It's a trap! The notion that doing well on a small contract will net you bigger and bigger ones is a nice fantasy, but I've not seen it play out. I have seen it crush a lot of hopes and dreams, though.
The reality is (IMHO) running a small contract and running a big one requires different skills sets, procedures in place, etc. Doing well at one will not guarantee doing well at another, and I think they know it.
so true. got my ass handed to me chasing a large client and their promises of massive expansion with a bit of exclusivity. We got over exposed because I ignored some of the risks involved, and the large firm ultimately found a similar sized firm that could offer mostly the same product, with the benefit of also being a public company.
Unless you're the people I've worked for, you would drop everything for the chance to impress Apple.
But my comment did have the false assumption that the contract size would be large.