[Alex3917]

I think this is incorrect. The business card is the first deliverable of every startup, and whether or not you have a well-designed card is one of the strongest signals that your first prospective customers will use to decide whether or not you can ship what you say you are going to. Trying to save a couple hours and a couple hundred bucks by using one of the templates at Kinkos instead of working with a designer is a huge mistake.

Clearly you are going to be meeting tons of people and telling them about your startup if you are really serious about it, so not having a well-designed business card from day one is just throwing away tens of thousands of dollars worth of leadgen.

[mikeklaas]

This might be good advice in some sectors I'm unfamiliar with, but I can categorically say that for 90% of startups, your advice to procure professionally-designed business cards as an early priority is simply bollocks.

[Fliko]

Zuckerberg didn't get his "I'm CEO bitch" business card until he was rich, so why should I?

In all seriousness I'm 100% sure people care more about the product/idea of your startup more than the gold lettering on your business card. If you can prove me wrong than I'm going to get gold lettered business cards to get people to invest into my (fake) startup.

[skmurphy]

I agree with you that business cards are a prerequisite for talking to anyone you don't already know well about your startup. "We don't have cards yet" sends a very strong negative signal.