undefined | Better HN

0 pointsJugurtha5y ago0 comments

>Large corps with work with other large consulting companies or hire.

We've worked with large organizations and the large consulting companies these organizations hire as well.

Tectonic cracks are big enough for a tiny human to get in there.

When a large organization wants something done fast for $100,000-$200,000, it's not really a job for a huge consulting company, because it's basically pocket change. But for a smaller consultancy? That's a nice amount and these are projects that can actually be done by a couple of individuals.

What's important is introductions and getting a foot in the door. Some large organizations are difficult to get in, but once you're in and you deliver, they'll come back with a bag of problems for you to solve.

We work with large organizations and solve one problem for them in one segment. Then they'll come back and say "Oh, we also have that problem in that other segment? Can you help?". Again, and again. Repeat business.

We also work with large consulting companies who'll come and say "We have this client and they have this problem, can you help?". We deliver. They come back and say "We have that other problem with that other client, can you help us?". We deliver. Then they come and say "Remember that client? They have that other problem, can you help?". We deliver again.

They aren't in the business of changing partners. When you deliver and they trust you, they'll want more. They'll want even to invest. They'll want to set up a joint venture. They'll want to make a product. This is of course a biased opinion as we've dealt with people who are good at what they do, honest about what they want, and respect your time.

Two success parameters in that heavily survivor biased perspective:

1. Introductions and networking: our CEO is a tireless specimen. When we align six meetings, I've seen him pitch at the 19:00 meeting with the same enthusiasm, energy, panache, and humor as the 09:00 meeting. Tireless networking and selling and a sharp mind for business. He dares to sell, but he doesn't sell what the team is not making, and he doesn't shy away from correcting a mistake. We were once in a conference where he made a presentation on something we were making and there was an inaccuracy in one sentence he said to an audience of state officials, high ranking armed forces officers, "serious" people. He got back to his place and I told him about it. He stood up in the middle of the amphitheater of around 500 people, whistled with his fingers to get the attention of everyone, and then proceeded to say "I said ZYX during the presentation. I was wrong. Just to clarify: it's XYZ, not ZYX like I said".

3. Board members and advisors who have been around the block: they ran large companies and have a network as well. They make things easier.

2. A team that can deliver and manage expectations. They say this will take time. This we cannot do right now. This we can do. This we already have. This client we won't work with for ethical reasons. This is not ready. This is almost ready. This we can also do for another client.

Most of the business comes from networking. However, it used to take us time to satisfy inbound requests for machine learning projects. There were more projects and clients in the pipeline than we could execute on, which is why we started building our internal machine learning platform[0] to be able to do it faster. Way faster. Then turn that into a revenue stream for companies like ours to be able to do machine learning projects. We couldn't build this platform if we didn't have experience actually doing the work, which is the case of many startups in that space who jump right in and build a general platform/tool without having dealt with the specifics first.

I wrote a tiny bit about this in a twitter thread[1].

- [0]: https://iko.ai

- [1]: https://twitter.com/jugurthahadjar/status/131066829330549965...

0 comments

simplerman5y ago

This is great advice. Your company is a small consultancy though, not an individual consultant.

I read your Twitter thread. It makes sense but I am still not sure how I as an individual can get my foot in the door. It seems you are saying I should incorporate and work as a company. But my current company and pretty much every company I worked for has a process to vet vendors. They would easily see that this LLC is a brand new company with one owner/person.

My current Fortune 50 company has a policy that requires additional approvals for newer and smaller companies. My friend has 10+ years old recruiting firm, I tried to get him to work with my company as a vendor. But it was rejected because they said his company was too young, and had too few employees (it is just him and his wife). They asked him to work through one of their vendors, and all of our vendors also rejected to work with him because of his size.

JugurthaOP5y ago

>But my current company and pretty much every company I worked for has a process to vet vendors. They would easily see that this LLC is a brand new company with one owner/person.

You're right, but if you hit on enough doors, you might get lucky. We had our first client, a large multinational, before having a company.

Furthermore, it depends on what you are selling: selling a payroll, procurement, or HR system that changes the entire process of an organization or requires adoption, training of all of their employees, and tight maintenance requirements, is harder than selling a product that is more contained to a small team or can be used to accomplish something without impacting everything.

>But it was rejected because they said his company was too young, and had too few employees (it is just him and his wife).

Sure. Then your friend talks with another company, and another, and another. If they want to work with large organizations, that is. There are many who don't like it after a bad experience or for other reasons.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse