Why aren’t we better at working together?

In Zero to One, Peter Thiel talks about having a secret - a truth that’s important to the world that no one realizes yet. And if I misquoted that, I’m not the first founder to misquote Peter Thiel.

These secrets hide in plain sight. They are truths the industry disagrees with. I believe Sangria has one of those secrets… buyers and sellers can only succeed when they are fully on the same side. That secret is in our DNA, but it’s not our catalyst. Our catalyst is a question: why are we so f-ing bad at this?

Here’s the context: software is insanely valuable. Take Sangria. We developed Sangria’s MVP over the course of about 8 months, and it cost us ~$150k to build. Less than 6 months later, it is used by more than 600 buyers and sellers and increases value realization rates for buyers by over 80%. Think about that for a second. Our MVP, built on a shoestring budget, delivers outlandish ROI. That’s not because we’re special (not to say we aren’t proud as hell), it’s really just the reality of SaaS. There has never been a higher ROI industry.

How are we doing in sharing this unprecedented bounty? You read the intro… it’s not good. 87% of software projects fail with an industry cost of $260B/yr. 2/3rds of sellers missed quota last year while 3/4ths of buyers said their last purchase was “extremely painful.” As we say in Minnesota… oofda.

So… why are we so bad at this?

There’s a fundamental flaw in the way we work together, and it’s that we don’t work together. Let’s say you join the Iditarod. What % of your sled dogs would you have pulling in the same direction if you wanted to go farther, faster? Exactly, all of them. Half a decade ago, the average purchase had 3 stakeholders. Today, there are 14. Sales teams continually expand to match. Deals get more and more complex. More steps. Longer cycles. Same results. Why? You don’t go faster when you have 28 dogs running in opposite directions than you do when two are (I assume. I’m not going anywhere near the Iditarod).

Tug of war is exhausting… and a really bad form of transportation. We can throw as many resources as we want at buying and selling, but we’re only burning calories if we aren’t aligned and running together.

Call it a secret. Call it a truth. Call it common sense. It’s the only way forward, and we’re only amplifying the pain felt by our industry the longer we deny it.

Abundance is meant to be shared. Technology is meant to bring people together. Until we come together around the fundamental truths of how we need to work together, we can’t move forward.

Sangria is built around the values that make software valuable in the first place… transparency, neutrality, and collaboration. We’re sharing our secret, but we’re keeping our convictions.