From infrastructure product to institutional buyer.

The brief

A fictional software business has built a dashboard for reconciling collateral and exposure across digital-asset venues and custodians. It has a functioning prototype but no established institutional sales process. The founder wants to know where to focus business development before investing in a larger commercial team.

Working objective: determine whether one repeatable customer problem can support paid pilots and a viable implementation model. The initial offer is an operating-information product; any legal, accounting or regulatory representation would require separate review.

1 / Choose a buyer, not a broad market

The first hypothesis is that teams reconciling multiple accounts face a more urgent problem than firms with a single venue and a simple operating model. Discovery must test that hypothesis. The following is a target map, not a claim about observed demand.

Initial focus: pursue one direct-buyer segment while exploring a small number of partner conversations. Do not assume that a partner will supply customers simply because the products are complementary.

2 / Turn capabilities into a testable proposition

Draft positioning: “Bring collateral and exposure records into one reviewable operating view, with traceable source data and an exceptions queue.”

This statement describes an intended use. Before making a performance claim, the team needs evidence of supported integrations, reconciliation accuracy, data freshness, exception handling and implementation effort. A claim such as “eliminates risk” or “guarantees compliance” would exceed that evidence.

The first commercial material would include a short problem statement, a concrete workflow diagram, a sample output, a list of supported data sources and the limits of coverage. A technical demo would follow the buyer’s workflow rather than enumerate every feature.

3 / Use discovery to qualify the opportunity

1. Which decision or recurring task depends on the records today?
2. What do staff reconcile manually, how often, and with what escalation path?
3. Who owns the problem, budget, implementation and approval?
4. Which data, security and contractual requirements could prevent adoption?
5. What would a useful pilot demonstrate that the current process cannot?
6. What evidence would justify paying for the next stage?

The account record should distinguish confirmed answers from assumptions. A positive demo response is not a budget commitment. An account without a responsible sponsor or feasible data access remains exploratory.

4 / Define a pilot that can produce a commercial decision

A proposed pilot would cover a bounded set of accounts, a specified historical period and agreed outputs. The buyer and vendor would name the implementation owner, permitted data access, support responsibilities, success criteria and decision date.

Example criteria include source-to-output traceability, agreed reconciliation accuracy, explainable exceptions and an acceptable amount of staff intervention. Numerical thresholds would be agreed from the buyer’s requirements and a baseline measurement, not invented in advance.

Pricing would be developed from the scope, customer value, implementation cost and ongoing support burden. The plan does not assume a fee, discount, conversion rate or sales cycle. Those become evidence to collect.

5 / Test distribution partners on responsibilities

A potential custodian or infrastructure partner should be assessed for customer overlap, integration feasibility, commercial incentives and control of the client relationship. The discussion must establish who contracts, bills, supports, approves claims and handles incidents.

Before making an introduction or agreeing compensation, review the actual activities and proposed terms for applicable obligations and conflicts. A partnership label does not resolve those questions. Exclusivity should have a concrete commercial rationale and defined scope.

6 / Sequence the work and set decision gates

Deliverable: a segment and account-priority map, tested proposition, discovery record, partner assessment, pilot specification and next-action plan. Actual timing depends on the agreed scope and access to customers and evidence.