My first enterprise deal

At one of my startups I closed an enterprise ($6B enterprise w/ close to 10k employees) pilot in 2.5 months, without a product, from a cold email. Here is the story:

• The email was a mass blast with a narrow subject line and 2 sentences.

• The first meeting was a deck walkthrough, some discovery and a few stories.

• The prospect then sent us a data set for our ML team to analyze (prove you are experts).

• We had 7 meetings from first call to signature. (virtual).

• The budget varied from six figures, to free.

• The promised platform launch data came and went (that was awkward).

• We signed the pilot on a word doc, skipping all the SOW and MSA headaches.

• Between meetings 4 and 6, we considered bailing out, as we wondered if they had any intent.

• So why did we get the deal?

• We had technical expertise they didn’t.

• One of their technical leads (Phd in Robotics) left.

• The team came under a director who was a believer.

• The teams thesis aligned with the promise of our soon to be launched platform.

• Client had internal pressure to deliver.

This is why Enterprise is a slog.