My Approach
There can be a lot of hype in venture building. The truth is that we can’t fool the customer (not for long, at least)
Successful companies are built with the problem they solve for top of mind. This is the fundamental belief behind what I do. Accordingly, I take a structured end-to-end approach to:
Understand the struggling moments that motivate customers to find solutions to problems.
Build and improve differentiated products with distinctive sales and marketing that get the job done.
Develop teams and align operations to deliver the desired product experience “every time.”
My services and methodology are designed to address and mitigate the top reasons startups fail.*
Building the Wrong Product
This happens when there isn’t a viable problem to be solved, or there is one, and you built the wrong product to solve it.
Mis-Sizing the
Market
This happens when there is a problem and you’ve built a valuable product, but the market opportunity is too small to support the business or your objectives for the business.
Failing to Manage Resources
This happens when post-launch you run out of time (and money) to find product-market fit for your product and solidify your business model.
There’s a fourth failure mode to avoid too …
This happens when leaders fail to take the time needed to build a climate and culture within their organization where team members feel safe and supported and, in return, commit themselves fully to the business.
* Tom Eisenmann.How I Work Across the Venture Lifecycle
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In the Discover stage, we identify and explore problem spaces, test solution ideas, and evaluate their business prospects. This is the start of building a successful and sustainable business that has real impact. Sometimes in my work we need to revisit this stage because we missed something before moving to stage two.
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The Build stage may be the most challenging stage of venture building. A team has been assembled, and the product has been launched. I collaborate with the CEO and founding team on customer and product, ensure ideas are executed and take on all or part of company operations.
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After we’ve found product-market fit, a viable business model and a clear strategy, we begin the Scale stage. We build more stable practices and processes, ensuring the organization can endure in the long run. I support the transition to dedicated functional leaders as it becomes time to define and hire those roles, before stepping aside.
My Framework
Venture Plan on a Page
Over the years I have found there is a gap in management frameworks and tools for startups. Early-stage ventures are more dynamic than the Lean Canvas can support, and there are too many unknowns to apply the Entrepreneurial Operating System, or “EOS.”
So I have developed my own approach to navigating this period in the life of a company. In addition to applying this framework to my projects, I’m now in the process of documenting it in a simple one-page format.
As I go along, I'm sharing the Venture Plan on a Page, or “VPop,” hoping it will be helpful to CEOs and co-founders. I will also write a User Guide that will accompany the final version.
