In the past few weeks, there has been a great deal of discussion about what Microsoft or Yahoo will do. It made me think about a blog entry I'd see a while back about the inexplicable behavior of large companies. The entry is well worth reading and uses a Moby Dick metaphor to describe guidelines for a smaller company trying to work with large companies:

1. don't do startups that require deals with big companies to make them successful
2. never assume that a deal with a big company is closed until the ink hits the paper and/or the cash hits the company bank account
3. be extremely patient
4. beware bad deals
5. never, ever assume a big company will do the obvious thing
6. be aware that big companies care a lot more about what other big companies are doing than what any startup is doing
7. if doing deals with big companies is going to be a key part of your strategy, be sure to hire a real pro who has done it before
8. don't get obsessed