Tag Archives: Ramp-up

How Do You Finance an Early Stage Company? Three Considerations

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Situation: The CEO of an early stage web company is looking at steep ramp-up expenses. Many companies have bootstrapped their way to success. However outside investment may speed the process. How have others evaluated these options? How do you finance an early stage company?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Raising money takes time and is a major distraction to the development process. The two big variables will be investor interest and the timing of investment. Talk to Angels and venture capitalists now. Start by presenting a broad outline of your technology and business model. Ask what they will want to see to offer you funding at different levels. This will give you a reality check as to investor interest in funding the company. It also creates a roadmap to funding if the response is positive.
• What is the company seeking – money or accountability? One CEO bootstrapped her company during the early stages, then looked for outside investment to gain accountability and advice – a whip to help move things along. This CEO found that investors brought few of the anticipated assets, and added a new level of distraction and pain.
• If you are looking for funding to purchase content to serve through your Internet portal, consider a more creative way to gain content. Can you use a Web portal through which your target audience provides both the content and the consumer audience in a marketplace exchange? Establish the audience and then add premium services to monetize the model. This can minimize your upfront cash investment requirements, and may create a faster track to positive cash flow.

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How Do You Scale Up a Product That Is Taking off! Four Points

Situation: Demand for a product produced by a company has increased dramatically. The CEO realizes that they need to scale up production quickly to meet this unexpected demand. The company is small and the CEO wants advice as to how his company can accomplish this without killing the product. How do you scale up a product that is taking off?
Advice from the CEOs:
• This represents a major change of both mentality and culture. Essentially, the company needs to move from a “handmade” process to a commodity volume process. This may also mean moving from low volume/high margin production to high volume/lower margin production. This shift will significantly change the company.
• If there is high confidence that the company will land a contract for long-term production consider establishing high volume production at a new site. Rent or lease another facility. Alongside this hire a set of experienced people who understand the challenges of scaling up rapidly. Consider giving this facility a new name to suit the new team. This will help to establish a new culture suitable to the new opportunity.
• While negotiating a lease, ask for an option for additional space to be included in the lease. If things don’t pan out, look at this new space as the eventual location for your existing team.
• Two other options to consider: (1) Outsourcing to a 3rd party manufacturer. This is an option unless the company is an OEM outsourced producer itself. However, be careful – you could be telling your customer that they could go directly to your OEM source at a lower price. (2) Establishing an overseas production capability – one where you own the facility and manage quality control. This will be a challenge if the customer wants to specify “Made in US”, or where quality concerns are essential.

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How Do You Improve Company Competency to Support Growth? Eight Thoughts

Interview with Scott Dodson, CEO, AirXpanders, Inc.

Situation: Both in the case of a start-up, and when an existing company adds a new business unit, one of the biggest challenges is supporting rapid expansion during market launch. Talent necessary during the product completion phase may not be sufficient to support this growth. What can you do to improve company competency?

Advice:

  • Bring in “been there, done that” expertise to support the current team. In particular, you want to add individuals who have experienced both success and failure in similar markets, and in both larger and similar sized companies.  You want people who can be transformational to a company and not someone who can simply occupy a box.  Give them a chance to do more, add to their toolbox and they will in turn help the company achieve its goals.
  • A wide range of past experience with multiple employers is now seen as a benefit, whereas in the past it may have been a liability. It brings more knowledge to bear.
  • Among people with highly diverse resumes, how do you tell performers from non-performers?
    • Focus on what they did to transform their past company. Did they build alliances, make change happen or improve the organization during their incumbency? Look at ‘how’ they did it.  Chances are, this is a very leverageable skill.
    • Look for doers.  People who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves will make the biggest impact in the organization.
  • Look for people who possess “strategic humility.” Don’t be afraid of mistakes and foster an environment where the boundaries are continuously pushed.  The enemy of ‘good’ is ‘perfect’, and the best companies consistently make ‘good’ decisions.  If you make a mistake, own up to it, learn from it and move on.
  • Look for the ability to assess, develop, plan and mobilize resources to execute the plan.
  • Use LinkedIn to identify people with whom an applicant worked in previous jobs to conduct independent reference checks.
  • You can also use LinkedIn to identify candidates for open positions.
  • By adding resources with these traits to your team, you markedly improve your likelihood of success.

You can contact Scott Dodson at [email protected]

Key Words: Ramp-up, Growth, Talent, Competency, Interviewing, LinkedIn, Reference Checks  [like]

Financing: OOM or OPM? Three Things to Consider

Situation: An early stage web Company is looking at steep ramp up expenses. Many companies have bootstrapped their way to success. However outside investment may speed the process. How have other CEOs evaluated these two options?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Raising money takes time and is a major distraction to your development process. The two big variables will be investor interest and timing of investment.
    • Talk to Angels and VCs now. Start by presenting a broad outline of your technology and business model. Ask what they will want to see to offer you funding at different levels.
    • This will give you a reality check as to investor interest in funding you, and creates a roadmap to funding if the response is positive.
  • What are you seeking? Money or accountability? One CEO bootstrapped the company early, then looked for outside investment to gain accountability and advice – a whip to help move things along.
    • This CEO found that investors brought few of the anticipated assets, and added a new level of distraction and pain.
  • If you are looking for funding to purchase content to serve through your portal, consider a more creative way to gain content.
    • Can you use a Web 2.0 portal through which your target audience provides both the content and the consumer audience in a marketplace exchange? Establish the audience and add premium services to monetize the model.
    • This can minimize your upfront cash investment requirements, and may create a faster track to positive cash flow.

Note: OOM = Our Own Money; OPM = Other Peoples’ Money

Key Words: Investors, Investment, Ramp-up, Bootstrap, Financing, Cash Requirements  [like]

OMG – our Product is taking off! Two Considerations and Two Options

Situation: Demand for our product has increased, and we need to scale up production. We’re small, so how can we do this without killing the product?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • This represents a major change of mentality and culture. Essentially, you’re moving from a “handmade” process to a commodity volume process. You may also be moving from low volume/high margin production to high volume/low margin production – this will change you.
  • If you are sure that you will get the contract for long-term production consider establishing high volume production at a new site.
    • Rent/lease another facility. Also hire a different set of experienced people, and consider giving this facility a new name to suit the new team. This will help you to establish a new culture suitable to the new opportunity.
    • Ask for an option for additional space on the lease.
    • If things don’t pan out, look at this new space as the eventual location for your existing team.
  • Other options to consider:
    • Outsourcing to a 3rd party manufacturer. This is an option, unless you are an OEM outsourced producer yourself. Essentially you could be telling your OEM customer that they could go direct to another source at a lower price.
    • Establishing an overseas production capability – one where you own the facility and manage the QC. This will be a challenge if the customer wants to specify “Made in US”, or where quality concerns are essential.

Key Words: Production, Scale-up, Ramp-up, Outsourcing  [like]