How to sell your product/service to big companies as a tiny startup

If you have a groundbreaking product that a small team within a big co adopts organically - kudos! You're on to something big.

But most times, engaging with a big company will drain your time and resources.

They have 100x more time to waste by shopping around and being internally misaligned and ineffective.

While for you, every hour not spent building and delivering value is carries huge opportunity cost.

I run a tiny consultancy and we managed to win a major bank as a client last year. The feedback we eventually got was that we were too small to make it onto their PSL and so the only quick way to get us in was to go through a third-party agency.

Honestly, all this did was increase the tax liability (sales tax applied because the agency was also in the UK), and increase the amount of money the bank paid out. It was a massive headache for us and somewhat soured us on the experience. It led me to conclude that the only way to take advantage of a relationship like that is to move away from artisan indie hacking to a headcount-focused organisation with plenty of fat to charge for.

When it comes to a big company not wanting to work with a tiny startup, what is it that the larger companies are the most impacted by? Is it the duration of existence, headcount of organization or simply the size of your revenue?

Be a connector,
Participate in industry events,
Partner with non-competing vendors,
Write for industry publications and press,

These few basic qualities can help you get the right decision maker and help your startup sell to Large and Enterprise Businesses

Good tips @AllOutNerdClan

Very interesting. Thank you. In many cases they told us that it is a risk for them to work with a small company like ours. We have been asked what would happen if our company disappeared. Sometimes we have even been asked to deposit our software with a trusted third party (i.e. an escrow agreement). In other cases, we have simply signed an agreement with companies larger than us to sell to that large company together.

Great list. It's so specific. So many lists like this are far too broad and not helpful at all.

Rock solid list, several approaches I'm already practising, but some nice additional ideas too. I'd definitely recommend the pilot programme point, and/or phased rollouts for larger clients. Our database got slammed a few times by large customers starting to use Squeaky without warning.

Thanks for content

I don't know how to overcome this. but ill suggest you something like tips r tricks based on my experience, I hope this will be useful.
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Haha just the article I need, these days I'm making offers to big companies to sell MonitUp.com licenses. However, it seems very difficult for a small 2-person Startup to sell 500,1000 licenses.

Big companies are waiting for big teams on the other side, I don't know how to overcome this. I hope this article will be useful.

Great list. It's so specific. So many lists like this are far too broad and not helpful at all, but you've really honed in on what exact steps to take to grab the attention of the goliaths👏

I've worked at big companies and tiny startups so I've seen it from both sides and these are all really valuable tips that I've definitely seen work. Great write-up.