Unusual Ventures’ Post

Only half of startups make it to the five-year mark. Just 0.2% hit $100 million in annual revenue. If you want to build a company that lasts, you need to get 3 elements right — product, GTM and operations. But there’s a catch. I like to think of it as a three-layer cake — the kind you might have at a traditional wedding, where one tier sits on top of the other. At the base is a great product. No matter how good your sales team is or how operationally savvy your CEO may be, without solid product at the base, the business is doomed to fail. Layered on top of that base are two additional tiers: GTM excellence and operational excellence. Each of these is also important to sustaining growth and achieving scale. They build off of great product to take a startup to the next level. If either of these layers is weak, you won’t have much of a cake … or much of a business.. The fundamental job of the founder or CEO is to establish that solid product base, while also integrating the other two essential layers and ensuring they’re stable. I shared with Fast Company what I’ve learned about having your cake … and eating it, too: https://bit.ly/3VmlY37

A quick thought for business owners when building your company; start with the end in mind 🎯 This is especially relevant for tech companies. There are typically four destinations to building a tech company: 1. Company grows into a lifestyle business 👌 2. Company enters the “venture rat-race" 🏇 3. Company exits to private equity or a strategic acquirer ♟️ 4. Company fails 📉 Obviously no business owner is going to be building for #4 so we’ll ignore that, but think through the path to get to the first 3: 1. Lifestyle business - You’re likely bootstrapped, growing slowly, but profitably and focused on building a “traditionally healthy company” (EBITDA focused) where you’re funding your lifestyle 2. Venture track - You’re fighting to capture a HUGE market in a “winner-takes-all” game that is most focused on growth 3. PE/Strategic acquisition - This can encompass companies from the other two options, but typically it’s a combination of profitable companies with moderate growth that the acquirer believes they can grow faster/more profitably than the current team (i.e., increasing the value of the asset) OR the acquisition adds value to a current company What’s the takeaway? These are 3 very different paths. The problem: many leaders (owners, CEOs, founders, etc.) are building without a clear vision towards the end goal. And they don’t notice this until they're looking to retire, thinking about their future, etc. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Sheesh, this hits home and I want to go onto the next part of my journey but not sure what I’m going to do with my business.” Don’t worry, you’re not alone and I hear this a lot. Happy to discuss further to see what could make the most sense for your business (DM me)! #exit #MaximizingValue 

Strategy Related processes needed to scale any company - Number 12 to 17 From the AirTight Management Growth & Scaling Workshop #3 - Top 40 Processes Needed to Scale. You need to do 100+ things well to scale a company. Only 1 in 400 companies ever reach $10M in sales, and 1 in 6,300 reaches $100M. Most people fail to systematize their operations, management, finance, marketing and sales well. And fail to develop and control their culture too. This is just an extract from our monthly workshops on scaling companies. Register for a free workshop on growing companies at: https://lnkd.in/g3uTpuYk This monthly event is for CEOs at $1M plus companies and those preparing to scale in the years to come. It is held on the first Wednesday of each month and replays are sent to registrants. And get lots of free resources for startups under $1M annual sales at www.EntrepreneurshipU.com. We help companies get to $10M, then $100M in sales after product-market fit is achieved by installing everything needed to scale. See www.AirTightGrowth.com.

Happy Friday! Today’s question is from business partners with very different ideas about growth. Enjoy! Dear FFF, A friend and I started our manufacturing business five years ago as 50-50 partners. It was a slow start, COVID-19 being part of that, but we’ve really taken off in the past couple of years. We’re making good money, and it all seems pretty manageable. The challenge is my partner, who wants us to pursue venture capital to help us expand super quickly. In my mind, taking venture money = stress. They’ll want to get paid back a 10x return as quickly as possible, and that will destroy our culture. It’s not that I don’t want to grow. I do! I want to grow the right way: steady and manageable. We’ve been debating this for months, and we’ve reached an impasse where we’re barely talking. How can I get my partner to accept a slower growth model?  - Out of Sync  ***  Dear Out of Sync, Congratulations on getting through COVID and to a place of success! That’s awesome and you should be super proud of yourself. Partnerships can be a wonderful way to share resources, maximize expertise, and allow for productive collaboration. Partnerships can also be a nightmare, especially if you haven’t worked out a decision-making structure to overcome a situation like the impasse you’re facing… Click below to read or listen to the rest!     Xcelerate Women Caroline Lewis Cara Turano

I'm deeply committed to assisting businesses in their growth journey, and one key element often overlooked is a clear 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧. While speed is essential, it must be backed by a robust operational framework and thoughtful decision-making processes. Some less apparent factors to consider include Shared Values, which shape how companies tackle challenges, the importance of Structuring Roles to support growth effectively, and Defining Scope by focusing on the most promising internal and external opportunities. How about you? Have you integrated a Scaling Plan into your strategy sessions to ensure comprehensive and sustainable growth with your team? Here are six areas founders should focus on when building their company. #BusinessGrowth #ScalingStrategy #OperationalExcellence

Top 40 Processes to Scale - Your Secret Sauce(s) - From the AirTight the Growth & Scaling Workshop - Your "Hedgehog" concept, proprietary process(es). You need to do 100+ things well to scale a company. Only 1 in 400 companies ever reach $10M in sales, and 1 in 6,300 reaches $100M. Most people fail to systematize their operations, management, finance, marketing and sales well. And fail to develop and control their culture too. This is just an extract from our monthly workshops on scaling companies. Register for a free workshop on growing companies at: https://lnkd.in/g3uTpuYk This monthly event is for CEOs at $1M plus companies and those preparing to scale in the years to come. It is held on the first Wednesday of each month and replays are sent to registrants. And get lots of free resources for startups under $1M annual sales at www.EntrepreneurshipU.com. We help companies get to $10M, then $100M in sales after product-market fit is achieved by installing everything needed to scale. See www.AirTightGrowth.com.

How to achieve a sustainable start up business and how to then build economic scale.

Super interesting perspective. How can we limit the regret of our actions? While decisions are reversible, don’t fall into a trap of being indecisive and repeatedly changing course. Make mistakes and learn lessons

I talked to over 50 founders in the last 8 months. The number one problem they faced was.. any guesses? Scaling up. Even founders running million dollar companies said that scaling their business while maintaining the quality of their product/service was the most challenging part. And honestly, I didn’t gain any concrete strategy on “how to scale your business” from these conversations. Yup, I received interesting insights. But most of the scaling up process for big companies seemed to be very organic and the foundation of this organic growth was customer trust. Customer’s trust is probably the most valuable and underrated asset of a brand. But I am still looking for a solid framework or theory that helps understand the idea of growing a business easier. Thoughts?

🤯 As businesses grow from start-ups to scale-ups and beyond, they often find themselves struggling with organic #complexity. The strategies and practices that once drove rapid expansion become tangled in this complexity, turning from enablers of growth into potential constraints. 🤔 Businesses must now #rethink and #evolve their initial business models and organizational frameworks, moving towards a more structured approach that supports sustainable growth, scalability, and readiness to meet future challenges and complexities. 👉 Our blog topic this week: https://lnkd.in/enV4rdec #enterprisearchitecture #growthstrategy #futureproof #knowledgesharing