The Goliath Strategy: Appearing Bigger Than You Are
Startups are small, scrappy and often disorganized ventures.1 The goal of a startup should be to solve a big problem by making something people want. This admittedly abstract goal can shift from day to day, and sometimes more frequently.
The truth is that most early stage startups don’t know what they are doing2 , let alone what they are going to do, even if they tell you otherwise.
However, in the land of angst, volatile emotions and unknown, there is a strategy that can help you approach the problem solving terrain. The strategy revolves around appearing bigger than you actually are.
Why would you want to do this? It’s essentially a way to appear professional and migrate surface risk away from either investors or customers, which will make them more likely to work with you.
This means that if you’re two guys in a basement, hacking away, flooded with pizza boxes and burrito wrappers, you can at least make it seem like you’re not.
Here’s how it’s done:
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Have a customer list.
One of my company’s investors taught me the strategy of always having a customer list. And, a customer list doesn’t always need to be a paying customer list. If you are in the early stages of your company and have a usable product, get it in the hands of five to ten organizations you know. Then, use them as references for your paying customers or investors. Be honest about the non-paying relationship, because proof of usability can still sell.
Be a team.
Even if you’re a one (wo)man team, use the word “we” when referring to your startup. If you are two or three people, “we” still seems like a healthy, large group. The rule applies even if you are representing a certain function of a company, like support. Be a team, even if you’re not.
Match email tone.
There isn’t one method to answering emails effectively. My rule of thumb is to match tone. If the sender uses lower case, I match it. If it’s properly cased, I match that as well. There are clearly exceptions here, but to stick to only one writing style can appear condescending. Be flexible.
Use business cards / stationary.
Business cards are cheap. Buy some. I’d avoid printing your own on the “business card paper” you can buy at Staples. The final product is flimsy and cheap.3 For the same price of the special paper you can order cards online. For stationary, simply insert your logo into the header area of your digital documents.
Have a website.
I know this is obvious, but don’t buy a domain name for your startup and leave the GoDaddy landing page hanging there. It looks stale and tacky. At minimum, upload a splash page with a logo and “coming soon” annotation. If you don’t know how to do this, start here.
Use voice mail.
Record a greeting that is normal, quick and professional for your answer machine. This means scrapping your Snoop Dogg voice mail or your George Costanza voice mail. It’s only funny until someone without a sense of humor gets annoyed, which can happen easily. And, neither are original anymore.
Have an office.
Even if you are working out of your parents’ basement, college dorm room, or garage, refer to your working space as an office. If you are having a meeting and want to avoid having it in your grunge palace, suggest meeting at a location that is mutual, like a coffee shop. You can refer to your work space as a professional setting, but only bring people there if it actually is.
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Startups, like any business, should be treated like an art. They require fine tuning of heavy and light strokes, calibrated to both internal and external market forces. The bottom line is that none of these tips are an excuse for not having a product, or a business model for that matter. But, they should help alleviate the perception of your organization, especially in the early stages of your venture.
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Final Note: I hate giving direct advice unless I’m specifically asked to do so. “Do this,” “don’t do this,” and “top ten lists” are not creative. To be honest, it’s a boring and lame way to run a blog. This is why I shifted out of the direct advice game a long time ago, if you can tell by my recent writing. But, these ideas were bothering me, especially with the startups I’ve been assisting, so I decided to make them public.
- I avoided using the word “business” purposely. Often startups are not businesses just yet. [↩]
- Many product companies begin as consulting companies because cash flow is encouraging, even if it’s unrelated [↩]
- I know because I’ve used them. [↩]
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