Don’t Fall For the Mirage of Local Startup Success
Selling Into Your Own Network Always Results in False Positives
My daughter is starting her own company this week, and I’ve taken a role as her investor. While she’s not quite at the high-growth stage of her entrepreneurial career, she’s launching something more than a lemonade stand or some other kind of friends-and-neighbors business.
In fact, friends and neighbors are something we’re going to avoid completely. Why? Because I want her to learn to succeed, and if you’re selling your new product to people you already know, you’re setting your business up for death by a million false positives.
Your Startup Should Think Globally and Act Globally
Don’t confuse a startup with a local business.
Like those bumper stickers you see on the vehicles of people who want to signal their higher purpose in life, the goal of any local business is to think globally and act locally. Local is the lifeblood of brick-and-mortar shops, restaurants and bars, services like home repair, and other SMB ventures.
The advice of selling your new startup’s product into your own network — that’s an artifact from a less-connected time. And as the internet enabled our network’s reach…
