Start-Up vs. Hard-Up

I don't think it's my imagination - there are more start-ups, well, starting up right now: green housing, hybrid technology, military programs, training for the unemployed, etc. There are many, many people with ideas. That's exciting.

I was surprised when a start-up met with my company, LaBov & Beyond Marketing Communications, and told us how close it was to unbelievable success and that every supplier it works with does free work so that it could "kick the tires" and see if there was a good fit.

Wow! What a concept:

We're a start-up with unlimited potential. We want you to work for free so we can check out whether you're worthy.

Let's think about that for a second: If this particular start-up do that with every supplier, that means it will get free work for a long time - until it either goes out of business or succeeds. And if it does succeed, who do you think it will turn to? My guess is it won't want to work with the lowly, hard-up suppliers that worked for free - they'll want a sexy, big-time company that never would've have stooped to working for free in the first place.

One word for doing free work for a start-up?

Pass.


Barry LaBov
LaBov and Beyond
http://www.labov.com/