About RIG

The most important success factor in working with entrepreneurs: matching development stages

Whenever we have particular successes or particular failures with the startups in our portfolio I tend to try figuring out what was behind them. I think it’s important to think about patterns of behaviour that we should aim to repeat or avoid next time around if similar circumstances come to pass. Failure is an intrinsic part of working with startups but failures can be reduced or limited by paying attention to these points.

A quick reminder of what RIG does for those coming across us for the first time: we have a team of advisors who specialise in helping startups scale up to become sustainable businesses. Our model is similar to a VC’s model in that we have an element of fees and an element of ‘upside’ linked to the success of the startups with which we work. As a result, like a VC, we have limited space in our portfolio, and failure can mean working with the wrong companies over a long period without great success just as much as working with companies that crash out quickly and spectacularly. We also invest financially in startups which we really believe in.

Last week one of the companies in our portfolio had a great success – they won a significant contract with a major player in their target market, after a year of our combined hard work figuring out every aspect of market strategy, complex customer buying processes, the value proposition, the pricing, and the product development strategy. I tried to reflect on what has made this project successful to date and it struck me how important it was that we agreed about which development stage the startup was in.

At RIG we talk about three key development stages that all startups go through in their journey to becoming a sustainable business: finding a business model, building capability, and realising value. They broadly reflect other categorisations of phases that we’ve seen from other industry commentators such as Steve Blank’s Customer Discovery, Customer Validation, Customer Creation, and Company Building, and Ash Maurya’s Problem/Solution fit, Product/Market fit, and Achieving Scale. I think that the biggest determinant of a successful relationship and a successful collaboration with an entrepreneur as an investor or advisor is that you agree on the startup’s development stage.

Looking back at some of the startups I’ve worked with that have not done so well, the relationships I’ve had with the entrepreneurs have almost always been characterised by a difference in opinion about the development stage. I recall that one entrepreneur was convinced that his startup had a market-winning product that clearly solved a serious problem in his target market, but during the course of our collaboration we spoke to players in the market who didn’t understand how the product applied to them or how they would use it. Another entrepreneur felt unsure about fully committing his resources to a market strategy that had started to work, switched business model, and went back to discovery mode.

These differences are crucial because your development stage dictates everything about how you as the entrepreneur should invest your startup’s limited resources – in other words, it dictates your entire strategy.

Trying to optimise, outsource, and streamline your processes when you haven’t yet found a business model (i.e., you haven’t validated customer demand and therefore haven’t reached problem/solution fit) simply wastes a lot of money. In this stage you need your best resources at the front line learning from the customer and feeding back to your market strategy, proposition, and so on. Conversely, once you have real evidence of customer demand, spending time away from focussed execution will only slow your growth rate – sometimes to such an extent that you miss the market opportunity and never get past the startline.

I think that our recent success comes down as much as anything else to the fact that we all agreed that the startup was still trying to find its place in the world: working out where its product had the most value, who would pay a good price for it, and how to find those customers at acceptable cost. The entrepreneur didn’t try to go too quickly and didn’t get too disheartened by following a few paths with dead-ends. And now that they have a solid proof point of the right kind of customer demand they can shift into execution mode with renewed confidence.

I would be fascinated to hear the thoughts of investors who are asked to invest sometimes for discovery and sometimes for scaling. I would guess that if an entrepreneur asks for money with the promise of scale and then spends it on discovery, or vice-versa, then the relationship will almost inevitably deteriorate.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Posted by Paul Higgins on March 26, 2012 at 2:07 pm in About RIG, Blog, Entrepreneurship | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackback (0)

         

Competitive differentiation – are you the WiFi or the cinnamon?

Around our offices in Red Lion Square there must be 50 cafes within 5 minutes’ walk. There are the big chains – Starbucks (two of them), Caffe Nero, Costa Coffee; there are bakery cafes; there are outdoor stall cafes; there are sit-down-for-lunch cafes; there are takeaway cafes. Lots of choice.

