InnoVenture

The struggles of scaling start-ups rapidly in S.C. https://lnkd.in/eRRa9-yC

Yesterday, I met with a young owner of a professional services firm. We discussed that you can have a successful small business providing custom solutions to each client. Most local professional service providers are like that. It's difficult to scale these businesses. You can scale a service business if you standardize the service. This can be a customized solution tailored to each client, but not a pure custom solution each time. That allows you to replicate processes to grow rapidly. You can define a qualified client. The sales discipline is getting to no as quickly as possible to build highly referral-based customers who see each other as peers. You get 1 customer, then 2, then 4, then 8, then 16, then 32, etc. The best, least expensive form of marketing is word of mouth, which happens when you become known as "the" solution for a given problem. It also allows you to define clear roles in both sales and delivery and to hire professionals with the qualifications for those roles. Data is the oil in this economy. You can create a data mote around your company, where many professionals in the field delivering a standard service rely on a central expert team, who develops deep expertise on both technical issues and market needs that is difficult for another firm to duplicate. The holy grail is then developing AI applications using this deep, proprietary data so that the AI agents begin to learn autonomously without human intervention. We are only at the very emergence of this capability, and it will transform the human experience in my grandchildren's lifetimes If you choose to sell the business at some point, you'll get paid a high premium if you have highly replicable processes and can pitch the investor, "Just add cash." If this resonates with you, schedule a call and let's talk. I'd love to explore helping you scale your business. https://lnkd.in/eT_6yxAp https://lnkd.in/gUrYa2in

SC ranks lowest in venture capital investments. What can we do? https://lnkd.in/eu-Qsezi

Many people in your audience at your next event have powerful, creative ideas. I'd love to inspire them to create enormous value from their ideas by Sculpting Intuition (https://lnkd.in/gUrYa2in). If you're planning an event, let's discuss how I can help make your event a huge success that people who attend remember for the rest of their careers. If you know someone planning an event, I'd appreciate a referral. Schedule a time to talk: https://lnkd.in/eMYhgcUc See more at: https://lnkd.in/dwesFaC3

Mike and I discuss Upstate Upstarts. The eclectic mix of companies highlights a challenge we have in developing a robust entrepreneurial community. https://lnkd.in/eu_JQBXr Schedule a time to talk about helping your company excel: https://lnkd.in/eT_6yxAp

I am finding people reaching out to me for help have a similar experience. In one case, an executive with lots of industry experience is going through the growing pains of a startup for the first time. In another, an executive with many years of experience in a company was promoted to CEO and is overwhelmed by his new responsibilities. In both cases, they feel somewhat inadequate and are wondering what they got themselves into! I find most of the leaders I work with have the answers inside. I have forty years of experience and scars to help you organize and test your informed intuition into a highly scalable, operationally excellent strategy. With a clear mission, I can help you inspire talented, creative people on your team to think outside-of-the box while being accountable for results. If you see your company in this, and let's schedule a time to talk about how your company can excel. If we are a good fit, we can explore how I can help on an ongoing basis. If not, hopefully you take away a valuable insight from our conversation you can use. Either way, you have nothing to lose. https://lnkd.in/eMYhgcUc https://lnkd.in/gUrYa2in

Sculpting Intuition is a short book I published this week that took me forty years of experience to write. The Sculpting Intuition Framework addresses six questions. * Who are your customers, and what problem are they trying to solve? * What is the vision that is exciting enough to attract the talent and capital necessary to realize it? * What is the entire solution required to completely satisfy the customers? * What milestones must be achieved for the idea to succeed? * Who is the leadership with a successful track record of doing what is essential to succeed? * What resources are required, and where will they come from? My experience is that these rotate in importance. Initially, the focus is on iterating to a great fit between the customer need and a deliverable solution. Then, the focus shifts to acquiring customers. That creates the need for more capital and talent. It requires executive leadership in key areas, like HR, who become accountable for achieving milestones. All of that requires acquiring more customers to generate the revenue to fund it and more talent and capital to put the needed infrastructure in place. That looks easy, but getting all six of those right simultaneously is deceptively difficult. I've hit a few out of the park but also whiffed at a few. That's the nature of this game. As Chairman of Earth Fare, we used this basic approach to grow into the country's leading regional organic grocery store chain. Sculpting Intuition emerged from a keynote presentation I made at an internal innovation conference for Sonoco, a global manufacturer of food packaging. I hope you find valuable insights from my experience. I'm seeking opportunities as a fractional executive to help organizations excel or as a keynote presenter to inspire audiences to achieve incredible results following their informed intuition. If I can help you, let's talk. If you know of others who can benefit, I'd appreciate a referral to follow up. Message me, and let's schedule a time to talk. https://lnkd.in/gUrYa2in

This will transform the human experience as profoundly as the development of language did. https://lnkd.in/eCF_s9ny

I've done it. I've published my manifesto to stop wasting the high-potential, intuitive insights of your most creative people by providing a Sculpting Intuition Framework to seize the best opportunities. Many people in and around organizations have informed intuition about creating enormous new value. Too many organizations ruthlessly squander this enormous potential because they don’t have processes to manage ambiguity. Well executed, the Sculpting Intuition Framework allows leaders to win big without knowing in advance who the winners will be. The Sculpting Intuition manifesto is not long, but it took over forty years to write. 😉 I've hit some out of the park. I've whiffed at a few. That's part of the game. I hope you gain valuable from insights you can use from my experience. https://lnkd.in/etFnmXwm

This week's SC Public Radio update about Greenville, SC, being the fastest-growing entrepreneurial city in the country. https://lnkd.in/e4r6bkWr