
Why 'The Enterprise' might be hard for your startup to break into. - bdunbar
Because we expect a lot of hand-holding.<p>You deliver a product.  It works, but wait: there is a problem.  Back to the vendor: we need to know how config X.<p>Now, it is not that I'm not capable of reading up on how to, say, edit $APP_ENGINE to be secure.  I have a development environment, I can play around with this setting or that.  I _can_.<p>I don't have _time_ for that.<p>I've got my normal workload, I've got projects, I've got a stable of applications to configure, babysit, fret over.  If I had to spend my time re-discovering how to make each and every one of those applications work, that is all I would be doing.<p>No.  What I need from my vendor is a cook book approach: if you have Solaris, do this.  Redhat, do that.  Windows, the other thing.  I need guidance, so I can hand the book to a junior SA and say 'follow these directions'.<p>If you, the vendor, can't provide at least that level of hand-holding ... it's going to be a rocky relationship.
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codegeek
"You deliver a product"

Thats 90% of battle won. Problem is most "startups" don't even get to that
point. The reasons are not as simple as just "I dont have time". Enterprise
contracts are usually for many years and vendors have a very strong hold on
enterprise clients. I support a multi million dollar vendor system at my
employer and I can tell you even though most of the client "users" hate it, no
one can even think about getting rid of it.

~~~
notahacker
Besides which, if you've delivered a product to an enterprise then implicitly
or explicitly they're paying for the support, in advance, possibly with agreed
rates for "additional work", in their license agreement.

And although you can usually afford to lose them, small businesses can be
demanding too.

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orangethirty
People don't realize that part of building a product is documenting how to use
it and building a support system for it. Enterprise demands documentation and
support for everything. But people tend to think that their app is _self-
documenting_. Nope. Never w has been. Never will be. You need to include
support and documentation as part of the product and develop it alongside. You
also need to price it accordingly.

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factorialboy
First hand experience selling Review19 - <http://www.review19.com> \- to the
enterprise: It is extremely hard.

Always nice to have the right contacts and have favors waiting to be cashed
in.

~~~
bdunbar
One thing that soured us on startups was actually dealing with a startup.

Or rather, not dealing with them: they folded two years after we acquired the
application. Leaving us with a very important tool written in a language
nobody at our company knew.

This closed the door on future opportunity. "Nice product, will they be around
in two years? Remember XYZ ..."

