Why We are Building a Network of Trust

“Fake it till you make it” - “Overstate your skills, you’ll get across more competent” - “Just use some Tech gibberish to impress them” - The freelancing and startup industry is full with advice like that. The consequence? People rarely buy into the narratives of startups, meticulously check the CV of freelancers or new hires because they’ve been burnt, ask for reference projects in the most basic technologies… There’s a rampant epidemic of suspicion.

When rapid growth is the goal, short term gains earned through deception may seem like an option. But the burnt ground it leaves left and right makes sustainable business relations difficult to impossible. And lastly, it’s hard to watch as a human.

That’ my personal opinion, sure, but it seems like I’m not alone with that.

The Experiment

In a recent conversation with Daiana Zavate, my co-host and moderator in the workshop I’ll cover in a minute, we discovered that we share a common belief: Trust is the foundation upon which true innovation and collaboration are built. It’s not a commodity, but a necessity.

That’s why we decided to bring together smart colleagues, friends and acquaintances from various backgrounds for an experiment. Instead of the usual workshop template to “find that one golden problem” and “create an MVP that could change the world”, we tried to facilitate a conversation between founders that allowed them to speak up about their needs and troubles. And well, they did.

Having space to say “I don’t know” is really important
Daiana Zavate, Strategic Design Expert

What ensued was an exchange marked by surprising honesty and humility. Of course, there were some convenient business connections to be made. But more importantly, the participants openly discussed their challenges and shared many personal insights - without any buzzwords.

Ironically, among this group of startup veterans and freelancers, the word “innovation” didn’t fall once during the two hour event.

Why we chose these specific participants

My business philosophy is marked by intrinsic motivation. I think the most valuable experts want to create, experiment and simply play while using the entirety of their skills. This is what Flow Theory tells us, too. Of course, contracts are a necessity to contain risks; you don’t get along with everyone all the time. But just a contract can’t buy you dedication for the craft and striving for mastery.

I’m really happy when I get to work with people who are purpose driven and think about more than money. That’s where real value is created.
Patrick Noël Horstmeier, Founder of Radiant

So what brought us together? The skillset each participant possessed was, at best, complementary to the others’. But everyone shared certain preferences about work:

A creative drive to experiment fast and see what how an idea can materialize. It’s not just about failing fast, it’s about growing and thinking outside the box to discover what you didn’t expect.
Collaboration without strings attached that force you to work in a strict environment which kills your initiative. Instead of relying on shackles, why wouldn’t it be possible to work together based on common goals?
Navigating uncharted territories without a map, but with an internal compass that points to others alike. This are the kind of people that benefit from a Network of Trust - and the ones it needs to grow.

Common challenges we found

During our workshop, several reoccurring challenges kept surfacing in different situations. Both the startups and freelancing ecosystem encounter real problems when it comes to two main areas: sales and collaboration.

1.Sales

Is there a good sales training program for startups that really gives results? Hardly. At least nobody present knew of any. So before talking about more advanced versions of sales like pitches to investors, let’s take a step back.

Selling products in a saturated market is hard. Have you ever tried cold calls or cold emails? They work if you know what you’re doing. You could even say they are a salesman’s best friend.

But here’s the thing: When you don’t understand your potential customers’ preferences or how to pique their interest and draw information out of them, all the effort won’t lead to anything except exhaustion.

2. The Leaky Customer Bucket

For amateurs at sales like freelancers who need to take on projects and establish a steady revenue stream, finding contracts is an arduous task. It’s even harder for startups with their rough and ready MVPs - when they have to choose between polish and time to market, they’ll always choose the latter.

This can lead to a precarious situation: The Leaky Customer Bucket. Losing customers can happen for many reasons. But what’s important is to establish trust and set the right expectations. All your effort is wasted if you oversell a poor or underdeveloped product as the final solution to all of their problems. Their trust is gone, and so are they.

When building complex products, it’s easy to lose track of the right direction. It’s our responsibility as designers to make an external assessment of the situation to identify potential blind spots of the customer.
Felix Bahr and Luis Klemt, founders of Büro Bobr

3. Expectation management

Which comes first, the product or the customer?

Founders often get stuck in this chicken & egg problem and try to answer the question by picking one or the other. The truth is, they need to happen in parallel. It’s a form of dynamic collaboration where the product is developed close to the customer, and the customer evolves alongside the problem as they get clarity on their own wants and needs.

Real customer feedback gives you not only insight, it helps you build trust. It shows that you communicate and listen.

I always say I don’t have a plan how to get there - but we’ll get there.
David Melzer, CTO at Yuuniq

4. Being a founder is lonely

One thing the whole group had in common was the ability to work well independently, but at the same time an underlying desire to work together.

While collaboration matters to people, they struggle to connect. Patrick points out the friction when onboarding new team members to delegate workload and focus on critical aspects of the company. “Am I a founder or a team manager?” It’s incredibly hard to do both, and there’s no guidebook that fits the exact agenda of your context.

You would typically hire for a certain position, looking at people with specific skills who can get stuff done. This should be good enough, right? But moving from 1 or 2 people, to more requires a process to be implemented. Clear communication and transparency boosts team performance, but team members will not share the same level of accountability as a founder will. The whole group pondered at the complexity of this challenge - you are building a company culture after all which is at least as hard as building a high-quality product for a critical need in the market. Implementing the right processes can take off the load and help people contribute rather than make them feel micromanaged.

Building a Network of Trust

It’s crucial to have a space to say “I don’t know,” and to know that it’s possible to get help.

That’s why collaboration with externals, clients, or even colleagues can be a difficult feat, changing from one project to another. You might look incompetent. You might be taken advantage of. This creates friction if you are not prepared for it - that is, if you don’t build trust from the start to ensure clear communication even when things deviate from the plan.

I never try to guesstimate the complexity of features I don’t fully grasp. I ask people in my network who’ve done the same thing before.
Benjamin Dums, Senior App Developer and Consultant

It’s hard, right? Knowing your limits and showing them, too. And depending on who you’re dealing with, it might even be a considerable risk. But in the end, it’s the only reliable approach to build truly sustainable business relations. Because no matter how magnificent the illusion - when it bursts, it will take you down with it.

I want to leave a big shout-out to Daiana here for moderating this awesome workshop and co-authoring this article. You’re great!