\\ 06 Shine a Paint a Clear Bright Light (and Easy) Path Out A warm introduction can be vital. Customers told us that Startups need to clearly explain the problem they are they paid attention to companies introduced to them by solving, their value proposition, and their differentiation. VCs, their peers, or other trusted thought partners, in A marketing message is only clear if enough customers addition to strong analyst support or unique PR coverage. think it’s clear — so test your messaging, listen to the feedback, and iterate. Companies also look for vendors that have “lighthouse” customers similar to them in terms of scale and industry. When looking at new technology, whether from a startup “ or a more established company, it has to fulfill an unmet With any company, I pay attention to their track record of need. We’re not interested in tech for tech’s sake, but want “ delivery. And as part of that, we are always interested in to know — does this do something new that will help our understanding who their customers are. Seeing the right business? Will it make us more productive, save us money, names on that list can go a long way in speeding up the or allow us to replace a more expensive or less functional process.” —Diana McKenzie, CIO of Workday incumbent?”—Marc Frons, CTO News Corp [We are looking for a] product that solves a distinct “ problem. We’re a medium sized company, and can’t afford to run a lot of experiments that are cool but don’t align to a pressing need. [Next considered] is difficulty of integration: How difficult is it to get the ball rolling and implement the technology into our broader ecosystem?…We like companies that have figured out where they fit relative to the incumbent.”—Michael Baresich, CIO of Ally Financial Startups Serving The Enterprise