---
id: "quote-hardware-over-powerpoint"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["\\\"§ Show", "Don't Tell\\\""]
tags: ["sales", "credibility"]
related: ["concept-show-dont-tell", "action-hardware-before-pitch", "entity-peter-beck"]
speaker: "Peter Beck"
speakers: ["Peter Beck"]
quote: "It’s easy to promise the world on a PowerPoint. It’s a lot more challenging to show up to an investor or customer meeting with hardware that works—but that’s the approach we’ve taken since the very beginning in order to prove that we are the real deal and to build instant trust and credibility."
sources: ["tail2"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail2"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-tail-119-rocket-lab-founder"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/03/the-founder-of-rocket-lab-on-competing-with-billionaires-to-lead-in-space"
sourceTitle: "The Founder of Rocket Lab on Competing with Billionaires to Lead in Space"
---
# Hardware Over PowerPoint

**Context:** Explaining the [[concept-show-dont-tell|'Show, Don't Tell']] philosophy, [[entity-peter-beck|Beck]] highlights the aerospace industry's tendency to overpromise and underdeliver, and how Rocket Lab countered it by showing up with finished products — operationalized in [[action-hardware-before-pitch]].

> It's easy to promise the world on a PowerPoint. It's a lot more challenging to show up to an investor or customer meeting with hardware that works—but that's the approach we've taken since the very beginning in order to prove that we are the real deal and to build instant trust and credibility.