Sitting in one of the two Starbucks the other day, to which I’d been coming regularly for 18 months, I realised that Starbucks had successfully differentiated itself in my mind as one of the better options for me.

For a long time Starbucks was the only major coffee shop chain in London to offer free wireless internet to all its customers. It was also the only one that stocked cinnamon shakers so that you could add your own cinnamon to your coffee.

So for 18 months I’ve been going regularly to Starbucks despite the fact that it’s not the most friendly cafe in the area; it’s not the best coffee; it’s not the closest to the office; and it doesn’t do the best food. But it has free wireless internet (I don’t care much for cinnamon).

In fact I can’t imagine there are many people who would consistently choose Starbucks for its cinnamon shaker whereas I know plenty who go there for its internet.

I often meet entrepreneurs that are competing in very crowded markets – particularly in the B2C world of apps or consumer internet – and they talk through their “significant”, “compelling”, and “unique” competitive differentiators and USPs.

Unfortunately a lot of the time those differentiators can sound like cinnamon and not like free internet.

Follow @paulhigginz

Posted by Paul Higgins on March 2, 2012 at 12:03 pm in About RIG, Blog, Entrepreneurship, Sales, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

         

The Personal Brand Wheel

As we were discussing current renovations to our company website, our director began talking about ways to define each person’s individual expertise and area of focus. What’s your brand? Answering the question directly poses significant challenges. It’s a bit like being asked, “What’s your culture?” There’s no simple answer to the question, but an accurate answer can be obtained through a roundabout series of questions that hit upon component parts. In other words, one can arrive at an answer by looking at sources that make up a specialisation or brand.

Out of this discussion, the Personal Brand Wheel emerged on our whiteboard. The Personal Brand Wheel is a guide for establishing each consultant’s personal sphere of expertise and desired clientele:

The wheel is really designed for those who already have extensive experience and have learned about their own preferences and working styles from that experience.

It can be used to assess the fit of a new or potential client with the established personal brand of each consultant. Will it be a good match? What are the issues to look out for? Is there perhaps someone else who would be better suited to working with this particular client on the basis of preferences and style?

RIG is a knowledge- and people-based business. While process is important, RIG understands the importance of matching people and working styles. At the end of the day, business comes down to people, so understanding each consultant’s expertise, preferences, style, and ambitions helps streamline the company as a whole and ultimately perform better services for RIG’s clients.

Posted by Aaron Ralby on January 9, 2012 at 12:23 pm in About RIG, Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

         

Becoming (in)credible

As a recent graduate working with start ups (not infrequently run by people who would themselves be considered ‘young’ in the corporate world), I think credibility is one of the biggest issues a young professional comes up against. The trouble with credibility, and this is by no means a new problem, is that it has historically been associated with age and experience; a 22-year-old is thereby automatically less credible than an older counterpart.

However, social media has changed the nature of the credibility question. Anyone who takes 15 seconds to do a Google search for me can easily discover the year I finished university and when I started work; it’s not an enormous leap from there to deduce my age and experience. Maybe that’s my fault for having an uncommon name, but I think the point holds true on a broader scale given the extreme potential for tracking just about anyone through tools like stalkbook and StalkedIn. Trying to conceal your age or relatively little professional experience is simply not possible in overcoming the credibility gap. Coupled with the awkward selfies and angst-ridden blogs lurking out there for those of us who went through adolescence on Myspace and Bebo, social media can seem like a young professional’s worst enemy.

We all know the value of being seen as reliable and able to deliver: it is the key to being taken seriously as a professional and the ‘+1’ factor in networking. The trouble is actually getting to be credible. Although social media might sometimes be a hindrance, it can also be turned to the advantage of the young professional. Credibility hinges on trustworthiness and expertise, both of which can be developed by purposefully building an online presence.

We must firstly be constantly aware of the fact that anything we do on the internet could become public knowledge. I have a hard time viewing as credible anyone I don’t personally know whose social network settings allow me to see photos of them on the lash in Ibiza. That’s not to say I don’t believe in having a laugh, but slack privacy makes people appear somehow less professionally trustworthy. This seems like an obvious point, but as a recruitment manager who makes a habit of checking out all applicants on facebook, it apparently isn’t.

