How we both win
I took inspiration from Elon for this, his masterplan documents published publicly for Tesla and his other companies are the ultimate ‘build in public’ statement.
Anyways, consider the masterplan my vision and how you win massively from that.
My model is this. Launch – Scale – Invest – Exit
Launch: We start here. You might skip this step if you’re already up and running or it might be better named ‘launch something new’.
Essentially this is where it begins. By building the vision and then actually launching the new thing we are working on together. How do we make it happen and then actually make it happen.
This phase ends when it’s in the market and some sales have been made.
Scale: This is about radically increasing sales. How does that happen?
Firstly through understanding what’s working and what’s not. That’s normally a combination of the incredibly obvious ‘this is working and that’s not’, combined with a solid KPI dashboard that we’ve created to track metrics and make better decisions.
Raising finance can be a part of this phase too. You might need more cash to drive marketing or recruit people. It’s not always needed but it might be.
At the point of traction is when I like to invest, we know each other, we can work together, and there’s something there to build together. Normally thats between 6-12 months.
This phase ends when we hit a meaningful milestone and can take it to the next stage with a more solid proposition for the market and for investors. With me involved as a board member and minority investor along with anyone else that has been brought in at this stage you will have a much greater chance of a successful result but of course you might be happy with where you’re at and you can take the money from the growth we’ve achieved together.
Invest: Get the capitol to make it happen at the next level.
This is where it gets bigger and for some businesses it’s never a consideration. There’s nothing wrong with running a scaled entity that gives you freedom and pays you lots of money every year. Only some companies want to go to that next stage.
Exit: Sell the thing, retire and smoke cigars! HA!
Seriously, that’s possible. But you can do those things at a much earlier stage if you want don’t be fooled by the ‘build a sell’ guru’s.
I like to work with people for 6-12 months for a few reasons.
- We can get some seriously great results together. Nothing happens overnight.
- The business can grow to a level where there is a new benchmark established and that might lead to me investing and driving the business that way, but it will definitely lead to clear conversation and decision one way or the other which is what I love.
- If I’m going to invest I have a much clearer picture of what the vision is and the value I can bring, and you know this too. It’s super transparent and it’s my advantage over the rest of the market.
I wouldn’t invest cold, it doesn’t serve either of us well. It might be that we hate each other after 6 months. We part as friends with some good work done and that’s cool.
It might be that you’re super happy growing your business in that 12 month period and you don’t want to push for the next level and my work is done. That’s cool too.
It’s a good period of time to make things happen, learn about each other and reach new levels together.
Want to get going? Click here to apply.
