Does Your Startup Have a Napoleon Complex?
At our previous ventures, we suffered from a Napoleon complex:
Napoleon complex is a colliquial term describing an alleged type of inferiority complex which is said to affect some people, especially men, who are short in stature. The term is also used more generally to describe people who are driven by a perceived handicap to overcompensate in other aspects of their lives.
Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr
We were a small company who wanted to be successful. I wanted us to be successful. One of the things that I thought would prevent us from being successful was people thinking or realizing we were a small company. Here are some examples of things we faced right away as we got started:
- We cold called schools to find customers for our multimedia yearbook software. We didn't have an office, or land line, so we called from our cell phone. One of the first people we called (who was actually interested), noticed our number on his caller ID, and somehow knew it was an odd area code or exchange. He asked a couple questions about that and quickly realized we were calling from a cell phone and not a landline, which in his mind somewhat discredited us. Remember this was 1998, cell phones were often called geek-a-phones back then! He wanted to know why didn't have a landline, and worried that we weren't an established company. I immediately felt guilty and as if I'd be caught in a lie. All sorts of negative thoughts entered my brain: he knows we're not a real company, this will never work, our software's no good, he won't like it.
- Meanwhile, we needed to earn money to fund our product development, so we went in search of consulting revenue as BrightBlocks. Since we were just starting out, we were doing anything we could to get business, and doing anything (software related) that people needed. In fact we thought of ourselves as "software sluts", but that's another story. So we'd find ourselves submitting an RFP to some company (a real company, not like our pretend company run out of our basement), and then we'd get requests like: can you please send us work you've done before, can you send us resumes of the staff who'd work on the project, can we meet you at your office, do you have a fast Internet connection to work remotely with us. All of which sent us scrambling to appear like we were a real company :)
So, we took it upon ourselves to not look like a small company. We did everything we could to look big. If big companies did it, we wanted to do it too.
- We bought business cards and put fancy titles on them
- We used stock photography of offices and professional looking staff on our websites to give the appearance of bigger company
- We wore suits and ties when meeting people
- Our website looked more like a big 3 consulting firm than a plucky startup, with sections for our solutions, our products and technologies, impressive bios of the founders etc
- We wrote press releases on our website, announcing we'd moved into a new headquarters (e.g. we moved out of the basement into sub-leased space), or that we'd launched a new division (e.g. we'd hire a tech-writer part time)
- We bought an 800 number, if we had an 800 number we must be successful!
And it worked. At least it appeared to work. People were surprised to learn we were a small company after seeing our site, friends seemed impressed and surprised. One friend commented that he thought he was at the wrong website because it looked like a big company. Another asked if those people in the pictures actually worked for us!
One company we submitted an RFP to was FlowNetworks in Toronto (bought up by DoubleClick I think, and then Google). Now remember, the great thing about using the Internet is that on the internet nobody knows you're a dog. So for us this meant that if our website looked like we were a big company, and we had real email addresses, and they weren't suspicious that our phone was a cell phone, and we wrote a professional RFP then a potential client like FlowNetworks might have no idea we were a tiny company. Even after meeting them (at their office), they would have no idea that our entire company (Chris and I) was at the meeting. But, it didn't work.Companies who really wanted to work with a big company would find out we couldn't deliver on something they needed. Companies looking to engage a young energetic company got turned off by our website. Other companies figured out we were small, and called us on it. At that point, many would hire someone else. But, some, were OK with that, and then proceeded to find out the real deal. One company thought it was really important for us to have a high speed Internet connection to them so we could work remotely, so we ended up convincing them that our residential cable modem was actually fast, and they were OK with that it turns out, after some convincing.- Us: yes we have a high speed Internet connection.
- Them: What type of connection is it, a T1 or T3, I guess a T1 would do
- Us: umm, its a cable modem.
- Them: Its a business cable modem, right? You're not running this business out of your house are you?
You get the picture :)
But more than that, it took a toll on me. Trying to be something you're not is difficult. It takes effort to be something other than yourself. It takes effort to keep up the facade. It would kill my confidence when I suspected or noticed our facade slipping. On top of that, any company who hired us, or anyone we hired, anyone you work with, eventually gets to know you and figures out what you're really about. I guess the plan was that by the time they figured out we were a small company they'd already be happy with our work and not mind. So my advice to you is to embrace your small-ness. As Jason Cohen says: you're a little company, now act like one.
Image by wOLD via Flickr
- First of all, be honest, to yourself, and to everyone else. If you achieve success through deceit, is it worth it?
- Turn your weaknesses into strengths. Don't be a big stodgy company, be a small nimble company. Be personable, respond quickly, work harder than the competition.
- Express your company's personality through your website, express your personality through your company. This way you'll attract clients who value who and what you are.
- If a potential client or customer questions your experience, be creative. Tell them that yes you're a new grad, and no you don't have years of experience, but if they hire your company they're getting your dedication and passion as founder (and if they hire a big consulting firm, they might end up paying high end wages for a new grad anyways!)
What am I going to do differently this time? I'm going to be myself:
- Build trust through honesty and openness
- Talk actively about our challenges and successes
- Play up the fact that we're small, that we're the underdog
- Engage people in the community, add a human touch to our business
- Use titles that reflect what we do, not that try to make us look larger than we are. We're 3 people right now, does it make sense for our titles to be CEO, CTO, and Director of Development?
- We'll put real photos of us and our office on our site, taken by us
