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

7 points by djsamson 13 years ago | 6 comments

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).

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.

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?

What do you think?

jfarmer 13 years ago |

Read Tristan Walker's letter to the founders of Foursquare: http://justtristan.com/post/7696394458/two-years-ago-today

tagawa 13 years ago |

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.

smit 13 years ago |

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.

oniTony 13 years ago |

> 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).

Vaismania 13 years ago |

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!

Mikosia 13 years ago |

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!