3 ms·

Are there one or two things you would recommend to help bridge that communication gap between a solo person and a megacorp? One thing I've observed (possibly i

Are there one or two things you would recommend to help bridge that communication gap between a solo person and a megacorp? One thing I've observed (possibly incorrectly!) is that megacorps seem to "like" to do business with other megacorps.

patio11 13y ago
Rule #1: all megacorps are, like Soylent Green, made out of people. If you want to sell something to Microsoft, you aren't selling it to Microsoft, you're selling it to one or a few identifiable people within Microsoft. The entity we think is Microsoft is the sum of the emergent behaviors of lots of little Microsoftite particles which are bouncing around in Brownian motion. After you understand that, it's VASTLY easier to get Microsoft to give you money, and you might find that Microsoft (or whatever BigCo) you're dealing with considers More Money Than I've Ever Dreamed Of (TM) to be a fairly routine decision, in the same manner that you might decide to purchase a new keyboard. In terms of communication style: learn to talk to business people. ROI and TCO over TDD and DRY, PowerPoint decks over README.md in your Github projects, wearing a suit when appropriate instead of making fun of people who own one, etc etc. It's really not hard to learn how to talk like someone if you listen attentively. You've done this your entire life in other contexts and other communities. Decisionmakers at BigCo are not intrinsically a more hostile audience than, e.g., your local freestyle rap club meetup thing, the rhymes are just different, yo. [1] [1] I should stick to WoW metaphors, but you get the general idea.
- bobbles 13y ago
  It should be noted that 'wearing a suit' is not just wearing your normal thinkgeek t-shirt with a suit jacket over the top.
- mbesto 13y ago
  Spot on. I'm in the process to write a book about this. Are people (young people especially) interested in understanding how to position technology into the enterprise?
caseysoftware 13y ago
People like doing business with those they know, trust, have worked with before, etc, etc.. and major corps recruit heavily from one another. It's quite common for someone to jump ship and then turn around and do business (or even just recommend) their old company for something. That's part of the reason burning bridges is such a horrible idea.. because it's a small world after all. It's a small, small world.

patio11 13y ago

Rule #1: all megacorps are, like Soylent Green, made out of people. If you want to sell something to Microsoft, you aren't selling it to Microsoft, you're selling it to one or a few identifiable people within Microsoft. The entity we think is Microsoft is the sum of the emergent behaviors of lots of little Microsoftite particles which are bouncing around in Brownian motion. After you understand that, it's VASTLY easier to get Microsoft to give you money, and you might find that Microsoft (or whatever BigCo) you're dealing with considers More Money Than I've Ever Dreamed Of (TM) to be a fairly routine decision, in the same manner that you might decide to purchase a new keyboard. In terms of communication style: learn to talk to business people. ROI and TCO over TDD and DRY, PowerPoint decks over README.md in your Github projects, wearing a suit when appropriate instead of making fun of people who own one, etc etc. It's really not hard to learn how to talk like someone if you listen attentively. You've done this your entire life in other contexts and other communities. Decisionmakers at BigCo are not intrinsically a more hostile audience than, e.g., your local freestyle rap club meetup thing, the rhymes are just different, yo. [1] [1] I should stick to WoW metaphors, but you get the general idea.

bobbles 13y ago
It should be noted that 'wearing a suit' is not just wearing your normal thinkgeek t-shirt with a suit jacket over the top.
mbesto 13y ago
Spot on. I'm in the process to write a book about this. Are people (young people especially) interested in understanding how to position technology into the enterprise?

caseysoftware 13y ago

People like doing business with those they know, trust, have worked with before, etc, etc.. and major corps recruit heavily from one another. It's quite common for someone to jump ship and then turn around and do business (or even just recommend) their old company for something. That's part of the reason burning bridges is such a horrible idea.. because it's a small world after all. It's a small, small world.