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Insights
InsightsPractical insights to help you win.
Welcome to our ever-growing collection of expert resources! This is not a passive blog. Lookout for downloadable playbooks, interactive videos, and other tools to help you do the actual work of finding product-market fit and raising capital.
Featured
Pipeline Reviews: The Operating System for Revenue
For an early-stage B2B start-up, a tidy pipeline is as critical as clean code. It tells you:Whether you’re building something people will actually pay for.How efficiently you’re turning market learning into revenue.Where cash will -...
For an early-stage B2B start-up, a tidy pipeline is as critical as clean code. It tells you:Whether you’re building something people will actually pay for.How efficiently you’re turning market learning into revenue.Where cash will -...
In the B2B world, your ability to capture (and keep) a buyer’s attention depends on one thing above all: how effectively you convey specific, objective, and measurable business impact.Features, demos, and product specs might get...
This comprehensive guide draws on 100s of real coaching conversations with B2B founders to help you cut through the confusion and pick a customer acquisition strategy that actually works.
In an era dominated by email, social media, and automated outreach sequences, cold calling might sound like an outdated or even cringe-worthy strategy. For many B2B founders, it conjures visions of high-pressure sales, annoyed prospects,...
Several of our companies have asked us about pilots lately, so we thought we'd organize the insights that we've been sharing into a GrowthX Guide.Pilots are one of the most powerful tools in an early-stage...
Conferences can be a goldmine for B2B founders. They offer a unique opportunity to connect with prospects, learn from industry experts, and grow your network.But let’s be honest: attending a conference is an investment of...
As a B2B founder, you already know the importance of solving real customer problems. But in today’s rapidly evolving market, it’s not enough to simply build a functional product or service—you also need to position...
If you're like most B2B founders, you're pitching your startup while you're still knee-deep running “in-process” experiments. These are hypotheses you’re trying to validate—and often, you’re seeking funding to test them.That’s all well and good,...
The best place to find early revenue opportunities in the new year is your current pipeline. That might sound obvious, but without running a regular pipeline review meeting, you’re making sales harder than it needs...
As a B2B founder, sales can feel like a constant uphill battle. You have an incredible product, a passionate team, and a growing vision, but somehow the pipeline is unpredictable, deals take forever to close,...
Investors are no longer just looking at top-line revenue; they’re scrutinizing its quality.Is your revenue predictable, scalable, and rooted in a repeatable process? Or is it haphazard and dependent on a handful of hero deals?At...
“If you really only get dopamine hits from money, than it’s hard to work on hard problems. You need to know your dopamine system; where do you get your dopamine from? Truly understand yourself.” That's Aravind...
The term "product-market fit" is tossed around with the fervor of a magical incantation. Marc Andreessen stated that achieving product-market fit is the only thing that matters for a new venture.Yet, despite its ubiquitous use,...
One of the most frequent fundraising questions I get asked is: when should I raise money?It's a question that doesn't come with a one-size-fits-all answer. So, how do you know when the time is right?...
In my years of working alongside founders and helping them get to market, I’ve noticed a familiar set of common pitfalls that continue to persist.Here are four of the most common (and how to avoid...
We’ve helped 100's of founders develop and execute go-to-market strategies. Strategies that have helped them grow revenue and attract investors.While every company and industry provides its unique challenges, most go-to-market strategies lack the most basic...
In today's startup landscape, with the ever-evolving VC market conditions, it's more important than ever to have early revenue before dedicating valuable runway to seeking out and knocking on investors' doors.In 2024, the venture capital...
We've helped 100s of B2B founders increase their revenue through The Revenue Accelerator.One of the most common mistakes that we see founders make is messaging and marketing collateral meant to appeal to a wide audience...
The lore of the pitch deck and the theatre of the demo day are receding into the background and are being replaced with the rigors of building a thoughtful financial model.
The most successful accelerators are the ones that can consistently attract the best founders and, in turn, venture investors. However, that’s becoming increasingly more difficult for any single program to do, as the number of...
Traction speaks louder than words and pitch decks. Even more so in 2024! And not just any traction. In 2024, your traction must be the result of a capital efficient go-to-market strategy.Regardless of your specific product...
