Entrepreneurs: Enterprise the Way to Go
by Miki Saxon
If you are planning a startup with advertising as the main path to monetization you may want to think again.
This article recommends partnering with major brands as a way around the problem, but what it doesn’t mention is that the startups it cites are not B2C; they are B2B, i.e., enterprise startups.
According to Jim Goetz, partner at Sequoia Capital, entrepreneurs are ignoring the potential $500 billion enterprise market in their effort to be the next Facebook, Zynga or Rovio.
“It’s shocking we don’t see more engineers and entrepreneurs interested in enterprise. (…) In the last 10 years, there have been 56 IPOs in the enterprise space that have gotten north of a billion [dollars in market capitalization] and just 23 in consumer.”
Some say that young entrepreneurs don’t have the business experience to solve business problems, but that isn’t necessarily true; no more so than assuming someone with business experience can.
What’s needed is the talent to see what’s missing, but is rarely thought of that way.
Most of us move though our professional and personal life accepting what’s there, but sometimes we think…
- It would be better if…
- Why can’t I/we/they…
- I wish there was a product/service/way that…
Acting on thoughts like these is what differentiates entrepreneurs from the rest of us.
SUBMIT YOUR STORY
Be the Thursday feature – Entrepreneurs: [your company name]
Share the story of your startup today.
Send it along with your contact information and I’ll be in touch.
Questions? Email or call me at 360.335.8054 Pacific time.
stock.xchng image credit: spekulator
November 26th, 2012 at 1:16 am
[…] if you do have that entrepreneurial bent why not focus it on industrial or enterprise efforts, instead of yet another consumer […]
May 3rd, 2013 at 1:17 am
[…] cited Goetz’s comment in a post last fall chiding entrepreneurs for trying to be the next Facebook instead of solving enterprise […]
March 27th, 2014 at 1:15 am
[…] one hand you have Jim Goetz, partner at Sequoia Capital, lamenting the lack of enterprise startups and on the other you have Sequoia’s Michael Moritz, […]