There is a phrase you’ll hear on repeat the moment you become a parent: “They’ll do it in their own time.” It’s meant to be a comfort, a verbal pat on the back for the anxious. But as any founder or parent knows, there is a massive gulf between intellectually knowing that everyone has their own pace and emotionally sitting in the waiting room while the clock ticks.

We learned this the hard way with our two kids. Our eldest daughter was a force of nature—she was full-on running at 11 months old. We barely had time to child-proof the coffee table before she was doing laps around it.

Then came our son.

He took his own sweet time. 12 months passed. Then 14. Then 16. It took 17 months before he finally decided to take his first unassisted step.

Now, as a parent, you know the milestones. You know the "normal" range is wide. But unless you are a superhumanly laid-back person, it is incredibly hard to stay "chill" when you’re at the park watching kids six months younger than yours sprinting across the grass. You start doing the mental gymnastics of comparison, wondering if you missed a step or if there's something you should be "fixing."

But here’s the kicker: now, at 18 months, he is a devil on wheels. He’s on this quad balance bike with razor-sharp obstacle avoidance—a necessary skill in our house given the dog has a habit of plonking himself right in the middle of the main passage. He didn’t just learn to walk; he skipped the "toddle" phase and went straight to high-speed maneuvers.

The Month 17 Milestone in Business

I see the exact same pattern in the venture world.

We live in a culture of "high-velocity growth." We see the "daughter" companies—the ones that hit product-market fit in six months, raise a Series A by month 11, and seem to be sprinting before they can even crawl.

And then there’s your venture. You’re at month 17. You’re still "crawling." You’re testing, you’re iterating, and you’re watching competitors (some younger than you) announce big milestones.

The temptation is to panic. You start wondering if the model is broken.

But just as with kids, you have to look at the thresholds, not just the clock.

  • With a child, if they hit a certain age without progress, you call a doctor to check the fundamentals.

  • With a business, your "doctor" is your data.

Benchmarks vs. Deadlines

Is your timeline actually "late," or is it just a function of your specific sales process? Are you in a deep-tech market where the "walking" phase naturally takes longer?

Unlike parenting, business does have hard deadlines—capital runways aren't infinite. But those deadlines are rarely set in stone by the universe; they are a function of:

  1. Market Benchmarks: Are similar businesses in your vertical taking 18 months to close their first enterprise deal?

  2. The Sales Cycle: Do you truly understand the "friction" in your customer's journey?

  3. Risk Appetite: How much "crawling" are you and your investors willing to fund to get to the "running" phase?

The reality is that some ventures are just late walkers. They spend those extra months building a stronger foundation, understanding the obstacles (like the "dog in the passage"), and refining their balance.

And when they finally do take that first step? They don't just walk. They go straight to a sprint.

So, if you’re at your equivalent of "Month 17" and the fundamentals look solid—hang in there. The "devil on wheels" phase might be just around the corner.

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