There are more wealthy angel investors than ever. This is a result of the US Dollar’s role in global finance. Most of these newly rich angels add no value beyond money. Suppose you are doing well and are an excellent networker of advice and talent.
My best clients approach me understanding that a) they can’t know it all, b) because they are new to their operating category, and c) if they learn just one transformational insight about their business’ competitive situation, even a five-figure fee is cheap. They don’t take my
Conversely, founders often try to go to the other extreme. Hey, Mark Cuban, give me $500,000 for 5% equity. Give it! This is a pre-money valuation of $9,500,000. For a typical Shark Tank business selling less than $1 million, this is a crazy 10x of
Valuation. Like I have, anyone who has ever watched Shark Tank repeatedly knows what a 'shark' deal looks like. 25-40% equity for $100-300K. The founders get $150,000 for 30% equity on a classic Shark Tank deal. That is a pre-money valuation of only $350,000 on
So, it’s now time to get constructive about measuring ROI(return on investment) in marketing. And it's not about the standard of your sales team or finance. You need both a smarter and more realistic way to measure impact. Or, just don’t do it. Just don’t. If you’re
Before my time, marketing scientists established that adding households is crucial to growth in consumer brands, especially when the purchase cycle is long (e.g., condiments, soap, cars, furniture). In consumer goods, there is a common tendency to spray out the products even in unrelated categories with
Virtually ALL marketing loses money in the near term. The only exception I know of is a DTC brand we all know well. IT may or may not be on the home page. This wunder brand generated 5-10x return in terms of monthly unit sales,
Once you get into Phase 2, you think you need only more cash. Because your runway is short, and you’re still barely covering fixed costs or not even close. In reality, you also rapidly need to learn the analytical skills that give you an edge over
For the world of early-stage consumer brands selling in retail, I fervently hope that 2021 will be the decade of scanner-led growth. I don’t want anyone to enslave themselves to data, but fast-growing companies need to get smarter earlier about growth. And part of this is
Earlier than Phase 4 (~$35-40M), there is not a lot of value beyond pure administration that you will get from an immediate alumnus of a public company as a functional leader. I’m talking about someone who just left a $1B+ company deep into its mature,