Sometimes when you launch a company you have a great strategy worked out. You know who your customer is and how you will make sales. You know where to invest your time.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t my case. Sure, I did a business plan, but I suppose like many college graduates you expect the world to come to you. You truly believe the world is your oyster.
Alas, the oysters weren’t showing up.
Some of the recent entrepreneurial gurus were giving guidance, and I did take to heart one of them: Goob. Get out of the building. Here’s a clip with Steve Blank who pioneered the phrase.
Of course, cold calling is tough, but it’s true what they say, necessity is the mother of luck. (Ok, I’ve adapted that expression). Through necessity, I got out of the building (apartment), and went to a local Internet Service Provider. At the time, you needed a modem, and an authorized connection to the world wide web. It was costly, and you would only connect when necessary.
What happened next was the most determining factor in our success. Now, was it great decision making? or luck? Whatever it was, I did meet them, and it turned out that they proposed to build websites, but did not have the talent internally. But they were hosting many customers who needed that support. Hence, after our meeting, and consequently doing their website in exchange for free internet access, one of their prestigious clients wanted a website built by us. The rest as they say, was oysters in the bank (ok, guilty again for making expressions up as I go).