STARTUP

BUSINESS LEADERS’ NEEDS AT THIS STAGE INCLUDE:

Securing investments from outside sources to develop a sellable, scalable product or service.

Enhancing strategic capabilities, such as business or operations support systems, automation tools, system management, and commerce platforms.

Building a small, scalable team to assist with product, sales, and administrative operations.

Applying marketing and sales strategies focused on customer acquisition, tracking key metrics such as the number of customers and subscriptions per customers.

Consulting mentor and investment connections to assess the performance of the business and balance longer-term economics with short-term profitability.

GROWTH & ESTABLISHMENT

BUSINESS LEADERS’ NEEDSAT THIS STAGE INCLUDE:

Seeking out strategic partnerships to drive customer-base growth and strong renewal rates.

Developing an agile budgeting and billing system that accommodates pricing model changes.

Enriching customer experience by investing in product architecture, design, marketing, and user interface.

Constructing sales compensation structure to incentivize and retain top sales talent.

Creating a long-term plan for the business focused on customer retention and recurring revenues.

MATURITY

BUSINESS LEADERS’ NEEDS AT THIS STAGE INCLUDE:

Re-evaluating the company’s mission and vision statements to ensure alignment with current direction and goals of the business.

Investing heavily in innovation while sta�ng top talent in sales force and marketing teams.

Pursuing upselling and cross-selling opportunities with existing customers to increase billings.

Leveraging partnerships to support market growth.

Striving for expansion or selling and exiting the business.

By the time a company reaches maturity, it is more likely to have the support, trust, and funding from its team and investors. Here, the company’s focus shifts to explore opportunities to refine its mission

and innovate to drive growth.

of established organizations are using analytics to pursue innovation and disruption, speed to market, or data monetization initiatives

27%

of mature companies say they have 50 team members or more dedicated to innovation initiatives

36%

Leaders must take on many roles in the beginning growth stages of the company lifecycle. As the company matures, leadership roles shift from hands-on responsibilities to overseeing business operations. To ensure success, it is important for leaders to understand each growth stage and prioritize responsibilities in-line with each turn of the business lifecycle.

SEED & DEVELOPMENT

BUSINESS LEADERS’ NEEDSAT THIS STAGE INCLUDE:

Gathering feedback about business potential from family, friends, colleagues, and industry influencers.

Matching the business opportunity with skills and expertise, and developing a business plan accordingly.

Choosing an ownership structure for the business by evaluating the potential risks and liabilities of the product or service and company as a whole.

Ensuring scalability of the product or service by researching and developing a modular architecture for the business, in which the company can fluidly interchange or add components without impacting the rest of the structure.

Seeking funding from friends and family, seed-stage “super angels,” startup incubators, micro-venture capital firms, a genesis venture capital round, business accelerator funding, and corporate seed funds for startups.

was invested in seed stage deals in 2018, up more than 50% from 2017

$14.94BN

LEADERSHIP PRIORITIES FOR YOUR GROWTH STAGE

At the growth stage, the company has established customer and market demand, scaled customers and revenues, and assembled a team. The company must

focus on retaining customers, driving growth, and creating a long-term plan for the business.

The company’s first phase of operation is its riskiest stage in its lifecycle, with its main goal being survival. At this point in the company lifespan, the owner is still

responsible for most hands-on operations in the business.

The seed and development stage is critical, and entrepreneurs must consider the feasibility of their

businesses and evaluate if they are equipped to succeed.

Companies experience a unique set of challenges during their various growth stages. From inception to maturity, business leaders’ priorities for the company change throughout its lifecycle.

the average size of a seed fund in 2018,up more than 20% from 2017

$40MM

of founders think now is a good time to start a company, with nearly 23% believing they are building a billion-dollar organization

~95%

of founders said their startups failed because they went to market with a product that wasn't good enough

17%

the amount of annual recurring revenue companies in the growth stage spend on sales and marketing

50-75%

of companies view customer experience as a key factor in strengthening customer loyalty and retention

89%

the factor by which startup companies with 50-year-old founders are more likely than 30-year-olds to have a “runaway success”

~2X

SOURCES: Crunchbase, “What Does It Take to Raise Your Next Round in 2018?” September 12, 2018Crunchbase, “Q4 2018 Closes Out A Record Year for The Global VC Market” January 7, 2019Entrepreneur, “A New Study Reveals the 20 Factors That Predict Startup Failure: Do Any Apply to You?” February 5, 2018First Round Capital, “State of Startups 2018”Harvard Business Review, “Big Companies Are Embracing Analytics, But Most Still Don’t Have a Data-Driven Culture” February 15, 2018HubSpot, “Benchmarking Innovation Impact 2018” June 14, 2018Inc.com, “Sorry, Millennials: Research Shows Older Founders Are Twice as Likely to Start Successful Businesses” June 28, 2018KPMG, “Benchmarking Innovation Impact 2018” September 10, 2018Medium, “Micro-VC, Strictly by the Numbers” March 18, 2018

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