Software entrepreneurs face a choice: build a platform that locks customers in, or be important by delivering clear value like revenue growth or risk reduction. When you demonstrably create value, customers pay premium prices and don't worry about your size or stability.
Be important, not central. I've talked to lots of software entrepreneurs, and many of them describe whatever they're building as a quote-unquote platform. And when you have a platform, the idea is that you're expecting your customer to rest their, their business or some significant part of their business upon it. And that can be great from a lifetime value point of view, because then the customer is going to stick with you for a whole long time because this is the pain of changing out for that platform, right? But they know that too. And has all the risk in the world. If you are central, you will find that the, that the client wants you to be super stable. They want you usually to already be a large company so they can be trusting you'll be around for a long time. The flip side is to be important. If you are important, then you're creating value in the form of revenue, profits, risk reduction, equity value to your client. And when you can provide that, they're willing to pay a lot of money for you and they will care less about issues of risk and platforming and what have you. So So be important, add a lot of value, but don't be central.
