Questions

I am an entrepreneur based in San Francisco who has spent 3 years building a healthcare-related company. I have dropped $150K into the product. I have a few customers but no traction. I feel like giving up, but $150K is a hell of a lot of money to have put in.

I help B2B companies find their most profitable customers. This a tough spot with no cut and dry answers. I would ask the following:

- There's a lot of things I could do, why did I choose to do this? Think of this as a gut-check to gauge whether you want to push through or not.
- Define 'no traction' with customers. What was the reason they originally bought from you? What problem are you solving for them today? You can find this out by calling and asking.
- Can I be cashflow positive just providing them what is of value?

If you're getting positive answers to each of these questions, keep going. Not every products needs, or can have, a hockey stick-like growth chart with customers.

Finally, I would pretend the $150k investment didn't exist and I still had the customers and product I have today. What would I do with the product? The more you invest in something (emotionally and financially) that harder it becomes to abandon it. This is known as the 'sunk cost fallacy.' Stepping away from it can provide much needed prospective.

Feel free to give me a call if you'd like to chat more about your specific situation.


Answered 10 years ago

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