Here's what you say to an unsophisticated investor who demands exclusivity when investing in your startup...

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Hi Miss Investor,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Completely understand and respect your perspective regarding the issue of exclusivity.

Let me walk you through a chain of reasoning and see if it resonates with you

✅ 1. Any Silicon Valley-style venture scale company's (think Canva, Uber, Atlassian, Xero etc) number ONE mission must be equity growth for its investors. It wants to deliver 10, 100, or even 1000x returns by increasing the value of its equity through a series of funding rounds and eventually an 'exit' to a large acquirer (or some, of course, IPO).

✅ 2. The moment you invest, you will be a major equity holder of the business and will therefore hopefully want the same thing we want (maximum equity growth).

✅ 3. The #1 way to maximize equity growth is to do the following (amongst other things)...

➡️ a) In a rapidly changing and highly competitive landscape (think of all the AI companies, Silicon Valley disruption, etc), the key is to preserve optionality for the business (especially in the early days) so that it can make quick decisions, adapt to circumstances, and WIN no matter what the world throws at it. So any pre-commitments can tie it down and choke it in the crib before it gets a chance to thrive.

➡️ b) Go global as quickly as possible. So we will need multiple vendors and partners across multiple countries.

➡️ c) Successfully convert all qualified opportunities. So we need a mix of vendors to ensure broad coverage for the most challenging use-cases and circumstances.

➡️ d) Be obsessively user-centric (think Netflix, Amazon, etc), including by finding and offering the best solution for any given situation. Better outcomes lead to more trust, more utility, and faster (exponential) growth. So, a marketplace of independent vendors will likely be required to drive competitive pressure and price discovery for users.

I hope this line of logic not only highlights why it would be an amazing opportunity to keep the company free of any exclusivity deals, but also shows just how ambitious and effective we are at executing towards a huge exit for you and all our investors.

Cheers

Mr Founder