A test I run on every B2B business I look at

A test I run on every B2B business I look at.

Can you sell your product through three different distribution models? Direct enterprise, channel partner, and product-led or inbound?

If yes, you have a real business. The product creates enough value that multiple go-to-market motions can reach a willing buyer. You have options.

If no, if the product only sells one way, you don't have a business yet. You have a single-threaded distribution dependency dressed up as a company.

The companies that compound across decades pass this test. The ones that don't usually plateau when the founder stops selling personally.

I call it the 3-Channel Test because I've watched it predict ten-year survival better than any product-feature comparison or market size analysis. Distribution diversity is a structural strength. Product superiority is not.

If you only sell one way, you don't sell. You're being bought, conditionally, by a narrow market that happens to find you.