Editor’s Note: Each week Maynard Webb, former CEO of LiveOps and the former COO of eBay, will offer candid, practical, and sometimes surprising advice to entrepreneurs and founders. To submit a question, write to Webb at dearfounder@fastcompany.com.
Q. A new board member offered to introduce me to a potential customer we’d love to have, but it may be too soon in our life cycle. What do I do?
—Founder of an early-stage startup
Dear Founder,
This is a great problem to have. It tells me that you are on the right track when you have a board member who wants to be supportive and helpful.
And there’s a simple solve: Tell the board member that you appreciate the opportunity but that you’d like to come back to them when you are more ready.
If someone is offering you a big gift, you want to accept it only when you can fully deliver on its promise. If you can’t, take a rain check. There’s no harm in that and I don’t think it will concern your board member about where you are. On the contrary, it will make them appreciate your thoughtfulness.
As a founder, it is up to you to assess the company’s readiness. Here is how I recommend doing so:
- Think through what would happen if the customer were very interested in working with you.
- Could you win the business?
- Could you execute on it if you won it?
Often founders think they are ready to jump on this kind of opportunity, even when they are not. That means that they burn through good leads. In many cases, it’s often a signal of the product not being right yet, or the people or systems not being in place and able to handle the demands or scale as necessary. I commend you for thinking this through and being honest with where you are. That’s invaluable because what you need, more than anything else, is not a foot in the door, or even winning a customer’s business, it’s having a delighted customer who will stay with you and evangelize your service.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
