Startups, eh?
Can’t live with them, can’t live without them, am I right?
Your journey as an agency will probably involve working with startups.
Most often at the beginning, because startups need your services and they can’t afford the bigger, more established agencies.
The traditional path:
- Startups are great. We love them. Let’s base our brand around helping them.
- Startups are great, but they don’t have any money, we should probably stop working with them.
- We’ve stopped working with startups. However we still get enquiries and turning them down feels like a betrayal of the reason we started this agency. To help innovators and entrepreneurs. We just take the money now, we’ve sold out.
- Let’s try working with this one startup. I know they haven’t got much money, but it’s exciting, let’s try it.
- Oh no, that went really badly, we made no money. Let’s never do that again.
Even if you break free from this loop, still asking ‘Should we work with startups?’ means you’re always close to being drawn back in.
So let’s find some intent around our decisions here.
Pros and cons
The good things about working with startups:
- They’re innovative and fast-moving
- They have an urgent need for your services and a quick buying cycle
- You work directly with the decision-makers
- You’re normally building something from scratch, with no legacy problems to speak of
- The whole thing is full of ideas, energy, potential, and belief that the work can change the world
The downside of startups:
Their chances of success are very low
When we would work with startups that had users, I’d often get a bit jealous about the potential they had and the scale they could achieve. But so few, even those that briefly looked set, made it. A boring agency model outlasted them.
Their strategy is in flux
As they frantically search for product market fit before running out of cash they will change their offer. This will undoubtedly have impact on the brief halfway through a project. And don’t expect a budget increase because…
Despite the funding, there’s not a lot of money around
When you raise money, it doesn’t suddenly mean there’s got loads to spend, even if the amount you raise is high. Most of that money is already allocated and spent, so you are still going to be expecting a lot, for not a lot.
As an aside, if you are going to be a good startup partner, then stop framing them as chaotic and cheap. Instead, be curious about the challenge and understand why they present that way.
So should you work with startups?
The whole promise of this article is that I would help you make this decision.
Well honestly, it depends…
As you grow, profitable startup projects become less viable. But perhaps there’s value in these projects beyond profit.
Does your agency need a little bit of that belief and excitement? Do your case studies need an injection of something a bit different? Do you stay fresh by reading, training, or by doing? How open are you to new adventures in projects you take on?
Because growth requires new challenges and a little bit of chaos.
So, maybe a sprinkling of startups can provide a bit of energy to your whole business.