I think of the phone as one of the most valuable tools you can use during the unscalable part at the beginning of the startup. To this day, a face to face meet

I think of the phone as one of the most valuable tools you can use during the unscalable part at the beginning of the startup. To this day, a face to face meeting trumps all other forms of communication in sincerity and authenticity. If I'm willing to fly halfway around the world to meet you, it says a lot. Similarly, but to a lesser extent, a phone call means more than an email which means more than an SMS. So yeah I think startups should use the phone, but I'm admittedly a bit biased since I'm so deep in the telecom industry.