Positioned to Launch
Launching and growing your company through its earliest stages is a tricky act of balancing market strategy, product development, sales execution, administrative necessity and more against the the resource constraints every startup experiences. Success requires making sharp decisions at an often frantic pace while not always being sure which questions deserve priority. And, just to make it interesting, you’re pressured by limited financial liquidity, the fuel you need to launch.
- When should I ship version 1 and when should I iterate for version 2?
- Have I nailed the perfect value proposition that will resonate with the market?
- Which positions do I hire for first and what experience and skills do they need?
- How do I build a sales team? A marketing team? An engineering team?
- How do I balance investment in new product development vs customer support?
- Do I have the right funding I need to get to the next milestone?
The promising potential of your business can remain unrealized if one or more of the balls flying through the air are dropped. And they will not stop flying at you. They will only multiply.
Perhaps the most difficult transition for founders is coming to the realization that while their personal charisma that led to early product and customer wins was exciting and heady, it is an approach that will not scale.
Investment with Action
We know the importance of matching founder skill and enthusiasm with meaningful capital investment to keep the lights on and business momentum going. We also know momentum means nothing if you move in the wrong direction or you extend beyond what your resources will allow.
This is why we prefer to engage with our portfolio companies to offer practical operational insights and help them take calculated steps to effectively cross the gap between the first few customers and a scalable, market-ready business positioned for additional capital investment from the right partner.
Our companies appreciate our role as a responsive sounding board to help them thoughtfully plan and execute on their business strategies and goals, without getting in the weeds of their day-to-day operations.