I understand your concern, but depending on what product(s) you are selling, startups (and by startups I am referring to the PG definition of startups) are actually great customers for a couple of different reasons:
- Willing to try new products that help them focus their (limited) resources on their core product.
- No legacy integration issues.
- Generally high quality employees that provide strong product feedback.
- Willing to move quickly.
The downside is of course that they may not have a lot of money and in total, usually represent only a very small part of the market, so you have to use the initial feedback / momentum you got from your work with startups to move into more traditional customer segments, but they are still a great way to get started. The risk is of course that you end up building a product that only works for startups, but as long as you understand that risk and validated that the problem you are solving is not exclusive to the startup community, in my experience you should not avoid working with (reasonable) startups.
- Willing to try new products that help them focus their (limited) resources on their core product.
- No legacy integration issues.
- Generally high quality employees that provide strong product feedback.
- Willing to move quickly.
The downside is of course that they may not have a lot of money and in total, usually represent only a very small part of the market, so you have to use the initial feedback / momentum you got from your work with startups to move into more traditional customer segments, but they are still a great way to get started. The risk is of course that you end up building a product that only works for startups, but as long as you understand that risk and validated that the problem you are solving is not exclusive to the startup community, in my experience you should not avoid working with (reasonable) startups.