Blogs and Twitter can provide the means for establishing referable expertise, so long as you are addressing the people you want to hear you about relevant issues. This may simply consist of commenting on other people’s thoughts, but it’s still an important way of expressing engaging points of view.

Write about what interests your audience, be they recruiters, customers or peers. Do it with a bit of style and personality, and people may be interested enough to read more of what you have to say. Even if you’ve never worked in a given area before, being able to articulate thoughtful arguments on that topic boosts your reputation as someone who can be trusted to communicate well and has the potential to become an expert. If an applicant sends me to her blog, I wouldn’t expect to land on a post about the relative promiscuity of girls at her university. (Nor would I expect that post to be littered with errors … Spell check, guys. Editing errors do not look professional or expert.)

However, all of this is nothing without delivery. As a young professional (or company), coming through on your promise is vital. Without the gravitas of a long career or big brand behind you, there is little for you to fall back on if you come up short. You don’t just get to ‘be’ credible – you have to invest in and prove yourself to get there.

As the demographics of those using social media change (I recently learned the average facebook user is 38) and given the emphasis on entrepreneurship as an option for young people in light of the economic climate, the definition of credibility may be in flux. Defining your own professional brand online can be the first step in shifting the credibility bias away from age.

Posted by Jessica Tayenjam on November 29, 2011 at 9:32 am in About RIG, Blog, Entrepreneurship | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

         

The Transferability of Skill

This is my first week at the Rapid Innovation Group and I come to the company from an unlikely background. Having studied English, literature, languages, and medieval studies from undergrad through a PhD, I have often been asked in sneering tones, “What are you going to do with that?” Along with everyone else, I would have myself doubted that I would go on to found an online language-training business and start working for a hi-tech consultancy, but such is life.

With no actual training in business, I have been thinking a lot about “transferable skills” in my first few days at RIG. The concept is not as popular in my home country of America as it is here in the UK, and I’ve known many to dismiss the notion of transferable skills as a wishy-washy theory that has no validity in actual practice. But after less than a week at RIG, I find myself performing tasks that I have spent years training to execute swiftly and cleanly. Thank goodness I’m a medievalist.

First and perhaps most obvious is the skill of research. Knowing what questions to ask can be as important as the desired information itself. Being familiar with both the methodologies and tools of research, as well as frameworks for organizing and structuring information, data, and even thought saves time, energy, and therefore also money. Tracing the manuscript origins of a West Saxon copy of an Old English poem with an Anglian original requires a remarkably similar process to determining the potential marketing direction of a burgeoning startup. I’ve heard reported that Joseph Strayer, a prominent medieval historian who worked for the CIA, claimed that medievalists made excellent operatives because they were accustomed to making informed decisions on the basis of limited evidence. I see his point.

Most striking to me, however, is the importance of language. This includes nuanced ability to craft the English language, the ability to analyse someone else’s language, and the ability to speak other languages. When impressions count and arguments need to be made forcefully and quickly, language must be clear, clean, and to the point in order to have the desired effect. Understanding the subtleties of language allows one to perceive metamessages—whether consciously or unconsciously created—in the language of another party; this skill can be critical for assessing the tone, interest, or desires of a client, customer, or partner.

The importance of knowing other languages also cannot be undervalued. On the research front, knowledge of multiple languages allows one to gauge more quickly and accurately cultural values and sentiments held in other countries. Will this product find a market in Germany? What are South American newspapers reporting about this technology and its impact? These are hard questions to answer without knowing languages. Even more important is the ability to cross over into another’s culture via language; by eliminating this barrier, one eliminates many hurdles on the way to successful business. In my own experience, America is such a diverse country that no matter from where someone actually comes, I think of him or her as “American” so long as he or she speaks fluent American English. The fluency of language eliminates disconnects and makes it easy for me to feel “at home.” The same is true in developing relationships in non-English-speaking countries. 

