Jeff Clavier points us to Kleiner Perkins investment criterias for software startups. It is interesting, as Jeff points out, that their criteria essential follow the traditional methods used to sell consumer products, even though the target market is often the Enterprise.

Why? Because small businesses (and agile teams inside large companies) don’t buy like a business; they buy like consumers! Small teams work on a limited budget and short deadlines, just like most of us do in our own personal lives. When a new need emerges, they don’t want to spend a lot of time talking to sales people, they just want to find something that works and get on to the next task.

What a difference that makes; when the enterprise-software model (big sales team, major commissions) actually works against you.

PS This realization is what got me interested in starting SproutIt (hosted business software for small businesses and agile teams) in the first place. I’ve always felt that business products were more full-filling because they solve high-pain problems. Consumer marketing, on the other hand, is way more interesting and fun. The chance to play at the intersection of these two was too good to pass up.