Contrary to conventional GTM strategy, Harvey intentionally targeted the largest law firms first. The rationale was that solving their complex needs and brutal compliance requirements would forge a product robust enough to serve the entire market, creating a powerful competitive moat from day one.
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Harvey's early sales strategy was to find a target lawyer's public court filing, use its AI to find flaws in the arguments, and present the critique directly to them. This hyper-personalized "attack" immediately proved the product's value and grabbed the attention of busy, high-value prospects.
Startups often fail to displace incumbents because they become successful 'point solutions' and get acquired. The harder path to a much larger outcome is to build the entire integrated stack from the start, but initially serve a simpler, down-market customer segment before moving up.
General Catalyst's CEO notes a change in enterprise AI GTM strategy. The old model was finding product-market fit, then repeating sales. The new model involves "forward deployed engineering" to build deep trust with an initial enterprise client, then focusing on expanding the services offered to that single client.
Most SaaS startups begin with SMBs for faster sales cycles. Nexla did the opposite, targeting complex enterprise problems from day one. This forced them to build a deeply capable platform that could later be simplified for smaller customers, rather than trying to scale up an SMB solution.
Harvey is seeing a powerful network effect where enterprise clients demand their outside law firms purchase Harvey to collaborate more effectively. This creates a highly efficient, low-cost customer acquisition channel driven by the end customer.
Harvey's initial product was a tool for individual lawyers. The company found greater value by shifting focus to the productivity of entire legal teams and firms, tackling enterprise-level challenges like workflow orchestration, governance, and secure collaboration, which go far beyond simple model intelligence.
Promote IQ succeeded by targeting large retailers, a market other startups avoided due to its notoriously difficult and long sales cycle. They turned this pain point into a strategic advantage. By mastering the difficult sales process, they created a high barrier to entry that gave them time and space to dominate the category before competitors could catch up.
Jumping to enterprise sales too early is a common founder mistake. Start in the mid-market where accounts have fewer demands. This allows you to perfect the product, build referenceable customers, and learn what's truly needed to win larger, more complex deals later on.
Drawing from Verkada's decision to build its own hardware, the strategy is to intentionally tackle difficult, foundational challenges early on. While this requires more upfront investment and delays initial traction, it creates an immense competitive barrier that latecomers will struggle to overcome.
Harvey intentionally avoids self-serve and focuses on the most complex enterprise legal work first. The strategy is to build a business around problems so difficult they will outlast the next decade of foundational model advancements, preventing commoditization.
