From First Contact to Public Contract

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how technology-based startups acquire their first public-sector customer and which actions help them progress from early engagement to a signed contract. The study addresses a gap between first-customer acquisition research and public procurement research by focusing on the process through which a startup translates technological potential into a procurement-compatible offer. Empirically, the thesis uses a single embedded qualitative case study of Stella’s acquisition of Company X as its first major public-sector customer. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews and project documents, examined through Gioia-inspired coding and process reconstruction. The findings suggest that first public-customer acquisition unfolds through five mechanisms: access formation, problem co-definition, legitimacy substitution, proof translation, and formal convergence. The thesis contributes by showing that successful acquisition depends not only on product quality or personal relationships, but on the startup’s ability to build credibility, co-define the public problem, produce auditable evidence, and align its commercial interests with the buyer’s formal procurement requirements.