Lost a prospect to a new competitor today. Lesson learned, but I feel no ill will towards either of them. The client was not going to be a good fit, and the competitor is basically a GRC factory that offers pentesting as well. They were a few thousand dollars cheaper than me, but the prospect was a young startup and just not my typical client size.
I did, however, appreciate how honest they were both in terms of who they selected, why, and by how much they "beat" me. I wish them well, but honestly these numbers help a lot. Competitive analysis is expensive, I don't have the budget for it, and most people ghost me when they go with someone else, so this was all golden for me.
Do I think they're going to do a great job? No, it feels like they do pentesting as a bolt-on service, nor something core. And while they boast about their roots being in the "Big 4", I don't think that's quite the flex they're making it out to be, but I can see where it will work for some folks.
As for myself, I have 2 more prospects to take their place, so I'll just be here to fit with the right client when they come along. If this was in my first year or two of operating, I would have taken it much harder. Now? No, now it's just realizing that my instincts were right. They were a referral as well, so it's not like my marketing failed, just a friend trying to do me a favour without realizing that we weren't a good match.
#entrepreneurship #businesslessons
