Founder-led growth is - and should be! - a critical part of enterprise development strategy. But, to unlock the true potential most enterprises and their investors are after, acquiring top level talent is an absolute must.
And yet, in our research, which you can read more about here in the Play Bigger Founder’s Workbook, eighty percent (80%) of enterprises struggle with scaling their enterprise. We heard from these founders that energizing conversations with top recruits seemed to always end with “This sounds amazing, but the timing just isn’t right.”
If that sounds a lot like what we talked about in our post on missing customer urgency, it’s not a coincidence. Talent, unable to visualize the true opportunity of an early-stage position, are experiencing a very similar symptom of Market Myopia as the customers in a pipeline filled with excitement, but with deals that never seem to close.
What’s happening here?
Choosing to work at an early stage start-up makes no sense. Usually there’s more security, higher salaries and lower stress to be had by working at an entrenched company. The reason we choose to work at a startup has little to do with the standard workplace data points, and much more to do with vision and belief.
How far do you think this will go? How much do you believe in what it is doing? How clear is the vision?
If the answer to that last question is anything but “crystal clear,” the draw of an early-stage enterprise among top-tier talent is greatly diminished. Without giving recruits something clear, and potentially world-changing to believe in, you don’t have a chance competing against more established employers.
The most successful enterprises not only articulate their market potential, but also have a clear means of thinking about how it may be achieved. They give prospects and customers the words and mental scaffolding to see their version of the future. This isn’t business as usual, and their POV makes that abundantly clear.
The truth is, in order to truly scale to a business's potential in the VC-backed space, it must attract customers.
If you need help attracting the right customers, let's talk!
