"My partner can take care of it" is the easy, all purpose answer for a small startup.
If they want to dig any deeper, you're probably screwed and don't really have a chance at a sale anyway.
About the same result as with, "I can not tell a lie. I run this business from my basement. I know nothing about business or sales or marketing cause I'm just a nerd and I've never done this before and I'm all you got". What the customer hears is, "I'm so fired if this doesn't work out".
I know because I've been there. First rule of business ---Survival is always job #1 and sometimes it involves some compromise; particularly early on. Those who don't understand this probably shouldn't quit their day job.
If they want to dig any deeper, you're probably screwed and don't really have a chance at a sale anyway.
Once again, is this true across the board? How about questions around data security, authentication, data storage and backups, privacy...those should have solid technical answers, not "my partners and I know what we're doing". I'd run for the hills if I couldn't get a solid answer for any of those things for important enterprise software.
About the same result as with, "I can not tell a lie. I run this business from my basement. I know nothing about business or sales or marketing cause I'm just a nerd and I've never done this before and I'm all you got". What the customer hears is, "I'm so fired if this doesn't work out".
Would you agree there's some middle ground between "I cannot tell a lie" and "I will do anything to make sure the company survives, including lying to customers"?
Would you agree there's some middle ground between "I cannot tell a lie" and "I will do anything to make sure the company survives, including lying to customers"?
Sure. But there isn't much middle ground between success and failure.
Until your small startup is succeeding, you're just a failure in progress. And statistically, failure has the better odds --- probably due to a lot of half hearted attempts aimed at the middle ground.
If the most substantive thing you can say involves fixating on the definitions of “success” and “failure”, then I overestimated how productive of a conversation this would be. Have a good day.
Comments
"My partner can take care of it" is the easy, all purpose answer for a small startup.
If they want to dig any deeper, you're probably screwed and don't really have a chance at a sale anyway.
About the same result as with, "I can not tell a lie. I run this business from my basement. I know nothing about business or sales or marketing cause I'm just a nerd and I've never done this before and I'm all you got". What the customer hears is, "I'm so fired if this doesn't work out".
I know because I've been there. First rule of business ---Survival is always job #1 and sometimes it involves some compromise; particularly early on. Those who don't understand this probably shouldn't quit their day job.
Once again, is this true across the board? How about questions around data security, authentication, data storage and backups, privacy...those should have solid technical answers, not "my partners and I know what we're doing". I'd run for the hills if I couldn't get a solid answer for any of those things for important enterprise software.
Would you agree there's some middle ground between "I cannot tell a lie" and "I will do anything to make sure the company survives, including lying to customers"?
Would you agree there's some middle ground between "I cannot tell a lie" and "I will do anything to make sure the company survives, including lying to customers"?
Sure. But there isn't much middle ground between success and failure.
Until your small startup is succeeding, you're just a failure in progress. And statistically, failure has the better odds --- probably due to a lot of half hearted attempts aimed at the middle ground.
If the most substantive thing you can say involves fixating on the definitions of “success” and “failure”, then I overestimated how productive of a conversation this would be. Have a good day.