The business side of the coin. WAS RE: The market must be coming back

Wed May 22 15:40:05 UTC 2002

> How long has this company been in business?
> Are they using open standards?
> Do they have knowledgeable tech support?
> ..and so on.  

Good startups make great partners, and a great partner will have crisp and compelling answers to these questions that CFO-types like, even before you start to ask them.  Even so: you might not have needed such performance anyway, since your situation might have been risk_of_brand_name < risk_of_better_performance. (There's always a risk to choosing the "safe" alternative, but established vendors go through great lengths to make sure you don't see them.)
This topic brings to mind a phrase I once read:

"Truth and Technology will Triumph over Bullshit and Bureaucracy."
-- PanAmSat's slogan(mantra?) as a startup, often accompanied by an image of Spot, dutifully lifting his leg to the competition (other interpretations abound)