Not finding product-market fit (and the systematic revenue that follows) is the most common cause of startup failure. So, what does it take to find product-market fit?I’m not asking how you find product-market fit. I...
Christoph Janz (PointNine) recently published the 2022 version of his popular SaaS Funding Napkin.As the name implies, the SaaS Funding Napkin aggregates primary SaaS milestones required to raise venture capital and summarizes them as if...
We all know that finding product-market fit is critical for any founder looking to grow their startup and attract investors.Accelerator and investors constantly stress to founders that they must acquire and demonstrate that they have...
A lack of local capital. That’s one of the most common challenges that we hear from accelerator operators (and founders) in nascent startup ecosystems around the world.In reality, when we dig deeper, in the vast...
Raising venture capital is so much more than building a pitch deck. So, why are there so few resources to help founders understand what venture capital is, how it behaves and why, and - most...
The standard to become investment-ready has changed and it now requires a systematic go-to-market strategy. Savvy venture investors are no longer distracted by a shiny new product and an ultra-large total addressable market.The application of...
Here are the five primary reasons why your accelerator needs go-to-market programming (including a detailed guide to help you implement best practices today).1. Your founders need a go-to-market strategy to satisfy the new standard of...
When reviewing your pitch deck, investors are looking to quickly assess whether or not you’re a good fit for what they invest in and at what stage they invest, and then to qualify whether or...
The most important slide in your pitch deck is the one slide that is most often missing, buried or has the least amount of useful detail.Every pitch deck I see includes a slide showing off...
At GrowthX Capital, we see 500+ pitch decks every year. While we see a huge variety of pitch decks, there are a handful of mistakes founders consistently make that will cause investors to lose interest.This...
If you're in the early stages of selling a SaaS product and don't yet have product-market fit, you’ve probably got the acronym backwards. At early stages, the acronym SaaS stands for Service as a Software...
It’s never too soon for founders to start regularly publishing a brief update to your stakeholder community (i.e., investor updates). As a venture investor, I have found a direct correlation between my top-performing companies and...
At GrowthX, we sit at a unique position in the startup ecosystem. As a venture capital fund, we work with graduates of accelerator programs around the world to evaluate their fit for us. We also...
Think about your work email inbox for a second. Every day, other businesses are reaching out to you. What do you typically do with those messages and emails? We bet you delete them.But, why do...
Once you launch your go-to-market strategy, you shouldn’t have to wait until the end to find out if you’ve been successful. What does a successful go-to-market strategy look like? There are several checkpoints along the way...
As an accelerator operator or program manager you work hard to make sure that your startups are all “investor-ready.” Until now, that meant helping them craft their investor narrative, build their pitch deck, organize their...
At GrowthX, we’ve helped thousands of entrepreneurs go to market and achieve scale. We’re not just investors or startup mentors giving them anecdotal tips on how to do this. Our team operates in the trenches...
Think for a moment how you intend to bring your product to market. What go-to-market strategy are you going to leverage to begin acquiring customers. If you’re like most founders, one of your first steps...
In our last blog post, I detailed how the right go-to-market strategy for any startup is the one that will bring in the most amount of revenue with the least amount of effort. At GrowthX, we’ve...
It’s already September. There are only three months left in the year, and those months will be packed with back-to-school events, holidays, end-of-year planning, and so much more. Not just for you but also for...
When searching for answers about how to develop your go-to-market strategy, there are thousands of articles that all generally provide the same broad answers. The challenge is that these go-to-market definitions tell entrepreneurs what going...
The founder of one of our portfolio companies had the idea to develop a tool that would enable schools to live stream sporting events at ESPN-level quality. By enabling schools to create such high quality...
Think about the last time you went on a road trip (maybe it was just as recent as 2020 when many people chose cars over planes because of the pandemic). A lot of planning probably...
Over the years, we’ve worked with thousands of startups on developing their go-to-market strategy. While products and markets may be unique, the path to finding product-market fit is not; it’s a formula. In helping founders all...
