Day 46 in MIT Sloan Fellows Class 2023, Entrepreneurial Negotiation1, Negotiation Basics
Entrepreneurial Negotiation is basically about negotiation, but it is focusing on startup negotiation.
Why is it so specific to startup negotiation?
Because startup landscapes is massively different from other negotiations. They don't have fewer resources and have not developed a fixed way to discuss.
What are the specific features of startup negotiation?
- Emotion and Ego
- Relationship
- Uncertainty
- Technology
Startup negotiation is the most important management activity for them. Sometimes it is with colleagues, partners, co-founders, investors, lawyers, and advisors. The first step above all is mutual understanding. Forget your emotion and ego, try to understand your counterpart. All the discussion would be deeply affected by context and relationships. However, in another extreme, it is brutally uncertain. You can not be consistent in your opinion because of drastic situation changes. The final aspect of entrepreneurial negotiation is technical conversation. Many people struggle with understanding your technology, and you need to deliver some simple and understandable messages around this topic.
Role-playing and reflection
This course contains a lot of practice and reflection.
- How did you prepare for negotiations?
- After the negotiation, how well did you prepare for the negotiation?
- Is there any surprise? or is everything in your forecast?
- Do you have any learnings from negotiations?
- How would you try negotiations to get better outcomes?
