How should a startup (not) sell to other startups?
How should a startup (not) sell to other startups?
One of the harshest but most practical advicefor a startup could be: “Don’t waste your time on startups. They aren’t worth it.”
We need not follow this advice in toto.
But it does help to define some boundaries & have some clear rules of engagement – for a startup seeking to work with other startups.
Some rules to follow:
#1. No highly customised projects. Large companies, forget startups find it difficult to justify a billing that cross a lakh.
#2. A half an hour picking-your-brain session is fine. Anything that requires 5 meetings before a proposal is submitted & ‘considered’ has a 0.01% chance of winning. We must backpaddle furiously if we are in this situation!
#3 Need to consider the SAAS product graveyard? If we are not a VC/’some’ aggregator/design firm doing MVPs/selling 100% through digital channels – we need to have a good reason for targetting unfunded startups. Efforts of selling generally aren’t worth it!