Remember when a big deal was just a handshake and a fax?

I was cleaning out my old office and found a folder from 2012 with a signed order from a factory in Ohio. Back then, getting that $85k contract took three in person meetings and a dozen phone calls over six weeks. The whole thing felt solid because you looked the other guy in the eye. Now, my biggest client is a company I've never met, and the whole deal was done over email and a video call. It's faster, sure, but I miss that weight the paper had in your hand. Do other founders feel like the personal touch in B2B is just gone for good?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee_bailey653mo ago

Man, my buddy closed a $120k deal on a handshake in a parking lot.

brookerobinson1mo ago

@the_oliver get what you mean about it feeling hollow. That Zoom thing doesn't leave the same mark. But here's something nobody talks about - the paper itself was almost like a backup plan. You could physically hold proof of the deal. Now everything lives in some cloud server that could vanish or get lost in a spam filter. That's a different kind of risk we just accepted without thinking.

the_oliver3mo ago

Signed my biggest deal yet over a Zoom without ever shaking the guy's hand and it feels hollow.