# VECTOR by Nick Black > The intensive commercialisation program for deep tech startups. Turn your pilots into scalable sales. ## About VECTOR VECTOR is a one-to-one accelerator that embeds experienced operators into deep tech founders' teams to build the go-to-market engine alongside them. We select 5 deep tech companies each year and transform them from "interesting technology" to "must-have product" in 6 months. VECTOR is an intensive 6-month accelerator delivered 1:1, a framework that condenses the best startup advice into one package, embedded sales support from specialists who deliver wins quickly, and a network of experienced deep tech operators and advisors. ### Parent Brand Nick Black (nickblack.us) is a deep tech founder and chief product officer in London. He helps early-stage founders find product-market fit and build scalable, investable products. He created VECTOR. ### Category VECTOR is a one-to-one accelerator for pre-Seed to Seed stage deep tech founders. ### Tagline Go from promising pilots to proven PMF in 6 months. ## Target Audience (ICP) - Deep-tech B2B startups (AI, infrastructure, cybersecurity, robotics, IoT, databases, tools) - Pre-Seed to Seed stage (sometimes early Series A, but often Series A is too late) - >£500k raised, plan to raise, or can pay £56k for 6 months with VECTOR - Have at least one paying customer, a live pilot, or a warm pipeline with >5 qualified opportunities - Not yet repeatable: conversion inconsistent or founder-dependent - Have significant technology that could, with the right strategy, outperform competition ### Burning Pains - "I spend all day on sales calls but nothing closes predictably" - "My investors keep asking about traction but I'm drowning in pilots" - "I know we need sales leadership but don't know how to hire/manage them" - "Every customer wants something different - we're building custom everything" ### Not a Fit - Grant-funded research projects masquerading as startups - Founders who want to "hire someone to do sales" while they stay in the lab - Consumer or PLG plays (we only do complex, high value B2B) - Post-Series A companies (your patterns are already set) - Technology looking for a problem (you need real customer pull first) - Consulting and grant-dependent research projects - Companies selling to SMBs or transactional sales ### Readiness Indicators - Can you name 3-5 live prospects by company name? - Already running demos or pilots - At least one customer has paid real money (not grants) - Some inbound but lack follow-through - Willing to dedicate 1 day/week to structured GTM work - Losing sleep over sales, not technology problems ## Pricing VECTOR offers four tiers, all on a monthly basis: ### £5,500/mo Good for: You have a strong GTM thesis and need operators to execute it and generate results in 3-6 months. Includes: Run Vector, Build Playbook, Sales Execution, Sales Management, Weekly Founder 1:1. ### £7,500/mo Good for: You have a GTM thesis to execute but need strategic growth leadership to guide you through pivots. Includes: Everything in £5,500 + Growth Meeting. ### £9,500/mo Good for: You need executive presence on your sales calls to diagnose why deals stall, demos don't convert, and pipeline underperforms. Includes: Everything in £7,500 + Growth Strategy, Joining Customer Calls. ### £11,500/mo Good for: You need a fractional CRO to step in and represent you at board level. Includes: Everything in £9,500 + Board Prep and Participation. ### What Each Service Means - **Run Vector**: Identify the growth opportunities with the highest potential, focus on them, and generate traction quickly. Weekly growth experiments that lead to rapid learning and growth. - **Build Playbook**: A documented sales playbook that stays with you - ICP, messaging, channels, objection handling, and pricing. When we leave, your sales engine doesn't. - **Sales Execution**: Led by a dedicated founders associate, 2-3 days a week. They execute the experiments identified in the growth meeting - outreach, list building, conference prep, calling, ad design and implementation, and more. - **Sales Management**: Our internal 1:1s, pipeline reviews, and process checks between your founders associate and Nick. We manage the quality of execution so you don't have to. - **Weekly Founder 1:1**: A dedicated weekly session with Nick Black. Strategic accountability, deal-level coaching, and the hard conversations about focus that most advisors avoid. - **Growth Meeting**: A weekly meeting with you, Nick, and your founders associate. Review all open experiments to make sure we're learning and focusing on the highest-impact opportunities. Decide on priority order of initiatives and flag any blockers. - **Growth Strategy**: A weekly strategy session to evaluate market positioning, competitive dynamics, and where to double down for the next phase of growth. - **Joining Customer Calls**: We sit in on your most important prospect and customer calls, then debrief with you afterwards. Real-time coaching on discovery, objection handling, and closing. - **Board Prep & Participation**: We help you build the commercial narrative for your board, prepare investor-ready metrics, and join board meetings to present the go-to-market strategy alongside you. ## Positioning ### Competitive Alternatives What founders use if VECTOR doesn't exist: 1. Advisors and investors - Conflicting advice from people who haven't sold deep tech in a decade 2. DIY sales - Burn 80% of founder time on 20% conversion rates 3. Early sales hire - £120k/year and 12 months to know if you've succeeded or failed 4. Accelerators - Generic advice delivered to 25 companies at once 5. Sales consultants - Templates and tactics without execution ### Unique Attributes 1. Embedded operators, not advisors - We work inside your company 2-3 days/week, attending your sales calls, writing your sequences, building your CRM 2. The VECTOR Framework - 6 years of testing with deep tech startups distilled into a system that works for complex B2B (not SaaS platitudes) 3. Deep tech native - We've sold to enterprises, navigated 12-month POCs, dealt with security reviews. This isn't our first quantum computing startup. 4. Forced focus - We'll give you the confidence to kill 80% of your initiatives in the first 10 days. The 20% remaining will actually move the needle. 5. Learning system - We don't just help you win customers, we show you how to make learning a core part of your process, so your first sales hire can replicate it ### Differentiated Value 1. Compress years into months - What took ARM or Darktrace 5 years, you'll achieve in 6 months with directed force. 2. Real customers - Not pilots, not LOIs, not "interested parties." Revenue-generating, reference-giving customers from whom to expand. 3. A GTM machine that runs without you - Documented playbooks, proven processes, and the confidence to hire and lead commercial talent. 4. Investor confidence - Walk into your Series A with proven repeatability, not just promising technology. ### Key Insights 1. Great technology dies without distribution. ARM needed their partner ecosystem. Darktrace needed GCHQ to open doors. DeepMind needed Google. Your innovation means nothing if no one uses it. 2. Your advisors are confusing you. One says enterprise sales. Another says PLG. A third suggests channel partners. They're all wrong - because they're pattern-matching from their experience, not understanding your specific context. 3. You can't hire your way out of this. That enterprise sales VP you're thinking of hiring? They'll burn your runway building the wrong engine. Only founders can find true PMF - but you need the right system and support. 4. Your real market is 10x smaller than you think. And that's good. The companies who desperately need your solution don't need educating. Find them, ignore everyone else. ## Results - **Crypto Quantique** (IoT Security): Repositioned from crowded industrial PC market to silicon security. Result: Siemens partnership in high growth segment. - **PricingMonkey** (Fintech): Transformed from founder-led into scalable process. Result: hired first product leader and rebooted product strategy. - **ReJoule** (Battery Tech): Navigated complex battery technology commercialisation - iterating across product roadmap, grant funding, and market segments to find the optimal path between 100M-unit automotive dreams and realistic near-term revenue. ## Key Pages - [Home](https://usevector.tech/) - Main landing page with program details and pricing - [Buyer Psychology 101](https://usevector.tech/buyer-psychology) - Reference guide on buyer psychology frameworks - [Articles](https://usevector.tech/articles/) - Original content on deep tech commercialisation ## Contact - Website: https://usevector.tech - Email: info@nickblack.us - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickblack/ - Parent brand: https://nickblack.us