When we buy a product or use a service, we essentially “hire” it to help us do a job. This is illustrated in the everyday consumer world by businesspeople hiring a milkshake in the morning to do the job of “providing a tidy way to satiate their hunger during long commutes” [1] or by people […]
Finding Fundable Opportunities Inside Customer Problems: How to De-Risk Investor Pitches
If you’re an early stage company – or introducing a new product from an established enterprise – you will invariably require a series of funding (through external or internal investment). And first and foremost, you’ll have to convince investors that you have a validated opportunity – which a recent IOI Partners article characterized as an […]
Market Analysis & Value Proposition: Is Your Hockey Stick Real?
Nearly all early stage business plans have some form of exponential or hockey stick shaped growth plan. Whether an early stage company or an established enterprise, how does an investor or company executive know whether that growth plan is outrageous hyperbole or representative of the opportunity and worthy of increased investment? There are two important […]
Improving Quality or Reducing Cost for On-Market Products
Reducing raw material costs, or investigating ways to scale up component manufacturing processes, are two classic approaches manufacturers focus on to drive down the cost of goods. In addition, there are other areas to consider for improving quality or reducing cost for established products through examination of their standard operating procedures. This is where we […]
De-Risking Adoption of Innovations: Market Risk
In the life sciences, the value of any asset under development (e.g., novel therapeutic, diagnostic, platform technology, or health analytics software) will be mainly a function of risk – because cash flows from successful products can be fairly well benchmarked for a given category [1]. As an investor, entrepreneur, or manager in a growth-stage venture, […]