Customer endorsements / use of customer logos on website

Question

This post [1] created an interesting discussion that seemed like it should have its own Ask HN. It seems that quite a few young sites will post the logos of its customers (potentially implying endorsement / commercial relationship). Are there best practices for doing this (if at all) and what advice would the HN community have for a startup seeking to promote itself by use of customer logos.1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21998632

detaro · Accepted Answer

Tricky, and very much depending on the details. Observations from a software field with individual, large contracts with customers: Customer attitude to this varies wildly, from "and $largeSum is your contract penalty if your official communications ever mention that you worked with us, and here's an NDA for every person touching our data/code" to "sure, we'll be a customer showcase at trade shows and ship you stuff and people for that".As a reader, I'll give a lot more weight to something with details attached. A medium-detailed blogpost about why a small company is working with you and what that gave them, or something I can see/confirm being used in practice, is worth a lot more than a meaningless Fortune 500/FAANG logo on the front page where I'll assume that "ok, one person with a corporate mail address signed up for that product, or maybe one small team uses it".

janemanos · Answer

Would say it comes down to what risk you are willing to take.
If you use a logo without permission especially from a larger corp, you might run into legal issues or maybe even jeopardize a deal that is in the making with your company.
Some public record clearly stating that a company X is using you can help to migitate the risk (public Job posting, article, webinar, etc.)
And of course always take down the logo if someone from the company is complaining. The very best is always to get permission from the companies marketing, business, legal or sometimes even hiring department, depending on the market you are in. Would recommend to go for case studies highlighting them and their solution and then get the logo that way.
Hope I could help a bit...

fpalmans · Answer

Get their permission, preferably in writing. If they love your product, you might also ask for a testimonial.The last company for which I worked usually added a clause stipulating that they could not be identified as a customer without explicit permission.