“I don’t want to be a zombie startup,” my co-founder said.

I’d never heard the term, but I immediately knew what he meant.

You can picture it, I’m sure.

It can walk… but it’s not able to lift its feet beyond a shuffle.

It has some basic human behaviors, but it’s not high-functioning enough to, IDK, spatchcock a chicken or give a TED talk.

It’s not dead… but it certainly isn’t alive and thriving.

This is an untimely and all-too-common fate for startups.

Ruchi Sanghvi put it well: “The most tragic companies aren’t the ones that fail fast. They’re the ones that succeed just enough to trap talented founders for years. Making enough progress to stay alive, but never achieving escape velocity.”

Zombie startups shuffle along with just enough progress, but they never truly thrive.

You can avoid this outcome. It starts with understanding "escape velocity," as Sanghvi puts it.

Escape velocity doesn’t necessarily mean a certain ARR threshold or a big exit (though I'm sure many venture capitalists would disagree).

I prefer to define escape velocity as reliable profitability. You’ve escaped the necessity for additional outside capital (but can take it to fuel growth), and your sales motion is so reliable and sustainable that your business has velocity to keep running.

The amount of profit you aim for is up to you. But reliable profitability is when a startup has absolutely steered clear of zombie status.

And the fastest way to get to reliable profitability? It’s by driving towards repeatable sales, or a repeatable and reliable sales process built around one specific buyer type.

In the early stages, building towards repeatable sales is key to survival.

In fact, before you have product-market fit, selling to a variety of different buyer types, or selling a variety of different use cases, is a bad situation to be in.

This is a very unpleasant founder truth, because making any sales at all can feel like a win. But there is a serious cost to selling to whoever will buy: it makes building a scalable sales motion exponentially more complicated.

I'll explain. Let’s say you just started a popsicle company and you have fifteen paying customers. You sold to anyone who wanted to buy. Reasons why people bought your popsicles include…

• Because they love your unique flavors.
• Because they stock up on popsicles for their children.
• Because popsicles are healthier than ice cream.
• Because they run marathons, and enjoy a refreshing treat after training.
• Because they were sick with a sore throat.

If you try to sell to all buyer types, this means that you will have to manage and iterate on five different sales pitches and five different approaches to messaging and positioning. As you sell to each, you will notice differences in each buyer’s sales cycle that make building your sales process far too complex for your stage, and make staying within your limited marketing budget challenging. You will also receive conflicting product feedback that makes customer retention near-impossible:

• “Make a matcha popsicle!”
• “Lower the calories!”
• “Can you add electrolytes?”
• “MrBeast collab!!!!”

Are you a bit overwhelmed just reading this? If so, success! Because I’m trying to emphasize how taxing and distracting this is to a startup.

The way to reach repeatable sales is to focus on ONE buyer type that loves what you do. It can be scary to commit to one buyer and de-prioritize the rest. But this focus allows you streamline your sales pitch, process, and energy -- and ultimately, get to repeatable sales faster. And that's a lot less spooky than morphing into a zombie, don't you think?

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This is Extra Extra, a newsletter about the tactics and mindsets that drive early sales. I’m Caroline Fay, and I’m an exited social impact founder that’s spent my career launching and selling new products. I help non-traditional tech founders build sustainable, recurring revenue.

Good Work Music: Here’s what I listened to while writing this newsletter.

grow revenue ON YOUR TERMS ​ Early Sales Cohort Program: A new, more cost-effective way for founders to get all the curriculum and coaching needed to reach sustainable, recurring revenue. Book a quick meeting with me to apply, or reply to this email. 1:1 Sales Consulting: If you’re looking for individual support to grow or refine your startup’s sales process. Executive Coaching for Founders: Coaching and advising on all elements of founder life.

Caroline Fay

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