Valley Of Death

To a salesperson, the phrase Death Valley usually triggers nightmares about the silence that can follow a final Board or closing presentation. For business plan pitchers, the Valley of Death could well mean something different.

I was reminded of this extremely valid business plan pointer by way of a Harvard Professor, Joseph Lassiter, the other day. He was highlighting the funding gap between invention and launch. It describes the financial “Valley of Death” as;

that precarious stage between researching and developing a product and actually going to market with it.
“You could raise enough money to fund the bench science, but not enough to build a prototype.
The scientific risk of moving from the lab to the product was too great.”

I’ve blogged before about the all-too-often overlooked perils in this space, particularly discarding Preparation for Implementation.

Not just with relevance for business planners, how can signposting this Valley of Death help sell anyone contemplating taking delivery of your latest big project wares?