Who We Help

YOU, the Founder CEO, are who we help. And, in doing so, we also help the leadership teams and Boards who are relying on your vision for the company, and your ability to influence others in order to be successful.

Everyone has ideas, but you had the DNA to actually run with one – to take the risk and make it happen. You’ve persevered through the start up phase, assembling an initial team, proving the basics of your business model, landing your first customers, and building a meaningful initial revenue base. Whether you are going to SURVIVE is no longer a daily worry. But whether you are going to THRIVE has become a growing dark cloud over your head.

It’s Time

You’ve likely just raised a new round of financing. You have new voices and opinions on your Board. There is pressure to move beyond your “1.0” strategy and expand to a new product or new market to achieve more growth and increase enterprise value. The team that got you here probably isn’t the one that is going to get you to the next stage. Some of your staff thinks the company has lost its way, and that things just aren’t the same as “the good ol’ days”.

You know it’s time for more process and structure, but you’re still fighting fires on a daily basis, and struggling to get momentum for these initiatives. You’re still energized by what lies ahead, but there are also elements of fatigue, self-doubt and loneliness that have gotten very real. And you know that – more than ever – there’s a lot at stake.

The Pain Points

The pain points at this critical transition from start up to grown up are highly predictable, and very normal. We help you work through them, at the right pace and in the right sequence, while enabling you and the team to continue executing on the seemingly infinite number of day to day things required to keep the business running.

Founder CEOs

  • Tension with Board and/or leadership team
  • Fatigue and frustration
  • Self-doubt and loneliness

Leadership Team

  • Critical additions and departures
  • Lack of alignment
  • Unhealthy conflict (or avoidance thereof)

Strategy

  • A blur between “1.0” and “2.0”
  • Minimal documentation
  • Divergent perspectives
  • Short-term focus

Organization

  • Outdated org structure
  • Role clarity issues, tribes/politics
  • Low morale and high turnover
  • Cultural “identity crisis”

Operations

  • Unclear operating priorities
  • Resistance to processes, policies and structure

The Inflection Point

Why are all of these pain points so predictable and normal?
Because the characteristics necessary to survive as a start-up are very different from the characteristics necessary to thrive as a grown-up. And in many cases, they are almost directionally opposite. This inflection point is a harsh reality…but one that you must confront and embrace. The formula for success has changed, and so must you.

Start-up

  • Vision
  • Risk-taking
  • Opportunity
  • Boldness
  • Speed
  • Agility
  • Determination and resolve
  • Persistence
  • Surviving amidst chaos

Grown-Up

  • Execution
  • Risk-mitigating
  • Focus
  • Discipline
  • Endurance
  • Adaptability
  • Feedback and reflection
  • Coherence
  • Thriving with structure

Start Up

  • Reactivity
  • Sawing
  • Intuition
  • Instinct

Grown Up

  • Proactivity
  • Stopping to sharpen the saw
  • Data
  • Strategy

Start Up

  • Founder(s) and leaders
  • Attracting initial talent
  • Utility players
  • Scrappiness
  • “Hero” behavior
  • Employee exuberance
  • General management

Grown Up

  • A leadership team
  • Optimizing existing talent
  • Functional specialists
  • Effectiveness
  • Reliable performance
  • Employee engagement
  • Change management

Start Up

  • Getting the market’s attention with anecdotes
  • Building the market
  • Making promises

Grown Up

  • Telling the market a compelling story
  • Listening to the market
  • Delivering the results
Testimonials