Thanks for the comment and perspective. First, it really was a great game. Tough, tough loss for the Bulldogs.

When it comes to innovation, no one has cornered the market. And, when it comes to smaller suppliers, hungry can be better, but there can be trade-offs, they just need to be understood and weighed.

I’d follow Warren Buffet’s investment strategy of investing in leaders (more so than in their companies) when determining which small suppliers to develop. I’m sure that customer rationale played a major role in how your ‘David’ company won its early business.

BTW, Butler is the answer to the Quiz above

Re: the post, as someone who also went from a goliath to running a startup (and competing against the goliaths), I always told my clients, two things when they told me how much better my offering was, but the risk of working with a startup was holding them back…

1) The reason my team and I left the “goliath” is we feel we can do better…better products, better services, more innovation…which will give you better results. And we’re willing to put our professional reputations and bank accounts where our mouths are to prove it, which brings me to…

2) …we can’t afford to fail! To take even a single step forward, we need references. One mistake and we’re done in the market! Your success is our success. The IBM-type company has many implementations, many clients, many references…not meeting your expectations really has little impact in them, but could have a big impact on you.

That being said, I give alot of credit to companies that forgo the risk and sign up to be an early client of a startup (clients after the first few have those references, so their risk is much less).