“Nothing happens until someone sells something"

 

This quote has a special meaning when applied to Startups.

When startups fail to respect the principle “Nothing happens until someone sells something” they usually fall into one or more predictable traps:

 

1. A product obsession without concrete evidence

Startups often invest too much in creating the "perfect product" instead of seeing if anyone is willing to pay for it.

This way of thinking leads to:

• Long development cycles without real feedback
• "We'll sell after we're done" thoughts
• Excellent solutions to problems that no one cares about. Or aren't interested enough to open their wallets to buy them.

Result: A waste of time and money before truly discovering whether there's a market.

2. Confusing interest with demand

Startups love to hear:

"That's great."

"We'd definitely use that."

"Let me know when it's ready."

But these aren't real sales. When founders don't adhere to this principle, they count enthusiasm, beta signups, clicks, or surveys as traction... instead of revenue, contracts, or invoice collection.

Result: misplaced trust and misleading traction metrics.

3. Ignoring the difficulty of selling and the importance of selling itself

Selling is really hard: positioning, pricing, negotiation, objection handling, and closing.

Many founders with technical backgrounds underestimate it because:

• It feels uncomfortable in sales
• It's easier to build than to be rejected
• They assume that "a great product sells itself."

But of course, this rarely happens.

Result: They delay building a sales force until it's too late.

4. Misaligned Internal Priorities

When startups don't focus on sales:

• Product teams optimize for perfection instead of market fit
• Marketing talks about vision and image instead of focusing on lead generation
• Founders chase investors instead of customers

Result: Company energy shifts toward internal activities instead of external ones. And how external impact generates internal results.

5. Poor Corporate Discipline

Adhering to the principle "Nothing happens until Someone sells Something" requires real discipline:

• Clear value proposition
• Real pricing strategy
• Understanding buyer psychology
• Evidence-based decision-making

Ignoring corporate discipline leads to:

• Vision-driven fantasy rather than executional reality
• Burn rate with no path to revenue
• The classic, dangerous "we'll monetize later" thinking that kills companies

6. Dependence on investors as a substitute for customers

If startups don't prioritize sales, they often rely on fundraising as a lifeline.

This is dangerous because:

• Investors are not customers
• The capital raised could (temporarily) hide a weak or inadequate business model
• Eventually, the market adapts and shifts over time

Result: Founders create a company designed to pitch rather than to acquire (paying) customers.

In conclusion

When startups ignore this principle, they miss the only true validation that matters: a paying customer proves that value exists.

Sales aren't just revenue: they're proof of product-market fit, sustainability, and relevance.

 

Read further HERE

What we do at Creative Thinking Ventures

On our website we write: "Business works with original ideas"

And, as a consequence, this involves the capability to develop sustainable sales and grow with loyal customers.

 

So, what do we do? Good question isn't it? I was talking to a business acquiantance and he asked me:

"OK, is see that your company operates in investments. That you are a holding company. That you keep a portfolio of companies, but you know, I still don't truly see what you guys do ... "

 

At that point I realized that it made sense to write this post on my blog, to be as clear as possible.

Our company, Creative Thinking Ventures, operates as founding investor in Italian startups. We will help to set up the startup, with the correct legal and organizational setting. 
To assemble the team, and develop a prototype, and then help you with the market test. To check if people would be prepared to pay for it.
Subsequently we need to validate the business model.

All this is necessary to make the startup interesting to investors and presentable to the outside world.

To be able to do this we collaborate with other organizations in the Startup Ecosystem.

We are an investment and consulting group of companies. We take care of the growth of high potential startups and innovative SMEs.
Creative Thinking Ventures helps to start up new companies providing initial capital such as pre-seed funding, an advisory service for startups and business development consultancy for SMEs.

Startups and SME's are businesses like any other but need a specific approach. Which requires expertise in the workings of these companies and experience in advising the teams.

Whether you have a startup or an SME, we offer an approach very close to the CEO and his/her team, in order to assess the risk and often the opportunity of turning a risk into benefits.

We are experts in business development, sales and marketing. We will help you to measure what is truly relevant to the success of your business, according to the common sense "what gets measured gets done".

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Link to our website http://www.creativethinking.ventures
#investments #preseed #consulting #mentoring