We have had the honor of working with some awesome startups at different stages in their lifecycle. We've worked with clients that were pre-seed, post-seed, Series A, and self-funded.
We have had the honor of working with some awesome startups at different stages in their lifecycle. We've worked with clients that were pre-seed, post-seed, Series A, and self-funded. We really enjoy working with startups because of the unique challenges they face and their rapid ability to iterate and innovate.
Startups usually begin working with us because they are trying to raise money, want to grow faster, or are exploring a pivot. Often, startups wait too long to engage us. Ideally we would begin working with a startup well before they begin raising another round or exploring a pivot.
Startups generally operate on a 24-month cycle that is tied to their fundraising efforts. We generally advise clients to begin the fundraising process a year before they need the money in the bank. This allows them the time they need to prepare and pitch to potential investors. Once a startup raises a round, they have to hit some ambitious traction/growth goals in order to be well-positioned to raise the next round. This cycle continues until the company is no longer dependent on venture investment.
Often, startups talk to us when they realize that they are not well-positioned to raise their next round. This puts them in a challenging position because they are running out of money and need an investment in order to continue operating. Raising money is not primarily about access to investors or a well position pitch (although those things are important). What matters most in fundraising is traction. For most startups, the best way to demonstrate traction is to show significant growth and that customers love your product.
We begin by focusing on helping our startup clients understand what their customers want and how they can create more value through their product and customer experience. We can do this through a simple and relatively inexpensive assessment. What we discover through this process will highlight opportunities to better align what the startup is selling with what its customers want and need.
Once we have a clear plan to improve product-market fit and boost growth, we can use that to help the team raise money. We often tell our clients that traction is not just revenue and customer count. Our job is to help them leverage a deep understanding of their customers in order to drive meaningful growth and attract investors. Fortunately, the work we do to help them understand what their customers want and need is critical to every part of their business. We use what we learn to guide brand and product positioning, build out their product roadmap and design their growth strategy. We love working with startups because of how easily and quickly they can make massive changes and turn challenges into wins.
Here are some ways we help our startup clients.
Product positioning - Using value-based thinking, we can help our clients change the way that they position their products and what solutions they are offering their clients. Often times this is the cheapest and most impactful change an early-stage company can make.
Brand Strategy - Early-stage companies often don't have a clear brand positioning strategy that aligns with their product and their target market. We help our clients identify key messages, signals, and experiences they can use to engender trust and align their company with their customers and critical partners.
Fundraising - We help our clients identify the most important things to show investors and how to build their pitch around a compelling narrative of where they are going. From the customer experience to the pitch deck, we help our clients position themselves for investment.
Pivot plan - Through our assessment process, we work to understand whether or not a pivot is necessary. Sometimes, targeting a new type of customer or repositioning the product is all thats is needed. If a pivot is necessary, though, we help our clients build out a pivot strategy and design a way to test their assumptions before spending time and money.
Growth Strategy - Once a startup is on the right track, the big question is how can they drive growth. We can help our clients build a growth strategy around the unique value they create for their customers and translate that to the rest of their business operations to ensure they create delighted customers.
