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If You Charge Premium Prices, You Don't Get to Make This Mistake.
I have absolutely no problem paying a premium price for a premium experience.
But if you're going to charge me a premium price, you better deliver.
Kim and I went back to The Bedford by Martha Stewart while we were in Las Vegas this week.
We've been there before and had outstanding meals.
This time? Not so much.
We ordered a very expensive steak to share. This wasn't a $40 steak. This was the kind of steak where you know exactly what you're getting into when you order it.
We ordered it medium.
It came out well done.
Not medium-well.
Well done.
I called the server over and told him we needed to send it back. At first he looked at me like I had three heads.
Then he looked at the steak.
"Oh yeah. That's definitely well done. Sorry."
They took it back and made us another one.
And here's where the story gets interesting.
The second steak was cooked perfectly.
The chef personally came out to make sure we were happy with it.
Then the manager came over to check on us.
They handled the mistake exactly the way you would want a great restaurant to handle it.
But I kept thinking about one thing:
That steak never should have left the kitchen.
That's the lesson.
Founders spend a lot of time thinking about the big things.
Product.
Revenue.
Fundraising.
Growth.
Hiring.
But as your company grows, your reputation is often built on a hundred little things nobody puts on a pitch deck.
How quickly do you respond to a customer?
What does your onboarding experience look like?
Does someone actually follow up when they say they will?
Does your product work the way you promised?
Does everyone on the team understand what "great" looks like?
Because the more you charge, the higher the expectation becomes.
And the more premium your positioning, the less room there is for "good enough."
I've seen this with startups countless times.
A founder tells me they're building the premium solution in their category.
Great.
Then I look at the deck and it's sloppy.
The website has broken links.
They take four days to respond to an investor.
The demo doesn't work.
The follow-up email has the wrong person's name in it.
None of those things individually kills a company.
But collectively?
They tell me something.
They tell me how much attention you're paying to the details.
And details matter.
Especially when you're asking someone to pay you a premium.
Or invest $500,000 in your company.
The Bedford recovered beautifully.
But the best companies don't just get really good at fixing mistakes.
They build systems that catch the mistakes before the customer ever sees them.
That's a very different standard.
And founders, if you want to build a premium company, it's the standard you should be chasing.
Because when you're charging premium prices, the details aren't little things.
The details ARE the product.
And "good enough" can't leave the kitchen.
Until next time—keep building.
Cheers,
Steve Walsh
Hands On Angel
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