I’ve always held the notion of transferable skills in high regard, but I did not expect to be using so much of my academic training right from the start. From my limited perspective, there are few backgrounds I could see as more useful for business than one involving detailed study of language and literature, and I am thankful for my training as a medievalist. “What will you do with medieval studies?” It seems quite logical to respond, “Start a business, then help develop hi-tech startups, of course!”

Posted by Aaron Ralby on November 17, 2011 at 1:27 pm in About RIG, Blog, Recruitment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

         

How to approach an initial sales meeting

I wanted to write this post to follow up a previous one which covered the importance of having an effective sales process. The post began with a comment that entrepreneurs have a fantastic passion for their products and are able to convey this deep enthusiasm in sales pitches.

The risk is that this can lead to relying upon a solution-centric approach which takes no heed of the prospect’s challenges. Founding CEOs frequently turn up at a sales meeting and wax lyrical about the features, capabilities and benefits of their solution. But how can you presume the solution will solve the prospect’s problem, without understanding what that problem is in detail? Getting this right is especially important at the early stages of your company’s life, as feedback from these early sales meetings can be vital to helping you refine product / market fit in the wider sense.

A meeting (or meeting preparation) should always begin with a focus on identifying the prospect’s key challenges. In addition to taking this approach for our clients, we also use it with our own prospects. I thought I would lay out the high-level methodology I employ when meeting potential future clients, because although we are selling services, the same approach should be used as part of a consultative sales process for an enterprise technology solution.

Set a clear objective

E.g. ‘To understand the {prospect’s} key growth objectives, strategies and the accompanying challenges. From this, to determine whether our capabilities and experience could be utilised to help address these challenges and as such accelerate the growth of the business’

Understand their challenges (to determine whether they can be addressed by your competencies / capabilities)

1. Elucidate these through a series of insightful questions. This serves a number of purposes beyond identifying their challenges:
   1. By asking the right questions, you demonstrate your expertise
   2. It gives a chance for you to highlight issues / opportunities which the prospect may not have been aware of
   3. It shows you have done your homework on their company, demonstrating that winning their business is of value to you

2. For example, I often try to drill down to the crux of a prospect’s challenges by structuring questions under the following headings:
   1. Market and competitive landscape
   2. Growth objectives / window of opportunity
   3. Market focus and rationale
   4. Market strategy and proposition
   5. Demand generation activities
   6. Sales and sales management processes
   7. Partnering capabilities

3. Explore potential synergies / areas of collaboration
   1. Give a relevant (according to the answers to the questions) background to your company / solution
   2. Discuss how a relevant selection of your competencies / capabilities could be used to address their most strategic challenges (elucidated earlier on)
   3. Add credence to the discussion by referring to appropriate case studies

Next steps (if appropriate)

1. Agree to structure the discussions into an objective driven programme of work
   1. If well put together, this document will in itself give you significant credibility, as well as laying out the value the prospect will gain from the collaboration
   2. Suggesting to put together this programme of work should be compelling for the prospect – they should get value from it even if they end up not choosing you to execute upon it

If you are thoughtful, effective and easy to work with during the sales process, you give direct assurance to the prospect that this will be the case after the sale. As well as using what you learn to tailor the relevance of your offering to the company in question, it also helps you develop your overall proposition and further refine your product / market fit.

Posted by Guest Author on October 27, 2011 at 1:58 pm in About RIG, Blog, Sales | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

         

Designing an effective sales process for a complex B2B sale

Entrepreneurs have a fantastic passion for their products. This deep enthusiasm which they are able to convey is often the driving force behind their company’s first few key sales. A common complaint that then follows is that the initial sales people they hire are unable to close by themselves – the entrepreneur believes he/she has to remain involved in all opportunities. This is obviously not scalable and it highlights the vital importance of an effective and well-codified sales process.

What constitutes an effective sales process?

