What kind of partner, or advisor, or vendor does a start-up require? I’m not asking whether you need a lawyer or accountant or hosting provider. I’m asking “For any of these providers or advisors, what are the important characteristics they need for the relationship to benefit you?”
This seems to be a really important question because you rely on these people for critical advice and services during a very fragile time in your business’ history. These people help you take the right forks in the road.
In thinking a bit about it, we seem to be compiling a track record of choosing folks that are easy to work with, buy into our vision (at some level), and want our business even though we’re tiny. Sounds simple, right?, but there have been choices along the way that have sharpened our understanding of the spectrum of providers you can be working with.
So, do you go with the big, professional law firm with 40 offices, a marquee name, a very solid partner, and deep pockets, even willing to float you credit? Or do you choose the boutique, small firm, with a lower hourly rate that you pay out of pocket, and with a partner willing to get on the fundraising stump to help you?
Or how about going with the really big, low-cost provider for one of your back-end services? They’re filled with resources and important industry connections but getting support or sales’ attention might be difficult when you’re a flea on their proverbial arse? On the other hand, a scrappy CEO from a tiny company by comparison is calling you back on the weekend to make sure you have what you need, and is creating a custom arrangement to meet your meager cash flow early on?
We recently had the great luck and privilege to get to know a new advisor to help us acquire small merchants. After numerous sessions where we took the time to get to know each other, it’s pretty apparent we think alike, care about the same things, and approach relationships in the same way. We didn’t rush the conversation and didn’t start talking “terms” or “turkey”…it’s just flowed pretty naturally. Voila!
So what do all these have in common? The common thread is “like us” as in, “they’re like us.” I imagine that one day, if we’re HUGE and even BIG we may need different types of vendors and partners. Maybe they’ll need to be bigger or have different skills. And maybe it will stop being about relationships and be more about talking “turkey” and “capabilities” and money and the hard stuff.
True to her word, our lawyer Kathy has introduced us to many potential investors, and of course, been a pleasure to work with. Our new Gateway provider is already all over us helping us prepare our telco application. Write him an email and a reply is back in a few seconds. And our new advisor has already volunteered hours of his time where we’ve had great and critical info-sharing sessions to absorb his expertise. With the benefit of looking back, I think we’ve made three great decisions and along the way started to codify our principles through these decisions. Cool.
And if we get big and have to move on from our current team, we’re going to have to be on guard against losing that chemistry because all those little tenths of a penny are going to be whispering in our ear. I remember reading somewhere that Wal-Mart made some of its tiny suppliers big as it grew and wouldn’t that be great to do the same for people that believed in us early on.
