Acme Technologies
·47 voices · Nov 2–8, 2025
You’re crossing from founder-led momentum to a repeatable motion. The gaps are GTM focus, activation, and trust signals.
71% of friction points → unclear ICP, slow time‑to‑value, or missing security controls
Nothing closes unless a founder joins the last call. When it’s just us, deals stall or go dark.
Every enterprise wants a slightly different version of our product. We discount, we bend, and we regret it later.
Customers don’t feel value until week four. By then, the excitement is gone and churn risk is high.
Specs change mid‑sprint. We ship fast and then re‑ship. It’s exhausting and it’s why work feels wasted.
We argue about the number more than the decision. Three dashboards, three truths. I just want one language.
Security questionnaires turn 30‑day deals into 120‑day marathons. We’re ‘almost SOC 2’ every quarter.
We hired a CRO, but we still don’t have a crisp ICP. The org is tired of new processes every 90 days.
Billing is manual. Invoices go out wrong and finance becomes the face of our mistakes.
Sales sells what we don’t have, Solutions says yes, CS pays the tax, and Product gets beat up.
Win rate concentrated in founder-attended deals; ICP not enforced in pipeline.
Activation → first value > 14 days; weak instrumentation and playbooks.
SOC 2 not complete; missing SSO/audit logs; questionnaires slow procurement.
Inconsistent tiers, ad‑hoc discounting, and custom enterprise asks create margin drag.
Requirements change mid‑sprint; acceptance criteria unclear; rework common.
No single source of truth; metric definitions change; teams debate numbers.
Firefighting incidents and flaky tests slow delivery; observability gaps.
Manual rev rec and invoicing errors extend ‘days to close’ and hurt trust.
Codify ICP, exit criteria for deal stages, and founder‑escalation rules; run weekly deal review against them.
Publish approved tiers, discount bands, and non‑negotiables; route exceptions to a fast approval path.
Finish SOC 2, ship SSO and audit logs, and centralize questionnaire responses in a shared library.
Define the ‘first value’ event, measure TTFV, and ship a guided setup + CS playbooks.
One PRD template with explicit acceptance criteria, edge cases, and a no mid‑sprint change policy.
Signal: Questionnaires and missing controls surfaced in 17 mentions
Recommendation: Complete SOC 2; ship SSO + audit logs; create a reusable answer library and owner.
Signal: Ad‑hoc discounting and custom asks cited 14 times
Recommendation: Publish packaging guardrails and approvals; analyze win/loss on discount impact.
Signal: Time‑to‑first‑value > 14 days in multiple accounts
Recommendation: Instrument TTFV, create onboarding playbooks, and track weekly.
Signal: Win rate drops sharply without founder on calls
Recommendation: Codify proof stories, discovery, and escalation; enablement before headcount.
We’re choosing focus. We’ll stop selling everything to everyone. We’ll define who we win with—and commit to it.
Security will stop blocking deals. Here’s our timeline for SOC 2, SSO, and audit logs—and who owns each.
No more mid‑sprint changes without explicit trade‑offs. PRDs get specific, and ‘first value’ gets measured.