

Ask HN: What are some ways of proving yourself to a startup? - djsamson

I'm a college senior, business development/marketing/sales background with a couple NY based startups and I'll be relocating to the Bay Area in May. I have two favorite startups (both YC funded) that I am extremely intrigued by. These products/services get my heart pumping and I don't want to work for anybody else. I know I can help them grow (I've done it for much less interesting value propositions).<p>I told them both I'd work for low/no pay remotely to prove myself before I relocate. I had a Skype chat set-up for one (which I got blown off) and I gave my cell phone number to the other who hasn't since called me.<p>I'm thinking about doing this: what if I sell/market their product and show them I am capable? Send them a list of customers I found for them, it would be like free lead generation? One company is B2C so this would be a little bit more difficult. My biggest issue is I couldn't approach these prospects as working for the company since this would be unethical. But maybe I can work around it?<p>What do you think?
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jfarmer
Read Tristan Walker's letter to the founders of Foursquare:
<http://justtristan.com/post/7696394458/two-years-ago-today>

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tagawa
It might help if you imagine yourself as the startup and them as your target
market. What are their needs? Where's the pain? You suggest lead generation
but maybe they have enough leads and the bottleneck lies somewhere else.

Don't be afraid to be honest and ask them directly, although not in a vague
"how can I help" way. The more you research about their needs, the more
confident you can be that you really are a good fit for them. If you produce
some tangible results, hopefully they'll feel the same way.

I'm no expert but in my experience employers value what a candidate has done
more than what they say they can do.

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smit
You've got your foot in the door so that's awesome. I think the direction you
are thinking of is correct. Try to run a small experiment for the B2C company
for customer acquisition. Say spend 20 bucks on google ads and measure the
results. Run other types of marketing campaign to get customers. Whether you
fail or succeed, send the founders the results(it will help them save time by
not working on a channel that doesn't work). This way they see that you
actually give a damn about them. Remember: You don't need permission to help.

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oniTony
> I told them both I'd work for low/no pay remotely to prove myself before I
> relocate.

Interns get paid more than "low/no pay". I can't know this for sure, but that
point might have came across as "desperate for experience" rather than
"excited about [company] in specific".

Don't undersell yourself; and as others have pointed out -- build something to
show to the founders (prototype, experiment, or just something they would find
neat).

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Vaismania
I think you're choice of actions are perfect.

I wouldn't worry much about not having an official company name behind you -
I've done this type of product validation a few times for my own ideas. In
many cases, the customer is so focused on the value proposition that the
company name is irrelevant. Again, it depends on the size of the transaction
and whether its a B2B or B2C.

Should be fun, good luck!

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Mikosia
A good way to get their attention might be to build a complementary offering,
perhaps even competitive offering yourself. If you are so passionate about the
product, you should be able to hack it up quickly. These days pretty much
anything can be built for a pittance of $ and time!

