Being Judged on the Present | Alex Rampell

-“I’m much better than that kid at golf! [says a 33 year old]. I have a 12 handicap and can outdrive that joker by 200 yards!” -“Wow, that’s remarkable for somebody of that age…if he continues like that, he could someday win 14 Majors.” Both assessments are logically correct. But as a young company selling into enterprises, you will often get the first reaction. In my experience, a lot of larger corporations (and people who work at them) can generally only see the present — the present capabilities, the present revenue (or trajectory), the present limitations. In startups, you need to see the future. Not as a fortuneteller would (impossible) but to judge teams and ideas on their future potential / adjacencies. There is a natural lesson here for an entrepreneur — which is to beware showing “leanness” of product when interacting with a large company. Saying “we can/will add that later” unfortunately lacks credibility, because large companies are often incapable of building anything quick

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• yash ramchandani