Robert Ta

Most enterprise software companies are the walking dead. They just don’t know it yet. That’s a strong claim. Let me show you why I believe it. I’ve spent the last decade working in B2B enterprise software companies Workday, Dayforce, and now my own. What’s your moat as an enterprise software company? That question used to have an easy answer. Multi-year contracts. Data conversions. Compliance baked in. Implementation costs that made switching painful. Your customers stayed because leaving was expensive.

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My aunt was five years old the first time she stood on a street corner in Vietnam, clutching a pack of cigarettes that wasn’t hers. She could barely see over the cart she was leaning against, but she knew her job: Sell enough cigarettes to bring something home for the family. Most children at that age live in a world of imagination. Her world was commerce, hunger, and endurance. She didn’t complain. She didn’t dream of fairness. She understood. She survived. There’s a demon that lives in all of us.