Possible to do B2B startup without accelerator or VC?

First, SEO and Ads (no matter how much ppl hate them) work, even in B2B. Yes, it is lot harder nowadays to compete but it is still possible.

Second, you don't need an accelerator for network advantages. You need to learn how to sell. You can do B2B without YC. Plenty of B2B SAAS companies doing it. YC is great if you can do it but don't depend on them for customers and leads.

AI, I have no idea except that it is very hyped right now. So I can't comment much on it unfortunately.

Source: I run a bootstrapped B2B SAAS doing low 7 figures in ARR. Most of our revenue is generated inbound through organic SEO and very little with PPC/Ads (looking to invest more in it as we now have better PMF)

Yes, I worked with one that was doing millions in ARR

Also, a post a few minutes before yours is a bootstrapped B2B company, Zulip an open core Slack alternative

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38659529

> Can you share strategies for AI (read: building and tuning models) startup to sell to B2B space?

This space is in hyper-hype mode right now. There are 100s if not 1000s of companies trying to do the same thing you are right now. Open source dominates the space outside of the big players like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. It's going to be really hard to differentiate, and no one knows where they will find applications with an ROI

Ads/SEO in B2B are after PMF unless your core audience are devs and its needs bottom-up adoption/awareness - or if its O/S (i.e. Elastic).

> How to gain traction without talking to enough users

You either code or talk to customers (interview/define problem/pitch/close) in early stage. If you do outbound mails 70% of your message should be about them/their problem. Go to meetups, go to industry events etc.

Setup an advisory board w/o giving away equity. Folks w industry expertise and the network.

my2cts. have fun. learn. fail.

repeat.

The best strategy I have seen is to clone a cloud product and offer an on prem/private cloud version.

The market is already established plus you don’t need to demonstrate value. The only thing you need to do is make it compatible with corporate IT policy

Zulip, mattermost, outline wiki all follow this pattern

SEO works for sure in the B2B space. You can create a landing page where you compare two brands brand1 vs brand2. Within this page, you will need to explain to users why your product is better than product2/brand2.

SEO and ads are useless. It's all relationship based. VC is just one example of how to build relationships. Ideally it's based on your network, and if you have no network in the area that you're building, question why you are building in that area.

That said, there are often startup incubator type organizations that will have companies approach them looking for innovative startups. Usually on very bad terms though.

Better, do some networking and find companies that have people who scout startups with new technologies, they exist.

If you're talking about building AI models for companies, that's consulting, it's not a product, and it will require even deeper relationships as you will have to explain to the company why they would want to do it in the first place and have them listen. (I have done this, it's entirely relationship based)

https://sales.co

no connection