I came across this recent and interesting webinar by Sheel Mohnot of 500 Startups, on trends in Fintech; a must watch for those new to the topic. It describes the various sub categories of the sector, what drives them, and offers some really good insights into customer behaviour and the dynamics between innovating startups and the
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Online marketplaces have become an integral part of our how we discover and buy goods and services, in an increasingly digital economy. The most successful ones such AirBnB, eBay and OpenTable to name a few, have achieved deep liquidity and powerful network effects that make them almost impossible to copy or displace. However, for every
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I have recently been reminded of the importance and simultaneously of the difficulty of planning in a start-up. On one hand, as soon as a founding team is done with the product market fit phase, pressure increases to start charting a roadmap for growth and articulating how they will go to market and scale. On
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When start-ups are in the early stage of their development, one the main focus areas of their marketing strategy is lead generation. This is essential to get commercial traction and start building a funnel of opportunities. Founding teams are still experimenting with their unique selling points, and they try to engage customers and spread their
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One of the main aspects of professionalising a growing start-up consists in establishing a robust system of goals and accountabilities. One that focuses team members on ambitious projects and aligns them with the overall strategy. This is not a trivial task given the behavioural and culture changes involved. This is where the OKR framework comes
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A study of the survival rate of newly created companies by the Enterprise Research Centre in 2013, in the UK, found that only 54% manage to live past three-year. Furthermore, only 2% manage to scale over the same time period to reach one million £ turnover. A sobering statistic, illustrating once more the risks and
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SaaS businesses are more complex to optimize and grow than others. This is because their business model requires important upfront investments, to develop the platform and acquire customers, while the recurring revenue stream materialises later and over a long period of time. This renders profitability harder to measure, and creates cash flow challenges during growth
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When a start-up reaches the point where its product is ready for commercial validation, the founding team quickly realises that its next priority is to get the right people in place to manage this delicate phase. Amidst the excitement and turbulence of this phase, the founders are aware they navigate uncharted waters. They know their sales model
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Pricing is one of the most important and complex issues faced by any business, especially start-ups. In the words of Warren Buffet: “the single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power”. However, too many teams still find it hard to get pricing right. A recent study in the Harvard business review found
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Once a start-up has established product-market fit and a scalable and repetitive sales model, it’s time to start thinking of how to accelerate revenue growth. Leveraging channel partners can be a great way of doing just that. When the timing is right, channel partners can enable a start-up to test new markets and find new
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