Measuring trust at your startup

Yesterday I met a founder who uses trust as a success metric.

I asked how he measures trust and he said that they've found ways to triangulate it. His hypothesis is that an increase in trust will lead to accelerating returns. I agree.

Sounds crazy, right? I'm not just talking about NPS here.

Developing deeper trust with customers, partners, employees, and investors will warrant better results even if that means sacrificing short term profits for long term growth.

I won’t get into the quantitative vs qualitative measurement battle today, but what's clear is that in an environment like this, you need to be creative.

Industries like ecommerce and SaaS are becoming easier for founders to start businesses.

This means that the arbitrage opportunities that have historically made it easy for startups to grow are starting to dry up. There are of course new opportunities but they are still murky.

Like this founder, I believe we have to start leaning into measuring trust as a way to grow.

The logic goes like this:

1. Instinctually we think that trust is important for business

2. It's getting easier for entrepreneurs to start businesses

3. Therefore arbitrage opportunities are drying up (though new ones are being created)

4. Doing things outside of the box will help startups break through, stand out, and grow

5. Measuring trust is a way to do that

6. You deliver more value, profits increase