- cash to invest into growth, especially if you can derive a higher profit margin than average from the customer
- increased stability ("battle tested") in the eyes of other large companies
- pushes you to build a scalable and secure product earlier on
In my experience with Codevolve (where we prefer to work with multi billion dollar companies) I've found there is a balance between how much they need you vs how much they are willing to bend to your startup mold. If they want you enough, they'll concede certain points to you. Some important things to stick to your guns on are:
- included support (you want to provide as little as possible, and get paid for it as much as possible)
- non competes (you don't want them to get one, or at least not for very long)
- pricing (leave yourself room to grow the account, especially if you have a product that can be used across multiple departments, and you're just starting with one)
The best way I've found to do this so far has been to go "bottom-up": find a champion in the company who will actually use your product. They're much more likely to work with you than an exec.