How Startups Defeat Their Detractors

Five strategies every founder should use to win their naysayers over

Every startup is going to have its detractors. Every new idea, every revolutionary product, every unique strategy, and every best-made plan will find its natural enemy out in the wilds of the market.

When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re going to face armies of people who doubt you. At best, they’ll throw a cutting remark out on social media. At worst, they’ll do everything in their power — and they have a lot of power — to stop you from threatening their status quo.

Your detractor could be an incumbent company in a niche market that they’ve been taking advantage of for too long. It could be a potential customer’s “review” proxy, a tech or finance or other expert who is brought in for the sole purpose of poking holes in your solution.

The detractor I want to talk about is the “status quo hero” — an employee of a potential customer organization who has carved out an antiquated business process, made it intentionally complex and bureaucratic, and now manages an entire kingdom of inefficiency. These heroes usually lead teams of people carrying out the same costly tasks and making the same costly mistakes over and over again — because that’s how it’s always been done.