The Valley’s Best Investors On “Distribution”

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The Valley’s Best Investors On “Distribution”

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I haven’t been around startups or the Valley all that long, but one thing that’s really shocked me is how little attention is paid to more traditional business matters in early-stage companies, what one may refer to as non-technical domains such as sales, marketing, recruiting, business development, and so forth.
Now, more recently, I have seen first-hand, right up close, just how piss poor so many well-funded companies are in this regard.
I can’t put my finger on why this is so pervasive.
Perhaps it’s a lack of respect for these functions.
Perhaps founders want to leave these functions to technical people to learn on their own.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand it, and in some cases, outside of a community manager, many early-stage companies don’t need any non-technical people so long as one of the founders, technical or not, is focusing on customer development, sales, or whatever you’d like to call it.
One key ingredient missing from most startup recipes is a focus on and healthy respect for something elusive: Distribution.
This can come in many forms, if done right — it could be a partnership, a product feature, an operational plan, and so forth.
In today’s age, people aren’t going to miraculously find your product because you have 15 angel investors, figured out how to game the tech press embargo, and show up at startup parties in hipster clothes.
Distribution has to be won over time.
“Growth Hacking” is one subset, but — horrors!
— it’s also straight up customer development, business development, sales, partnerships, and all the things people say aren’t necessary.
Well, don’t take it from me.
What do I know, right?
Here are some investors you’d recognize who have been quoted on the power of distribution, along with the source for the quote

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