Not original. Not clever. Not new.
But after 50 years of building companies and investing in 200+ more, I’ve watched this simple principle separate the winners from the also-rans.
The companies that actually put customers first don’t just say it. They restructure around it.
When a customer calls with a problem, who answers? How fast? What authority do they have to solve it on the spot?
When you’re designing a new feature, whose voice is loudest in the room?
Your engineers discussing technical elegance, or actual customer feedback from last week’s support tickets?
[Email readers, continue here] When quarterly numbers look tight, what gets cut first? Marketing budget or customer success headcount? I’ve seen brilliant teams with superior products fail because they optimized for internal profit.
And I’ve watched scrappy startups with decent-but-not-great solutions dominate markets because every decision flowed from one question: “What does the customer actually need?”
Your competitive advantage isn’t your technology.
It’s not your funding. It’s not your team’s pedigree.
It’s whether your customer believes you’re fighting for them or fighting for yourself.
The market always knows the difference.
