Ask HN: Startup, how to get companies to take you seriously?

It’s likely that some users sign up, use the api, and never pay, e.g., use a debit card with low balance.

Turn the table. If you were running such an api, what would you do to avoid situations like this?

I operate a podcast api business [1]. Initially we allowed anyone to sign up. Then we got tons of malicious users who abused the api and never paid us. Then we have to manually review every signups.

[1] https://www.listennotes.com/blog/how-i-accidentally-built-a-...

- Buy a domain for your email and have a website; the website can just claim it's "coming soon" and look modern and promising.

- Ensure your email is personalized and targeted, and include direct propositions to how you will increase revenue or decrease cost or offer growth — something, anything — to the company. Super short cold emails don't work as well for startups in my experience.

- Address your emails to everyone relevant you can find, but surprisingly, C-level execs appear more likely to respond than lower-level people. They'll often forward your email to the most relevant person who will then feel obligated to reply and hear you out.

- Once in meetings, your advantage as an early startup is your flexibility. Know what you're capable of, and then listen well. Tell them what they want to hear as long as you're capable of building it and it's worth it to get them on board.

If you want to talk further on this, let me know and I can send you an email if you put it in your HN profile, and good luck!

So to answer your first question: at a minimum you MUST get a company domain, set up a company website and email addresses, etc. This is the absolute bare minimum bar. Even dog walkers have this. Further, you must setup an actual company (LLC, corporation, whatever). No business will sign an integration deal with a random individual (if for some reason you need that) -- it's just not gonna happen. No company is going to spend a lot of time helping a non-customer individual integrate into their system without a very good specific reason.

You need to understand the motivation for these other enterprise SAAS companies to setup an integration API. It will vary, but generally it often boils down 1) trying to increase sales for them or 2) trying to increase customer lock-in.

If, for whatever reason, you really need to talk to someone at these companies, your best bet is to look for a connection through your personal relationship network. This is one reason why things like LinkedIn still are still valued by some despite its drawbacks. You may be surprised at who people you know know.