Safeguarding reputation from day 1. Lessons from Uber

One of the pleasures of working in a start-up office space is being surrounded by entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs, which makes for an interesting, exciting and positive environment.

In the rush to get up-and-running, generating revenue and turning a profit, most start-ups focus on product and marketing. This is eminently sensible: both are building blocks of a strong and healthy reputation.

But long-term reputation and communications are often overlooked in the mix. Uber’s current travails are an obvious example of this, with its perceived arrogance and willingness to play dirty resulting in severe friction with local authorities and access issues in multiple markets.

On which, here is an article I penned recently for Jumpstart HK magazine on how start-ups can build trust from the get-go.

See also my presentation on the same topic.