Pitching Yourself
I don’t talk about work on this blog, just because. However, I wanted to throw a little word-to-the-wise to readers that might be considering a life as a start up. I saw a preview of a startup at Railsconf here in Chicago. It was a neat concept. Recently, at work-work, I was asked to chime in on the company that I had seen. It had nothing to do with me seeing them at Railsconf, it had everything to do with my role at work-work, which is hard to explain.
The task got put on the pile of similar recommendations I have to make. I didn’t recognize the name immediately, although it sounded familiar. My backlog of recommendations is a few days long. While the company name worked its way up my to-do list, the guys at the company apparently got impatient and did an end-run, contacting some folks directly.
This freaked the living shit out of them. They contacted work-work in a hurry, saying “these guys are sounding really crazy, can you please get us that recommendation now?” So, it got bumped up the to-do list, and I realized these guys presented at Railsconf, so I signed off on them. Here’s the kicker -> I, Chris McAvoy, am the exception to the following rule, “little start ups that do end runs around processes typically get the shaft.” If I hadn’t recognized the name from Railsconf, that sort of end run behavior would have set off a ton of red flags for me, and I would have said “these guys are bad news, don’t work with them.”
Startups: especially you Web 2.0 types: I know you want to “get real”, so here’s some “get real” advice, if you want old school companies to invest in you, avoid doing end runs and cold calling people direct. These companies will shut you out like crazy. I’m a thirty year old fuddy duddy, so feel free to dismiss this advice out of hand, or, be a wee bit mature about it and realize that patience is a virtue. Having to wait three days for a response from a gigantic company that can make or break your whole gig isn’t worth freaking them out with a cold call. There’s a time and place for all rule breaking. I’m looking at you and rolling my eyes really hard now. For fuck’s sake, chill out a little bit.
As my mother, a military genius, is famous for saying, “pick your battles.”
