Revenue solves most problems

The current technology sector media narrative suggests Europe is generally weak when compared with the US.

Despite being a UK citizen, I do identify as European, and I would like to see its tech ventures do well.

But, if European tech ventures are to do well, they, and their investors, need ‘to do more, with less’.

Why? 1) The scale of the US market immediately presents North American tech ventures with a huge advantage, and 2) They will raise more equity funding.

We looked at 10 European companies that have recently raised a Series B and compared them with 10 US ventures that had also raised a Series B. The European group raised $332 million, and the US group raised $587 million. That’s a massive difference.

Then, we looked at the other source of capital for scale-up ventures, and that’s selling products and/or services i.e. sales revenue.

Of the ten European ventures, only 4 have an experienced CCO or CRO (or equivalent). The remaining 60% are limiting their chances.

The sales leaders in the US ventures would be so much more experienced, right? No, not in our small random sample. Only three have a highly experienced CCO or CRO.

“Revenue solves most problems” was the mantra of Dr Steve Garnett, best known for building Oracle, and then Salesforce in Europe, before Chairing start-up FairSail, which was acquired by Sage.

Sales revenue and sales growth are the keys to start-up and scale-up software business success. Sales revenue growth provides an organisation with time, confidence, and control. It is a remedy for organisational stress.

Of the 20 companies we investigated, one stood out. It says it quadrupled its customer base in the 7 months since its Series A. Their website is excellent: it’s clear, compelling, credible, easy to navigate, and invites new business. It’s a worthy benchmark: https://sublime.security/ that suggests this organisation really knows what it is doing commercially.

And if you’d like to explore how your organisation’s go-to-market approach could be enhanced at both executive team and board level, do get in touch.

There is high-quality sales leadership in Europe. Often, salaries are lower than in the US, and retention is higher. European technology companies can capitalise on that.