Jason M. Lemkin on how startups land million-dollar customers and the social contract that comes with them. A startup hit $2 million in revenue after its first big deal, but landing such accounts creates constraints on taking similar deals right after.
This quarter, they finally hit 2 million in revenue. Okay, but 2 million? They closed their first million dollar customer. They know they're their first customer. They cannot take another million dollar customer for about two quarters. It's a great deal for the startup, but they can't do another one of these. So you have to understand the social contract on both sides to get what you want. Right.
It's very interesting that you use this term, social contract, because it implies a relationship that goes beyond being transactional.
CEOs and founders at startup have the longest tenure of anybody. When you're a startup founder, you're like, my gosh, I met a senior vice president at SAP.
