Why us?
One of the worst feelings in the world is being blindsided, by people, events, unexpected needs or developments, or just a lack of cash when you need it most. Our team has been through the good, the bad and the ugly in multiple startups, and has mentored hundreds of fellow entrepreneurs over the last 15 years and counting, with almost 100 free individual meetups for Longmont Startup community over the last 2 years. We have raised and helped raise millions of dollars, in good times and bad, and understand the current challenging but vibrant startup and venture markets, their pitfalls, and what the “prerequisites of capital” are in this ever shifting environment. Awareness allows you to control and mitigate, which allows you to WIN. Without awareness of the business and startup landscape, a 360 degree evolving understanding of the ecosystem you have dived into, you really have only an accidental chance of success, no matter how talented or dedicated and hard working you and your team are. The sooner you get this, the better it grows over time.
“The universe is a tough place. Even tigers struggle. You have to produce.”
Business MindSight can help you do that, with less money, less time, less mistakes, and even ride the worst storms out in the process. We give you a fighting chance to win, and win big, with knowledge, plans and understanding of the dynamics of a growing startup before you get hit by a wall of water that takes you out.
How we can help. Typically startups have major and minor gaps in their planning and thinking, and even if they are not fatal in the moment, they slow them down, delay funding, sales, expansion, profits, etc., wekening the enterprise or exhausting it until one crisis or another takes them out. These gaps in your plans exist whether you are aware of them or not, have a plan for them or not, and they are waiting to blindside you either on the presentation stage in front of investors, or much worse, in the course of your business life, usually when things seem to be going great.
There are viable strategies to mitigate and resolve all of these, even with little initial funding but they first require awareness, then some deep thought, planning and articulation to execute on.
Investors, strategic partners, team members, all want to know you have a solid plan and structure before betting their money, reputation or time on your venture and vision. We can help you fill those gaps in before you find yourself too far down the rabbit hole. Its one thing to get onstage and pitch to investors, its another to have the substance and depth to get actual funding and traction. All of this is practical, logical and common sense, but not common knowledge. We round out your knowledge base so that your business mindsight is 360 degrees, and help you find the team and resources that fill the gaps we find.
We first march you and your team through an overarching and thorough look at the various elements and dimensions of successful startups, making sure we have a credible strategy in each area. Even if you can’t execute on all the pieces that quickly, it gives you a deep understanding of the essential components investors, customers and strategic partners look for in a company.
More importantly, we teach you how to think, how to approach these business problems creatively, systematically, and find the hidden leverage to mitigate the problems and maximize the opportunities.
While we can offer you a detailed map and guidance on the various elements and milestones of that startup journey, and be a helpful navigator, you are the captain of your fate, so to speak. In this engagement, we do not row, clean galleys or even hoist the sales, but we can tell you how to build and stock your ships, recruit your crew, navigate the stars, where the straits of Magellan are, (and how to get through them), what rocks to watch out for, what conditions to expect, including doldrums, sheer panic, sirens, exhilaration and the sweet promise and possibility of treasures if you succeed. Your business and phase are unique, but here is an overview of the kinds of things we drill down on with startups, in various phases. One of those basic consulting packages looks like this:
Overview of “Gold” package: 90 day term+
- (12) Weekly calls – 60 – 75 minutes, recorded
- Online Accountability Navigator to keep on track
- E-mail access between scheduled calls
- Topics will include but not be limited to:
“Prerequisites” to Capital and a Winning Business: Overview and Mindset
-
- Setting Up the Entity Legally and Properly for Growth and Exit
- C-Corp vs LLC vs S-Corp or LLP
- Ideation to MVP
- Idea to outline to storyboard to demo to working prototype
- Avatar Testing to Market Fit
- Parameters of Avatars, gender, age, $$, political leaning, children, etc.
- Blue Ocean exercise of various strengths in different markets, i.e, video game vs piano lessons vs toy
- How to SWOT test any idea, person or plan
- Using a simple matrix with your team to flesh out hidden problems or challenges
- Relevant Markets and Potential Acquisition Candidates
- Possible Exits and Target ROI
- List of markets the idea affects, warmest beachheads to biggest red oceans, acquisitions in those markets.
- Business Model Strategy: From Baby Steps to Scaling the Product or Service Globally
- Cost of goods in various stages, early adopters vs mass adopters, logistical, financial and personnel barriers to growth
- Planning vs Scheduling:How to Unearth the True Costs in Time and Money and Team
- Planning with the end goals (nouns) in mind, then the pre-requisites, and the prerequisites of the prerequisites, in time, money, and personnel.
- Branding/Marketing the Product or Service: How to Create a Nuclear Message
- Simplifying to the most powerful essentials, how a SNAP helps you find your core branding messages, i.e., problem, solution, impact.
- Selling the Product or Service: Qualifying and Disqualifying Your Customer Candidates
- Identifying ideal customers and disqualifying the rest to close the happy few.
- Enrolling Team to Manage the Beast
- Finding, enrolling and growing your team BEFORE you need them (and have money!), who when and how.
- The “SCARF” Monkey Mind and How it Blindsides You and Your Team
- How Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness must be managed in your team.
- Protecting the Wins: Strategic IP, Board Structure and Business Strategies That Last
- IP Matrix, Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Trade Secrets and Licensing. Board of Directors and Board of Advisors to scale.
- Powerful 5 Minute Pitch: Getting the Money (investment, sales, strategic partner, etc.)
- Putting the pieces in place in a powerful presentation that gets you to the next stage of conversation.
- Setting Up the Entity Legally and Properly for Growth and Exit
Any of the above topics may require more than one call, as needed, and others that are not currently relevant may be skipped or postponed, per request with permission of the client, so we can focus on the current pain points stopping the business from moving forward. We can also work “a la carte”, individual or group sessions around a particular topic or issue you are wrestling with or that is urgent.
If needed, we may bring in other vetted experts at our expense (i.e., included in the consultant package and contract) to dive deeper as needed. (i.e, an IP attorney, fractional CFO, a growth marketer, an engineer.) If desired, you as the client are free to work out arrangements with those experts as needed, without further compensation to consultant.
Our goal is you have not just a solid business plan and model, but an operational one that you understand, and that can be executed on, and can evolve, pivot and help you survive because its very grounded and well rounded.
Should we finish the 90 day session and you wish to continue to engage us, there is a whole planning, mind mapping and project management phase to help you and your team execute on your now solidified plans. This is more concrete, involving more homework, flowcharts, storyboards, teamwork, etc. but the skills you will learn will serve you through the life of your company and beyond.
Contact us to set up a free 40 minute strategy session, and see if it is a fit for you and/or your team. Bring your pain and current challenges and let’s see if we can’t help you through. Any tools or insights we share are yours to keep and use regardless. We only matter if we make a difference.
Email Chris@businessmindsight.com
Text or cell at 813-505-2995
Check here for available times to book appointments.
http://bit.ly/AppointmentsWithChris