It should precisely reflect a customer’s buying process, for instance:

• Which individuals (influencers, decision makers and likely blockers) need to be met?
• What do they need to be presented with and what do they need to understand in order to give their approval?
• What is the optimal way to articulate and deliver this information?
• In which order do these individuals need to be approached and what is the best way to engage them?

An effective sales process provides answers to all these questions in the form of a ‘best-practice’ roadmap which is split into discrete and well defined stages, each with:

• A clear objective and unambiguous gateway (to the next stage)
• An information requirement (the key information which needs to be obtained to help you effectively progress)
• A ‘tool-box’ (e.g. FAQs, presentations, business case building structures, email templates) – i.e. codified best practice

How is it created?

A sales process can only be created through direct experience of engaging with your target market, and it is a process of continuous refinement. A different skill-set is needed by the sales-person involved in these initial pioneering sales. They need to continually gather insights around how customers use the product and how it can be most effectively positioned against alternative solutions, and then be able to incorporate these into a freshly re-iterated approach. It is vital to get this process well defined before ramping up a sales team – this is brilliantly explained in an HBR article ‘The Sales Learning Curve’.

The benefits

• Effectiveness and scalability – by developing best-practice and codifying it, best-practice becomes repeatable (by other people)
• De-risking of the hiring process – all the different stages require different capabilities. Once these have been defined, the optimal individuals to execute upon them can be hired and managed

This role of sales-process creation is one of the key things we do for those of our clients at an early stage (i.e. where the CEO is often the sole sales-person). By clearly designing and segmenting the sales process we make their time go much further – we can execute a large percentage of it, and only involve them at stages where their capabilities are required. Also, by taking menial tasks off their hands (e.g. sending agendas, booking in calls) they are able to be positioned much more powerfully with the prospect.

Posted by Guest Author on September 26, 2011 at 1:12 pm in About RIG, Blog, Entrepreneurship, Sales | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

         

RIG's summer 2012 internship programme opens soon

RIG will be opening applications for its summer 2012 internship programme on 1^st October. Most of RIG’s applicants come from the UK’s top universities, so the fact that they do, although a positive attribute, is not a stand out quality. RIG recruits from some of the best institutions; a successful applicant must therefore demonstrate how they are the best of the best. So what does it take to stand out from the pack?

The Cover Letter

Say something interesting! Anyone can read RIG’s website and repackage that in a letter. Originality captures interest, and showing that you have a bit of personality doesn’t hurt either. The purpose of the cover letter is to give us a bit of narrative about yourself; in a small, dynamic company like RIG, people (and people who can work together) are vital to what we do, so give us a feel for who you actually are and not just who you think we want you to be.

Also, attention to detail cannot be overemphasized. If a cover letter is only a page long, the contents of that page must be tightly held together. Spelling errors, incorrect punctuation and grammar, and misused words do not reflect well upon a candidate. Interns are given a great amount of responsibility from the offset, so the ability to create your own work to a high standard and present it (and check it over!) properly is very important.

The CV

Show us you’re involved! RIG’s employees are DJ’s, jazz pianists, rugby players, iron man competitors, members of the TA … the list goes on. It doesn’t matter so much what you’re interested in, but being involved in something beyond academic activities is valuable. It demonstrates to us that you are able to manage your time between academic and personal pursuits, that you are motivated to do something for yourself, and that you may have something interesting to say. Travelling, tiddlywinks, trampolining, theatre –whatever it is, make sure you’re into something!

RIG is interested in candidates from all degree disciplines, so don’t worry if you’re not studying technology or business – we’ve got backgrounds ranging from chemistry to modern languages to geography and more. Similarly don’t worry about a lack of work experience; that’s the point of an internship!

The application is what gets you through the door to an interview, so make sure you don’t sell yourself short. Applications for internships will close on 1^st December. For more details contact jessica@rapidinnovation.co.uk. 

