At Innovate Mississippi, we spend every day coaching startup companies to be the best they can be. In doing this, we follow one very simple rule that ensures civility, but can sometimes make our jobs difficult: We never tell anyone their baby is ugly.
So despite the occasional plans from clients to take on Google from scratch “but do it better,” we hold our tongues and work with the entrepreneurs to help shape them into investor-ready deals. Over time, we usually build enough rapport to be direct with our clients, so we make sure the message eventually gets through.