Ever wonder WTF a startup coach actually does for their clients? Here’s my Friday:
1️⃣ Walked Client #1 through reasons why at their early stage, they should absolutely not try to purchase a small partner.
“You should be figuring out how to repeatedly and reliably close revenue from your core market right now. And you should be spending as little as possible. This acquisition accomplishes neither of those goals.”
Value: $500k in cash and company equity.
2️⃣ Client #2 just successfully raised $1M and is figuring out where to pivot their small team. Walked through why they should let go of an employee making $20k/mo.
“Why would you spend a quarter of your raise on someone that you don’t even have work for and don’t know when you’ll have work for? No one is that good.”
Value: $250k and at least three extra months of runway.
3️⃣ Client #3 raised $2M early this year and their lead investor has repeatedly promised to help recruite a baller independent board member and then done nothing to make it happen. Talked client down from having a “breach of trust” conversation with VC.
“Dude, you got 98% of the investor’s value when you cashed their check. It’s time to shut up about this and go recruit someone yourself.”
Value: I’m going with “priceless”.
4️⃣ & 5️⃣ There were also conversations about curiosity during sales calls with Client #4 (“you literally asked one probing question in the entirely of your last call”) and framing the value of Client #5’s startup (“what is your customer struggling with and feeling the second before they open Google and find your site?”).
These are all smart founders. In many cases, they’ve got decades of domain expertise. They’ve successfully raised capital or bootstrapped previous businesses.
Some knew exactly what they needed to do and just wanted to hear someone else validate their difficult choices.
Others were headed in the wrong direction because this was the first time they had experienced a specific challenge.
All in all, it was an awesome Friday as a coach. Have a phenomenal Labor Day weekend!