Welcome to Decision Lab

A Note from the Author

I'm Ujwal Arkalgud, a cultural anthropologist and entrepreneur with a passion for uncovering the deeper motivations that drive human behavior. My background lies in building profitable, product-led B2B technology businesses, including MotivBase, which I successfully bootstrapped and exited for a high eight-figure sum. The key to my success? My background in anthropology—applying my understanding of humans to solve complex decisions. This is exactly why I'm starting Decision Lab.

With each edition of Decision Lab, I aim to demonstrate how anthropology can truly unlock answers for leaders facing complex decision-making challenges. These insights have helped me navigate the world of B2B tech sales and product development, and I'm excited to share my experiences in this newsletter, helping you leverage cultural insights to drive your business forward.

Introduction

Welcome to the first edition of Decision Lab, a newsletter crafted for tech entrepreneurs, venture teams, and business leaders grappling with complex decision-making challenges. Here, we explore the cultural insights that shape the technology industry, particularly in the realms of Product Development, Sales, and Customer Experience. Each edition aims to provide practical, thought-provoking insights that can help you better understand the deeper motivations behind your customers' behaviors—and ultimately drive growth and innovation in your business. I'm excited to have you on this journey with me as we dive into the forces that influence the decisions we make every day.

The Authority-Transparency Tightrope: Navigating B2B Tech Sales

It was during one of our early sales meetings for MotivBase, my last B2B startup, that I first encountered a recurring dilemma: How much should we reveal? A client was curious about our proprietary methodology, asking questions that aimed to peek behind the curtain. As much as I appreciated the interest, it struck me how delicately we had to walk this line—too little information, and we seemed evasive; too much, and we risked giving away our intellectual property, ceding control of the narrative.

This tension—between being transparent enough to build trust while still holding the authority of expertise—is what I call the "Authority-Transparency Tightrope." In B2B tech sales, this dynamic often plays out in a balancing act where revealing too much can (counterintuitively) undermine a company's credibility, while not sharing enough can erode trust. It's a tightrope every tech leader must walk when selling innovative, IP-driven solutions.

Research has shown that both authority and transparency can be powerful factors in creating trust, though they operate through different mechanisms. While transparency is often heralded for building trust, the power of authority is less frequently discussed but equally important.

Authority as a Trust-Building Factor

Authority is a crucial element in trust-building, often as powerful as transparency. Expertise and competence are foundational to establishing authority—people tend to trust those they perceive as knowledgeable experts. Social proof also plays a significant role in building and demonstrating authority. Furthermore, perceived legitimacy, often derived from formal positions of authority, carries inherent trust due to its official status. In this way, authority establishes a sense of security, instilling confidence without needing to reveal every minute detail.

A Lesson from My Own Experience

At MotivBase, we operated within an industry accustomed to high levels of transparency—think traditional focus groups and surveys where clients could see the entire backend. But our novel technology-driven approach demanded a shift. We relied on advanced social sciences algorithms and proprietary data interpretation, and full transparency would have meant exposing the core of our IP—not to mention confusing our buyers.

We opted for what I often describe as an 80/20 split—80% authority, 20% transparency. We focused heavily on establishing ourselves as thought leaders, speaking at conferences, publishing, and sharing our insights into human-centered research, and building social proof by first acquiring customers who themselves had authority in the industry. This effort built trust and credibility without the need for us to expose every detail of our technology. By maintaining a position of authority, we could control the narrative while selectively revealing enough to keep our prospects engaged and confident without overwhelming them.

This strategy required patience and discipline. Far too often, I’ve seen growth-stage companies rely too heavily on expanding their sales teams without really thinking strategically about their go-to-market approach, depending on where they sit on the transparency-authority scale. This approach often leads to sales teams over-sharing on calls, confusing clients, dragging out sales cycles, and ultimately hindering growth.

Buffer's Different Approach

In contrast, Buffer, a social media management platform, builds credibility primarily through transparency. Buffer's transparency-focused approach works well in their mature industry where the key to creating a competitive advantage is not disruption but simplification, efficiency, and effectiveness.

While MotivBase had to lead with authority to disrupt an industry, Buffer leverages transparency because they are not trying to disrupt the industry but rather to simplify it. This demonstrates that the balance between authority and transparency is not one-size-fits-all; it must be carefully adapted to your industry, product, and the competitive landscape.

Takeaway for Tech Leaders

Think about your industry, your product, and the space it occupies. Consider what’s more important for your product: What is the balance between transparency and authority that allows you to navigate prospect questions and resistance effectively?

Have You Walked the Tightrope?

Have you experienced the challenge of balancing transparency and authority in your interactions with clients or teams? I'd love to hear how you approached it—share your thoughts and insights. Write to me about your challenges, and I may publish the advice anonymously in a subsequent edition.