Startups should prioritize securing high-profile anchor reference customers to establish legitimacy
Teresa Carlson · How AWS Sold Cloud to the CIA – Teresa Carlson GCI · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea · May 11, 2026 · at 48:23
Teresa Carlson, former AWS executive and CEO of General Catalyst Institute, advises AI startups on the necessity of landing recognizable public and commercial reference accounts.
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“So I really think these startups should over-focus. Once they have what they're doing, spend time getting the right customers, getting the customer to say you're doing a good job, going after those contracts, really working to make sure that they have scale and growth in revenue, because again, it legitimizes them that you have customer usage that you can go back and say, okay, CIA, CIA is using it. NRO or JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs. You can use that as a reference point over and over.”
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