Posted by Jessica Tayenjam on September 16, 2011 at 3:37 pm in About RIG, Blog, Recruitment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

         

7 lessons in 7 weeks…

So this is my last week at Rapid Innovation Group. Time really flew by. It seems like it was only yesterday that I walked into this office for the first time. Although it felt very short, I learnt a lot of lessons. This week, I decided to expand on 7 lessons I learnt at RIG in the 7 weeks I had here as an intern…

Lesson 1: The software and technology industry is booming…

The first thing I came to notice was my lack of knowledge of the software and technology industry. Particularly in the UK and US, there seems to be an outburst of start-ups with very innovative solutions to real problems (average Joe would only know of the large corporations). What was interesting to learn was that well-known systems integrators and oil refineries tend to differentiate themselves by adopting technologies by innovative start-ups, which is the feedstock of this outburst. It has been fascinating to learn the details of these industries. 

Lesson 2: Communication with clients is hard but crucial

Finding myself talking to clients about my 'fairly limited research' on PCI compliance of telephony systems was a difficult change. However, it has taught me an important lesson. How you present your knowledge and how you gain the respect of your clients, by proving that you are capable of undertaking an important task, is harder than it may seem but it is certainly crucial. As one of our interviewees, Fanny Dolo, also mentioned: you build professional relationships by firstly showing focused knowledge over a certain field and secondly undertaking a difficult task from beginning to end.

Lesson 3: You need to respond well to "elevator tests"

There were times where I was asked something quite specific, something I should have really known the answer for. But I froze with no answer because it was not in a presentation format where I had memorised everything I wanted to say. An important lesson was to try and prepare myself for such situations – not only being prepared for planned presentations, and be confident even if the answer is "I don't know."

Lesson 4: Thorough research is important

Getting research done quickly so you can move onto the fun stuff is clearly not the right attitude… Well… it was not so clear to me when I first started! Thanks to my team mates’ patience and support, I learnt that speed is not as valued if there is lack of precision. One must find the right balance.

Lesson 5: Business tools can make work much more efficient

Business tools that Rapid Innovation Group has created and utilised make day-to-day tasks very efficient and organised. I learnt how to create an action register, a three month plan, and a key account matrix, besides learning how to use customer relationship management software, a cloud drive, an internal communications software, calendar share on outlook, and more…

Lesson 6: Identifying benefits of client acquisition

How to categorise the unique selling points of Rapid Innovation Group and the clients we are looking to bring into our business is hard. However, what is really challenging is identifying how and to what extent each side would benefit from such a partnership. 

Lesson 7: How to write a blog

 Though this may seem irrelevant, I believe it is a crucial skill. What I discovered in writing blogs is that identifying the audience and their interests is key. For example, I would suspect that if you have read until this point, you are either a Rapid Innovation Group employee, looking to become one, or you know Rapid Innovation Group very well. Having written about thirty posts with various themes have given me the skill to attract attention, keep people interested, and make sense in writing (I hope!). 

On a more personal note…

It is scientifically proven that the extent to which people adopt different accents in speech is dependent on how much they like the accent, and more importantly how much they like the person with the accent. I think the same could be said about work… I loved working within the closely bonded team here at Rapid Innovation Group, which is why I learned so much in a very short period of time. It was not only because of what the job entitled (i.e. accent), but also due to the very welcoming and always supporting team here (i.e. the person with the accent).

On that note, I would like to say bye by thanking everyone here at Rapid Innovation Group for making me feel welcome, always giving me a helping hand when in need, being understanding of mistakes due to inexperience, and giving me the opportunity to learn and finally make an impact.

Posted by Paul Higgins on August 5, 2011 at 4:45 pm in About RIG, Blog, Recruitment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

         

What it is like to be a marketing and strategy consultant

As a fresher in sales and marketing, I have had the chance to discover the expectations from relevant industries thanks to my internship at RIG. Also, what goes on backstage of growth-stage companies is relatively unknown and my experience here has taught me some interesting and important lessons.

