Ever gotten advice so spot on your ego couldn’t take it at the time, and it was only later you realized its value?
That happened to me when Glenn Kelman told me, point blank:
You need to grow a pair.
4 years ago I had the privilege of meeting with Glenn to chat about my startup at the time. During that meeting, I got some of the most poignant, and harsh, advice of my life:
Me: My company is a, blah, blah.
Glenn: You guys making money?
Me: Yeah, we’ve got a customer that’s keeping the lights on.
Glenn: That’s fantastic! [gives me a high five]
Me: [The CEO of Redfin just high fived me – stoked!] But it’s only one customer. We’re in talks with other companies and they say they like it, but no commitments. We need a marketing/sales guy.
Glenn: Have you asked these potential customers if they’d pay for it?
Me: Well, it’s um, complicated. You see…
Glenn: You don’t need a sales guy. You need to grow a pair.
Me: [unstoked]
Wtf?! I may look young, but dude, seriously, I’m pretty sure I hit puberty…
Well before the notions of Customer Development and Lean Startup were popular, Glenn knew what was up. Steve Blank might have coined the phrase, “get out of the building”, but the advice is the same and I end up passing it along to a majority of the founders I meet:
You don’t need a sales person, you don’t need a marketer, you need to ask your customers if they’ll pay for your product before you build it. You need to grow a pair.
Thanks, Glenn.
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