I had an experience recently that showed me just how much one month can change a startup’s trajectory. But also, it gave me an insight into what the real product actually is.

We recently had a Tundra Angels portfolio company send out an exciting update - a marquee level brand signs a term sheet for a customer partnership. The total ARR of that single contract was one that most startups would dream of. 

Wow. Incredible. It was a signal that this continued to be an exciting company. 

Yet, something struck me as odd. 

I didn’t remember hearing anything about this on the last update. Literally. This marquee-level brand contract appeared to come out of the blue.

Sure enough, I looked at the startup’s previous month’s update, call it Month 1 - no mention of this contract at all. 

Then, Month 2’s update - “We’ve signed a major new customer,” and provided additional details on the upcoming engagement. 

Like, amazing!! But what happened?

Let me back up.

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For context, early in their journey, this company was fortunate enough to sign a customer partnership with a 900-pound gorilla of a brand. Call it, Brand A in X industry.

It was amazing.

Then, years later, Brand A ended up slowly winding down the engagement with the portfolio company.

It was unfortunate, and yet at the same time, the startup had not fully ramped yet with Brand A, and so it wasn't as detrimental to the growth trajectory. Plus, the startup was growing in other areas. 

Over time, the company continued to grow, adding revenue and growth. 

Then, the founders sent out their monthly update, announcing the customer term sheet with another company, Brand B in a totally different industry than Brand A.

The founding team held an virtual investor call to talk about a small investment opportunity as well as recap the great traction. 

On that call, one of the founders revealed the reason how this deal came out of nowhere. And here it was:

✅ The executive champion at Brand B was the same person that engaged with them and became their champion at Brand A. ✅

Their champion at Brand A had now left that company and was now their champion again, yet this time at Brand B. 

Importantly, upon joining Brand B, this champion apparently pushed their new team to engage with our portfolio company because they believed Brand A had left value on the table. It was now time to realize the full potential.

That is why the startup's engagement with Brand B shot through procurement and diligence like a rocket - from first call to a term sheet in six weeks.

That’s where there was no mention of it in the initial update.

This reveals a couple of things that founders don't give as much attention to.

✅ Enterprise deals don’t move through logos, but rather move through people. ✅

If a startup plays the long game, has a great product, and treats people well, even when things don't go their direction, opportunity may come around again. 

It would be easy for any founding team to get bitter, having to wind down what was going to be a very large contract with Brand A, and communicate that frustration to the people at the given company. 

If there was any ounce of that, I will tell you, that this champion would have chosen not to re-engage. 

Playing the long game is critical.

Why does this happen? It’s because

✅ Your startup is not your only product. You are also the product. ✅

Recently, I was discussing with a marketing person recently about an individual investor who said they were not interested in joining Tundra Angels as an investor. This individual investor happened to have expertise in real estate. When this individual and I met up some time ago, they self-described themself as someone who was not interested in investing in startups at that time.  

I was discussing if I should re-engage with that person to meet again. 

This person said to me, “The perspective here is, look, you are peers and he is part of this community. His goal is to make money. Your goal is to make money. You are doing it from different angles. 

You have two products. You want to think about the first one is Tundra Angels itself, and the second product is Matthew. Outside of Tundra Angels, Matthew is an expert in this asset class as much as this person is an expert in his real estate asset class. You have the network and capacity and expertise in this particular case with alternative assets. That is you and your product. Even if they don't respond, rest assured these people remember this and eventually they will come back, right?”

It was just what I needed to hear. Treat people well and play the long game.

In the case of our portfolio company, the champion remembered it, and they came back.

All of this reminds me of a singular moment in the funeral for my late father.

For context, my late father, Jack, worked in sales for a bond trading software company called Investortools for about 20 years, selling to the largest banks and asset managers in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and all across the country. 

A member of my extended family, call him Drew, worked alongside my father in sales for that company too. At the funeral, Drew gave a eulogy.

In the eulogy, this family member noted that he eventually became the account manager for many of the clients that my father Jack had initially sold. He said, “One of the hardest things about following in Jack’s footsteps was the impact that Jack had made with the customers.”

For the first several years, Drew would travel to different client sites around the country. He detailed that when the client found out that Investortools was coming to see them, they would be puzzled after they came into the conference room and instead would see Drew instead of my father, Jack. Drew said some of the first words out of their mouth were, "Does Jack Kee still work for you?" Not, “Hello, how are you? No, ‘Where's Jack?’” When Drew told the client that Jack had been promoted, the clients would smile and say, “Oh that’s great. We love Jack. Tell Jack hi for me.”

Drew asserted that over time, he started to get a little offended. Saying humorously, "They wanted Jack, but all they got was… me.”

Then Drew astutely noted, “But to the clients, Jack was Investortools. Jack was the company.”

That’s the power of you being a product.

At any one given time, you may be your product more than your startup’s product may be your product.

The founding team of our portfolio company was just as much the product, if not more, in this case, than the product itself. The champion knew how the founding team rolled from the experience at the other company. He or she knew this team could be trusted as people, but also their company trusted with the resources of this new organization that the champion just joined.

My father was a product, even more than the actual company he worked for or the software product that he sold.

And… you are a product. So the question is,

What kind of product are you to the market?

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