(and why it really shouldn’t)

Telcos 101

There is perhaps no bigger disconnect than the one between the image the telecommunication operators have of themselves and reality. In their collective, SS7 connected minds, they are the futurological titans with keys to the orgiastic future that awaits the consumers; in practice, they are often a guarantee that a service is doomed. They have almost uniformly shown themselves incapable of customer centric thinking, attracting good talent or creating any service in a non-glacial time frame.

However, they are still the gatekeepers to billions of users and millions of companies. This makes them an enticing sales channel, often too important for start-ups to ignore. So how can your start-up best deal with them?

1. The Moby Dick

There are probably several telcos in your target market. With some luck there could be a good one in the bunch — a reasonably agile one with most of its employees still there to do actual work. Check out the org chart: does it resemble a clump of trees or is it relatively flat? How often are they releasing new services? Do their service creation people speak at conferences? Are they privately held?

If you are lucky enough to find a Moby Dick, harpoon it and hope for the best. But be wary: inside every telco, there are only a few people with the power to make a project successful and legions of people that can ensure it’s not.

2. The Man On the Inside

Telcos are large and sprawling organizations with many fiefdoms. That can work in your favor; you can probably find somebody willing to try their best to get an idea off the ground. If you can find such a person, preferably a department head or at least somebody that can take initiative on their own, there is hope for your telco relationship yet.

All that glitters is not gold, though; frequent organization shuffles and the tendency of hard workers to leave telcos for greener pastures mean that these celestial confluences are short-lived. You probably have about a year in which to make something work — be sure to have a plan for the future.

3. The Friendly Schemer

You’ll make plenty of telco contacts while investigating the possibility of options 1 and 2. You will eventually realize that your efforts are in vain— probably at the point when you are trapped in an endless cycle of meetings where the telco tries to make sense of you, your company and what you could do together. There will always be more middle managers to convince and people to bring on-board, the potential for fruitful collaboration always just a presentation or two away, but never really materializing.

The goal at this point should switch from trying to actually start working with the telco to finding ways of circumventing them so you can attack the target market yourself.

.. but should you?

It’s possible to have a constructive relationship with a telco; for example, our start-up was lucky enough to find a few good partners. However, the telcos are usually the exact opposite of a start-up. They are incapable of moving fast while a start-up is all about moving fast. They are all about the process while a start-up is all about the product. You will be forced to focus on SLAs, user provisioning portals and telco branding instead of providing maximal value for actual customers. Unless you have previous experience and contacts with them, forget about them. Focus on your user and your product — it’s almost a certainty that your precious start-up resources will be better spent that way.

Jan‘s background includes working for a mobile operator, stints at medium sized companies and start-ups; he is now a founder of Storesense, a WiFi retail analytics start-up. The opinions expressed are his own. Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts.