Learning No. 13: Drawing the line

This takes on from an earlier post on how time becomes crucial when starting up. You have 24 hours on your hands.

Meeting new people (and marketing there) is probably the most critical part of a startup. Potential customers, investors, advisors, accountant and in general people who can help. One great place for doing so are conferences. The dilemma comes in when the conference ends and you come back home with a stack of cards to follow up with (50 - 100 if you are a networking person). So what do you do then? You see the loads of work that tomorrow shall bring and the backlog that is definitely there because you went to this conference. You met some nice people, some big hot shots, a few customers who were really interested in what you are doing, some media guys who could give you coverage and some people you just want to forget.

The hardest to write mails to are the customers because you shall have to customize your offerings and think clearly about what you write. But even though the lure of the easy mails saying 'It was a pleasure meeting you' beckons, save them for the last (but make sure you do it the second night). Write to potential customers first and then schedule meetings with the few hot shots you met (lunch, coffee, dinner) and the media guys. See who you can find on LinkedIn.

There is loads you could do. Know where to draw a line. Don't go overboard and forget that your baby beckons.

Learning No. 11 : Building a brand

Suppose your company is going through a tough time. Think of an environment when everything is going great. Think of all the good things happening. Now use that vision to build your brand, to make the changes that will take you from your current place to the strong one. Create a perception of a strong brand and a stronger brand will also come following. E.g.: Infosys in order to revamp its image among employees in 2003-04 recruited foreign interns. This created a belief that people even from abroad wanted to be at Infosys!!

Learning No. 5

Your meeting went good. You had a nice conversation, you got great feedback and you can think of a couple of ways in which you can go forward in the future. Well, looks like you had a productive morning.

Wait.

Did you get any money? Did he buy what you went there to sell? No.

So you had a nice time and have hopes of getting money in the future. This is business development alright, but if you are in a startup, you need clients now. So don’t be lead into complacency by having a good meeting. Get the cash.

Remember that, water like feedback is abundantly available and very valuable but does not bring much money when sold.

Learning No. 3

This one is around marketing.

Close out deals fast.