No references yet: the cold-start problem

Today’s meeting with Jonathan, our seller in Spain, delivered the week’s uncomfortable moment. A prospect liked the idea of building a website with us. Then they asked for references, and Jonathan had to change the subject, because we don’t have any ▸ 5:03. We sat there blank ▸ 5:49.

This is the cold-start problem every new company faces: clients want proof you’ve done it before, and “before” is exactly what a new company doesn’t have.

Show products, not testimonials

The answer we landed on: if we can’t show clients, we show work. The website gets a portfolio of everything we’ve actually built, not just web pages: the products, the programs, the language game ▸ 5:58. A reference says “someone paid them once.” A working product says “they can build.” At zero clients, the second signal is the only one available, and it’s arguably the stronger one.

sin pasado, muestra el presente →

Borrowed trust signals

Jonathan added a second fix from the ground: get a Spanish phone number that forwards to Colombia ▸ 25:43. A prospect in Spain won’t call a Colombian number: expensive, foreign, “why would I hire a service that far away?” ▸ 26:18. Same company, same people; a local number and business email addresses just remove reasons to say no before the conversation starts.

The teaching

Credibility at zero is assembled, not earned: visible products replace testimonials, and small borrowed signals (a local number, a proper email domain) remove the friction that kills deals before merit gets a chance. The references will come. Until then, the portfolio is the résumé…