investors, pitchI am running a beta signup campaign, one of my friends, who works in a big bank signed up for it. (he’s a programmer)
My program is a business software with a low monthly payment. (sort of like dropbox, but for businesses)
If the software was not free, I’m pretty sure the company would refund it to him, again we are talking less than 5 dollars a month or something.
Can I count his bank as a company who signed up (in my pitch) ?
Can I count his company as a user of my product (in my pitch) ?
Will my potential investors feel cheated about it if I do so ?
From what it sounds like, I’d definitely advise against saying the bank signed up for it.
If I’m understanding your situation correctly, you made a consumer beta product, had a friend sign up, and would like to claim that the company he works for is a client. Given those circumstances, best case I’d say is they don’t look into it, worst case could potentially be legal issues. That’s unlikely, but it depends how you go through with it. Either way, I wouldn’t.
It’s kind of like, if a sales person at Wal-Mart eats lunch at McDonald’s five days a week, does that mean Wal-Mart eats lunch at McDonald’s every week? I’d say no.
On the other hand, if you, for instance, wrote a brand new monitoring and alerting system (I’m stealing from the recently-posted blog post), and if your friend works as the head of IT for this bank and set them up to beta test it, then sure, go ahead. But there’s a pretty key distinction here, that being that in this case the bank is actually using the software.
Ultimately, I think the line is pretty clear. If this weren’t a beta and were in fact a paid service, would he be paying for it? Then don’t claim the bank as a client. Would the bank be paying for it? Then go ahead.
Although in any event, you should definitely check with the bank, just to make sure they don’t mind their name-drop. Not so much at that level, but a lot of individuals and businesses would rather keep their processes secret, just on principle if nothing else. If you expose them as a user of your software without prior permission, that could get them upset with you. If you would feel weird asking the bank–and no, not just your friend–about whether that would be okay, then that’s probably a sign that they aren’t really a client of yours.
Beyond that, I really think we’d need more information about what kind of software it is, what position he plays at the bank, and most importantly, whether the bank is actually using the software.
This brings up a few important thing to mull over when you make your decision.
Does your friend use the software specifically for a work-related purpose? Is this purpose one that his employer would approve of? For example: If an employee at a digital security company started using Dropbox to store his company files (I know this isn’t similar to your product, just using the same example) his bosses would likely be upset with the way he was using a tool that is insecure or could be damaging to the company. It is also important that not only you and him think its a great tool, but that his company would actually support using it.
In your pitch it will definitely be misleading if you say Bank X uses Product Y rather than an employee at Bank X has used Product Y. This would not be the case if the employer actually was aware and approved or potentially funded the product you offered.
As an investor I expect an accurate and honest display of what I might invest in. Ultimately, if you lie or distort the truth it wont be in your best interest as they will likely ask you clarifying questions like “Who at bank X uses it?”, “How much revenue does it generate” etc.
I hope this helps!
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