Bittensor and the Struggle for Enterprise Adoption

Article written by: Tim Canavan

Despite the massive technical achievements of the Bittensor network and its subnets, the missing piece is so often the ability of a subnet to bring its product or service to market and drive adoption.

A typical subnet team seems to be mostly tech-focused, with little idea of how to market their product or service. Having the best technology is simply not enough to grow market share.

In this article, I will focus on enterprise sales, which I am intimately familiar with, having worked inside many enterprises as a programmer for over 40 years.

Understanding the Enterprise Sales Process

The enterprise sales process is notoriously arduous. As a subnet owner, one must understand that an enterprise sale is multifaceted, involving many elements including:

1) Technical Acceptance
2) Structure of Licensing Agreements
3) Pricing
4) Legal Constraints
5) Compliance

All of these must be satisfied in order for a deal to be closed. A lot of the time, only item one gets addressed; even if it is approved, one is still fighting an uphill struggle to complete the remaining items.

It is best to engage with the client early about these administrative issues, as they can take months to resolve.

Pilots

A lot of subnets start off with a pilot scheme for a customer. This is, in most cases, a very positive sign, but there are pitfalls that one should be aware of.

The primary risk is the “never-ending pilot,” where the customer keeps asking for new features without making any payments. Doing work for free needs to be for a limited time only. Even if the money paid by the client for extending the pilot is small, it provides the benefit of forcing legal and compliance teams to get involved, thus ironing out any legal or administrative problems early.

Deal Closing and the Human Touch

Despite the virtual nature of our work, the human touch cannot be underestimated. The closing of deals, especially in traditional enterprises, remains a highly face-to-face activity. I see it as an imperative to a subnet’s success to have human deal-closers in their organization.

Partnerships and Sales Velocity

This is the classic symbiotic relationship where a subnet can partner with a traditional company to drive sales. The subnet provides the technology, while the partner company provides the sales infrastructure and corporate access. We have already seen this model in action, with the relationship between Subnet 44 (Score) and PwC being an obvious example.

Conclusion

I am highly optimistic about Bittensor (TAO) and its future. However, if an enterprise subnet lacks the necessary business acumen to navigate the corporate world, the brilliant technology they have developed will ultimately count for nothing.