This is the story of the founder of ACME 23, a climate tech company, who burned 60% of his seed round…
…by not telling investors that only two customers had rolled out after 18 months and dozens of promising pilots.
He didn’t explicitly address the topic in his investor meetings. He hoped things would turn around by shipping more features and acquiring more logos.
They didn’t. And by the time they brought me in, the runway was critically low—less than 6 months.
I ran the numbers through Pipo, and the pattern became painfully clear. What we saw wasn’t just minor churn or pipeline hiccups.
A single recurring theme stalled every deal: There was no integration to the customers’ core systems—especially ERP.
Without ERP integration, customers couldn’t scale the product across their organizations. 90% of the lifetime value sat behind that blocker.
But the ERP feedback wasn’t new. The founder had heard it before—multiple times. He assumed ERP vendors would respond once demand was proven.
Wrong move.
Enterprise vendors are slow by design. They don’t chase roadmaps. They wait. They observe.
ERP vendors: “Come back when you have paying customers.”
Customers: “Come back when you’ve integrated with our ERP.”
So we did what should’ve been done a year earlier:
- Brought investors onto customer calls.
- Customers said: “The product is solid, but we can’t greenlight rollout unless it integrates with our ERP.”
- Connected founder and investors with others who had solved the same problem.
To their credit, investors listened. They backed the shift:
- Injected more capital.
- Repositioned the company as a platform play.
- Bundled integration needs across clients and partners.
- Made the ERP vendors take them seriously.
When multiple enterprise buyers say the same thing, ERP vendors listen.
This wasn’t just a pivot in the roadmap—it was a pivot in posture.
If you want enterprise scale:
- ✅ Don’t confuse “pilot success” with traction — especially if deals stall in the same spot.
- ✅ Identify what’s actually blocking rollout before your best pilot becomes your last.
- ✅ Say the hard thing before investors ask why 18 months delivered nothing.
If you’re still betting that one more feature will turn the tide… your rollout plan might already be broken.
We can fix that — before it costs you your runway.