A Tale From The Valley Of Death
By: Steven Schroeyens
Tags: Technology News, Valley Of Death, Entrepreneurship, Growth Strategy, Startup

A Tale From The Valley Of Death

What started 5 years ago as a journey towards Silicon Valley, stranded on the slopes of the valley of death. Steven Schroeyens Jan 14, 2020·6 min read

The Valley of Death. For many the toughest point in their business development curve

Early summer. 2017. We had just closed our first major deal. Contract signed, sealed, delivered. We were so excited, ready to pop some premium brand champagne. It was just as we had pictured in our business plan: a leading DIY retailer in the Benelux was going to use our platform on a large scale for the very first time. So, naturally, we felt on top of the world. Especially when you’re also getting great press coverage at the same time.

CDO & Co-founder — Biren Van Herck — at the Global DIY Summit in Berlin in 2017

Check out the full video of Biren’s key note in Berlin on You Tube.

But. As the saying goes, lightning makes no sound when it strikes. The announcement came that their supply chain team was going to be reorganized. Shit. Two of the people going were our main ambassadors. Double shit. The project stranded. Lost was the time we had spent on the deal, lost were the targets in our business plan. Panic crept in as we realized that we were going to burn through a bigger wad of cash than we had originally anticipated. Bye bye celebratory Cristal and temporarily inflated egos. Hello unhealthy stress level. Yet, we kept calm (sort of) and carried on. We kept the positive vibes going, and moved on to the next white whale. Not because we’re masochists but because the road to success is bound to be paved with adversity. This was a lesson in dusting yourself off and getting up again. Our persistence payed off. We caught ourselves one hell of a whale: the 4th largest DIY retailer in the world.

“The platform is easy to use and appears to be an extremely effective solution.” — quote from a happy user / retail transformation manager

In 2018, we had real users live on the platform for the first time. Their feedback? They were loving it. Not just liking, but loving it the way kids love candy. The success was a confirmation by real users that many of the assumptions we had made during the development process were bang on. There’s nothing quite like watching all those hours of theorizing and experimentation lead to an actual, innovative product.

CEO & Co-founder — Steven Schroeyens — at the GS1 Summit in Brussels in 2018

As a result of these successes, we decided to go all in with our whale. A significant amount of resources in the company were assigned to it. After all, preparing for such a large scale rollout takes time and money. We increased our R&D capacity and focused our product roadmap on features we knew they wanted. We hired and trained a great Customer Success team, designed processes and built an amazing knowledge base. Our entire focus was geared towards the project launch, which was planned for February 2019.

During this period, all other leads were put on the back burner, as closing too many new deals would mean not being able to keep all those balls in the air successfully. And a failed project would have generated a huge negative backlash. It was the right logic at the time. Or so it seemed, looking through our tunnel vision goggles. But hindsight is 20/20 for a reason.

By the end of 2018, our whale’s CEO, came under great scrutiny and huge pressure from investors. They urged her to adjust her strategy and priorities for the year to come, which, reluctantly, she did. These changes didn’t just reflect badly on her (spoiler alert: she got fired) but also on the timing of our project, which got postponed for a number of quarters. Even though we were lauded by them for a job well done, we ended up empty handed, with the frightening prospect of another year without a significant amount of live users and without any significant recurring revenue. Really, universe, again?

One thing is certain. We will never forget the exact moment in time they pronounced words no one in sales ever wants to hear. ‘Priorities’. ‘Delay’. ‘New timing’. The horror. It was like being in a Hitchcock film against our will, with those dreadful words flying towards us while both of us are fleeing through cornfields. We will never forget the weeks and months that followed either. The countless hours of reflection, talks with the team, the Board and our investors. The emotions, the adrenaline, the excitement and the doubt. It all came and went, as we passed through the different stages of mourning the loss of our whale.

We needed to get back out there and generate more users and revenue. We needed to become agile again and create opportunities to fail fast, showing the world our belief in our purpose, our product, and its potential. So that’s what we did. In only eight months’ time, we built up a sales pipeline with dozens of ongoing deals with great companies.

“Pro Alliance provided great new insights on back door store workload variability, identifying huge potential savings in our stores.” — quote from a happy customer / supply chain director

But time was catching up on us, fast. The average sales cycle was still going to be more than 12 months. That was a problem, as a revised budget meant a shorter runway, one that didn’t allow for such lengthy sales cycles. Despite the continuing believe from shareholders and investors in our product and its potential, time finally caught up with us. We were unable to extend our financing… and there it was, GAME OVER.

Where it all started: Biren, pitching at the Belgian incubator Start-It in 2016

We can proudly look back at 4 amazing years, with great gratitude for the chance to work with so many talented people. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the various successes of Pro Alliance. But also, surprisingly perhaps, thank you universe for all the curveballs, body slams and valuable lessons learned.

For us, the story of Pro Alliance is over, but the blood of entrepreneurship still runs through our veins. The excitement of developing a business, acquiring millions of Euros in funding, setting up and running a growth engine. It’s just too addictive. We did it before (exit x10) and will do it again. Spending our time doing what we love, doing what we do best.

Check out our product video on You Tube.

We hope our story inspires you to chase your own dreams. We know, it’s a though one. Sometimes it’s a lonely one. But never forget: it will always be worth it. And you’re not really alone. All of us entrepeneurs are in it together. So, feel free to reach out and talk to us. We would love to share our stories with you, and listen to yours!

Biren and Steven getting ready for their pitch at Tech Festival, London in 2019

Yours truly,

Biren & Steven

biren@luxbross.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenschroeyens/

steven@luxbross.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/birenvanherck/