Here is a list of expectations that were not obvious as a newbie, but became clearer in hindsight, and lessons learnt about the culture at Rapid Innovation Group:

• Sales and marketing requires a lot of background research. It is not always about cold calling, and certainly not at RIG. Generating a marketing strategy and researching the target companies in order to build a concise and accurate engagement makes up a significant part of the sales and marketing process.
• Research and preparation needs time. Doing things quickly does not get you as far as you may think in this field. I came to understand that an analytical approach is more valued in this industry than getting something done and dusted fast, without paying attention to detail.
• Although independent work is appreciated, you should understand what is really necessary and expected from you. I think most people have the tendency of finding the opportunity to take a leap ahead to produce something that can add value. However, your time may be more precious to others than you think. So being in good communication with your colleagues may prove more imperative.
• Try to “fit in” to the office but don’t hide your real personality. If your personality is not a good fit, then you are probably not in the right place. At a growth-stage company like RIG, it is unlikely that you will find somebody who shares majority of your thoughts and habits, and that is probably intentional. The fact that you are different adds diversity to the company and one would benefit by embracing that.
• Asking for help is usually not a bad idea. Here at RIG, everybody likes to help one another, and they will happily give you a hand when you need it so you can save time and avoid embarrassment later.
• A little less conversation, a little more action. If you are into the chatty culture, taking long hours over lunch and spending a lot of time talking about your weekend in the office, you will find yourself struggling here at RIG, like at any start-up. However, what makes RIG unique is that if you come and work to your best potential, you can leave early enough to be able to enjoy the rest of the evening with your family and friends. You are never burnt-out as long as you stay disciplined throughout the work hours.

Posted by Paul Higgins on August 3, 2011 at 5:25 pm in About RIG, Blog, Recruitment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

         

Good entrepreneurs are risk-averse

Ask a man on the street what he thinks about entrepreneurs and risks. He’ll likely say that entrepreneurs thrive off risks. In reality, the best CEOs of start-up companies are very risk averse; their skill lies in their ability to mitigate risk.

We are currently helping a client raise funding and design a go-to-market strategy for a technology it is building. A focus on risk mitigation has been central to this strategy.

Historically, a company at this stage would have faced two key risks:

1. Technical – can a solution be built to specification? Will it work?
2. Market – will the market adopt the technology? Will it do so within acceptable timeframes and costs? Is there a product / market fit?

In today’s environment, investors are much less concerned about technical risk. They assume the system can be built to requirements. Their key questions are all around market adoption, and this was the area our strategy looked to address.

Step one – market selection

The solution, once built, will be applicable across a wide range of markets. We began by selecting a niche one for initial deployment. This way the solution can be built precisely for this market, from the ground up, and therefore compete by being better able to meet precise user-requirements than the generic solutions of its competitors.

The market was selected because it will face new legislation in the next 18 months: no driver is stronger than a legislative one, where the result of non-compliance could be a criminal conviction. Our strategy is for the solution to enable companies to gain assurance of and demonstrate compliance to the legislation in the most cost-effective and straight-forward manner. Currently there is no effective solution on the market to enable them to do this.

Step two – partner selection

Our second step was to form a partnership with a major ($2bn turnover) services company, operating across a wide range of markets, and currently number two in our chosen market. We will build them a solution ‘free of charge’ (i.e. fully funded), they will input user-requirements and market it to their customer base. This partnership will mitigate market risk in the following ways:

1. The resulting solution will have the endorsement of a leading market brand
2. The system will be ‘best-of-breed’ in terms of precisely meeting user requirements, thanks to the partner’s input of expertise during the build process
3. Most crucially, there will be a ready-made large customer base (i.e. that of the partner’s) to enable a smooth path to revenue upon product completion 
4. There will be a significant reduction in terms of marketing spend due to the partner’s ability to promote to its customer base. The partner’s current number two position in a strategically important market means it is strongly motivated to leverage the incoming legislation to gain a leading position – our client’s solution will be a chief enabler for this
5. Market development – subsequent target markets are also served by the partner

Posted by Guest Author on August 1, 2011 at 12:18 pm in About RIG, Blog, Entrepreneurship, Partnering, Strategy, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)