We saw an opportunity to help new ventures create value faster, and increase their chances of success — when our research showed that many startups fall short of their potential after making common, avoidable errors.
Who is our Venture Catalyst service for?
Leaders of new and emerging, high-tech ventures who:
- want to build a sustainable, profitable business;
- care about increasing their chances of success; and
- value getting across the finish line faster, and with less investment.
It’s also for management teams of emerging ventures who understand what needs to be done, but need help getting it done — either because they lack bandwidth; or because attacking certain key milestones requires expertise outside the core strengths of the current team.
What challenge does this service address?
Many new technology ventures fail, and many more fall short of their potential. All too often this happens as a result of repeating one of a set of common (avoidable) mistakes made by many others in the past.
In other cases, the management team knows what needs to be done but lacks bandwidth, or perhaps the necessary skill sets, to get it done fast enough.
Increase startup success rates (more details).
Objectives
To help managers of emerging, high-tech ventures:
- decide how to create value as fast as possible;
- get on that optimal value creation path;
- avoid the classic startup errors we see all too often; and
- reach the key, often neglected, value-creating commercial milestones.
Benefits
We provide independent, objective, experienced feedback on whether (or not):
- your business is tracking along the path of maximal value creation;
- you may be headed for one of the common startup pitfalls; or
- important, value-creating milestones are getting insufficient attention.
Armed with this information, you can fine tune the business so it tracks along the optimal value creation path.
Then we embark together on a process of attacking key, value-creating milestones that you want to hit, but which your team lacks expertise, or bandwidth, to get done in a timely manner. You get intensive, roll-up-the-sleeves-type help actually executing whatever is needed to complete the milestones. And you get access to the set of skills that are appropriate for the task, on an as-needed basis.
The skills we can bring to bear on these projects include:
- a CEO-level approach to value creation & the big picture;
- strategic thinking skills;
- industry analyst expertise;
- an understanding of what future products a novel technology might enable;
- expertise in interacting with potential customers to learn what they will need in the future, and which products might meet those needs; and
- the art of using IP to create sustainable competitive advantage.
Our approach
Working closely with the management team of an emerging venture, these engagements are hands-on, intensive projects, typically lasting for a period of 3-6 months, focused on accomplishing specific business objectives. These objectives vary significantly from company to company, but typically relate to how to create value faster, and to completing specific, value-creating milestones.
Our approach involves an unusual blend of analysis, strategic advice, and roll-up-the-sleeves, hands-on help in execution. We often get deeply involved in activities like:
- refining the business model;
- analyzing the market and industry;
- figuring out the details of the unmet need;
- refining the IP strategy, and source of long term competitive advantage; &
- tweaking the product definition, so the product will be a superior solution.
Depending on the skills of your team, and their available bandwidth, the engagement can range from relatively hands off, where we do most of the leg work, to much more collaborative, where our role is to complement in-house expertise.
To take the next step
- Contact Us: to discuss your company, or ask questions about how we work.