps in some segments. BigCo b2b not so much IMHO :/

I've had trouble getting big companies to buy startup product because a) nobody wants to be the first big name and b) they're worried you'll be out of business in 2 years and integration effort will have been for nothing.

Of course these are self-fulfilling prophesies unless you can get the "engine" running.

Also if your product overlaps with features or products of a large vendor who already has a relationship with your customer (this is common) you have to fight the incumbent - and they have home team advantage even if their product sucks.

[megameter]

With every market there's a timing element and a large part of it revolves around exactly those kinds of marketing considerations. The right product at the wrong time won't get traction because they're taking a space already occupied by some incumbent - but offering when there's hype and interest around your category and a lot of first-time customer potential gets you in the door unchallenged, hence why there are distinct "generational waves" of startups that find a growth segment and sink their teeth in it at the right moment.