[throwawaydbdksn]

What startup founders don't realise sometimes is that marketing is more important than having the best product.

I've had the luck of being on both development and marketing ends and high quality marketing can definitely sell a product that's slightly inferior to the competition 10:1

If you need big names attached to your product early the best way is to give it out for free to those first strategic customers. Why would anyone turn down something useful and free.

If you can't tell why another startup beat you out when you had a better product it's garaunteed to be marketing related.