Eight
We launched JJELLYFISH eight years ago.
Many have asked, "Is this some outsourced sales model?" In short, NO.
We fundamentally do not believe anything can be delegated pre-product/market fit — delegating something unproven is game over.
Here is some clarity around our obsession with embedding and supporting founder-led sales.
The JJELLYFISH Model is Predicated on Three Core Beliefs:
A startup's Day 1 market vision is (almost) never the same vision that takes it to product/market fit — iterations, speed to learning, and more 'at-bats' (opportunities to test ideas with potential customers) are critical.
Only a founder can see something forming in the market that they weren't in search of on Day 1 — 0-1 sales is visionary-led.
Only one role is incentivized to turn over every stone and figure it out amongst all the noise and rejection: the founder — salespeople are incentivized to sell, and the rockstar you want to hire wants to see you've figured it out, too.
That said, founders require a fast and structured way to test their vision in the market and continually get in front of potential customers.
The missing link to achieve this is the commercial engine to run experiments, execution, and analysis.
It's not more strategy, office hours, friendly referrals, or channel partnerships—it's more reps and 1:1 conversations to test vision (at-bats) with the market.
It means sales for research BEFORE sales for revenue. The founder must learn directly from those they're building for. It means being open to being wrong and flawed early on. It means accepting rejection and leveraging it to be redirected quickly.
This is how founders put themselves in the best position to "find the vein" on the road to product/market fit. They're the only ones who can inspire others with that spark of enthusiasm. They're the ones who can commit to the social contract an early adopter requires of a startup.
Unlocking the first $1M is indeed akin to (almost) a religion. You must convince people to trust you upfront through a novel point of view/vision and little evidence.
The founder's job is to be the tip of the spear. Turning non-consumers into consumers without brand equity, case studies/references, and proof — it's something only a visionary can do. Trust is built by direct access to you and the ability to understand their problem 5% better than they do (i.e., subject matter expert).
However, a massive gap exists in understanding the sales/market activities needed to achieve this.
Many founders don't consider the grave importance of the time commitment and the number of experiments they need to run to find the market pulse.
They often underestimate the math equation behind sales activities that need to be achieved to unlock the next funding stage and the speed at which they can decide what to ignore/explore/exploit.
While they understand the importance of talking to customers (this is a truism), they often lack the sales experience to understand the required go-to-market experiments, iterations, and sales activity to unlock the first ten customers.
Many founders are shocked when we reverse-engineer the math and path and what we must accomplish on a daily/weekly/monthly activity level in the next 12-18 months.
This gets lost amidst the meandering and fits and starts across product iterations, distractions from adding more features, hopes that conferences do the hard work to generate customers, and marketing initiatives that fail to spark relevant conversations in the market.
There is no shortage of things to do or be distracted or disillusioned by.
Sales activities often slip, partly because they sit squarely outside the founder's comfort or fun zone, filled with numerous tedious tasks. There's a false perception that the product accounts for 80% of sales efforts. It's easy to procrastinate in this area and avoid harsh feedback, but that's a fatal mistake.
This is how and why we designed JJELLYFISH to be the embedded execution engine behind the visionary. We're the "behind the scenes" machine that drives:
1:1 outbound generated conversations - picking who to learn from is critical
Capturing sales-based evidence from 1:1 target buyers
Iteration and refinement of the value proposition and pitch
Project management and attentiveness to advance the buying process
Design and analysis of the go-to-market experiments that advance/unlock revenue
JJELLYFISH is not a magic wand; our secret sauce is in our process and the number of reps over the past eight years (~400 reps), but most importantly, it's the accountability we bring to ourselves in achieving this work.
There is no hiding in our work, and there is no miracle we can perform either.
Revenue cannot be pulled out of thin air; it's a byproduct of running successful experiments driven by structured activity.
Some of the most successful startups we've ever supported spent 90 days filled with invalidation. But their commitment to process, crossing things off the list, and openness to be proven wrong to sort what's right — worked!
We have never been more excited about founders finally realizing the importance of founder-led sales or more energized to take the support lead for the next eight years!
