## The 'Death by Procurement' Trap
When a B2B startup lands a massive $150k software deal with a Fortune 500 company, they throw a party. They shouldn't. They fail to calculate the devastating internal payroll burn required to drag a corporate behemoth through a 9-month sales cycle involving security audits, SOC2 verification, and legal redlining.
### FAQ
**Q: Why do startups run out of money right before closing massive deals?**
A: Working capital starvation. If you have an Account Executive and a Solutions Engineer spending 15% of their total bandwidth over 9 months just dealing with one client's IT department, you are burning tens of thousands of dollars in hidden salary costs. Add in $15,000 in legal fees for contract negotiations, and the actual Cost to Acquire that Customer (CAC) wipes out half of the first year's revenue before the software is even deployed.