Iain you’re the best. I love your reactions.

The only thing she didn’t disclose was revenue – did you listen to the whole thing?

I especially love the story about the 4 year sales cycle. I’ve had some real doozies myself and have settled on the idea that for some clients, “selling” is really just about “being there”. All the “assumed close” and high pressure sales tactics fall by the wayside and it’s just about being around and in the front of their mind when they’re finally ready to make a decision.

It also made me think about how many businesses *would* have become successful if they hadn’t have sought VC funding too early. It seems as though if a business founds itself on the basis of enthusiastic vision for growth and gets a tonne of money early on, they’re almost certainly destined for a firesale/acquihire because a lot of the time, it’s going to take 4 years to get your first real customer.

I know that the only time I’ve been involved with a “funded” business that was certainly the case – incredibly long sales cycles, brilliant product and a burn rate that was so unnecessarily high because everyone just assumed that the thing would explode. In the end it only lasted 2 years before the funding got cut off because it was just “never going to work”. I think if we’d had the kind of patience you displayed we could really have made it work out in the end.

What didn’t you get that was so critical?

I thought she opened up a lot.