In a recent blog post, I discussed my top five tips for startups to effectively plan their go-to-market strategy. It’s now time to shift towards executing that plan.In this article, I’m going to reveal the...
You’ve spent hours, months, or even years building a great product. Now all you need are customers to show it. Time to execute a go-to-market strategy as quickly as possible and strike while the iron’s...
Ever eagerly open a bag of chips, only to find about five chips and a lot of air? What if your sales messaging comes off the same way to your potential customers? Poorly designed, inconsistent...
“Be persistent” is the one revenue generation secret most founders misunderstand, and it costs them valuable opportunities. Across the dozens of founders we work with every year, I find that very few of them understand...
The most common question we get asked while working with founders is, “What’s the best [insert campaign, channel, or other sales method] people are using right now?” It’s a common question because everyone is always...
What if there was one thing you could start doing right now that didn’t require a significant time commitment and would drastically increase revenue? Would you commit time and resources?What if there were specific tasks...
We work with founders from around the world helping them go to market. As investors, that’s how we find, qualify and earn the right to invest in the best founders and companies. In doing this...
Founders are stuck relying on luck or a silver bullet strategy to generate revenue. Unfortunately, the truth is that there isn’t one fantastic question at the end of a sales call that will gain you...
Top-performing entrepreneurs know that the path to product-market fit is paved with good business judgment. But, even so, how do you know when the market is telling you that you’re onto something and that you're...
With Mars in the headlines, I recently re-read Commander Chris Hadfield’s book, “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth.”It offers a rare glimpse into an industry premised on iteration and built on decades of astonishing...
One of the biggest mistakes founding teams make is wasting time and energy on developing superfluous marketing and sales collateral. If you haven’t found your ideal customer profile or locked down your marketing messaging, anything...
I wish I had a virtual reality app for founders that offered the best revenue model for startups, or a 3-D view of their revenue. We would put on our gear and go for an...
Welcome to the fifth and final day of our week-long series on creating and sending effective personalized cold emails. Today we’ll cover how to handle cold email follow ups, and tips on boosting response rates.If...
Welcome to the fourth day of our week-long series on creating and sending effective personalized cold emails. Today we’re going to cover a cold email campaign setup.Basic Cold Email Campaign SetupNow that you’ve chosen your...
Welcome to the third day of our week-long series on creating and sending effective personalized cold emails. Today we’re going to cover writing effective copy.Writing Email CopyToday we’re sharing real-world examples with proven techniques that...
Welcome to the second day of our week-long series on creating and sending effective personalized cold emails. Today we’ll be covering defining goals and understanding email metrics.Defining GoalsBefore writing a single word of email copy...
Welcome to the first day of our week-long series on creating and sending effective personalized cold emails. It might sound contradictory, but personalized cold email marketing campaigns are easy to do and highly effective. Throughout...
Avoid the common cold email mistake of sending emails to the wrong people! Targeting your ideal buyer will save you time, money and increase your response and conversion rates. The answer is defining your Ideal...
Spoiler Alert: To find product market fit, identify the person with the buying power for your solution and find out what matters to them. Response rates are dropping. Focus on prospect quality, not quantity. Don’t...
That simple three-word message - Bitcoins on pizza - has become a catch phrase among GrowthX portfolio founders. I’ve been using it to quickly and delicately advise them that they may be spending their highly...
Gil Beyda, a partner at Comcast Ventures, recently contributed this important article for TechCrunch detailing the myriad reasons why startups should consider taking capital from corporate venture capital. Sure, he’s a corporate venture capitalist, so...
For an early-stage B2B start-up, a tidy pipeline is as critical as clean code. It tells you:Whether you’re building something people will actually pay for.How efficiently you’re turning market learning into revenue.Where cash will -...
In the B2B world, your ability to capture (and keep) a buyer’s attention depends on one thing above all: how effectively you convey specific, objective, and measurable business impact.Features, demos, and product specs might get...
This comprehensive guide draws on 100s of real coaching conversations with B2B founders to help you cut through the confusion and pick a customer acquisition strategy that actually works.
In an era dominated by email, social media, and automated outreach sequences, cold calling might sound like an outdated or even cringe-worthy strategy. For many B2B founders, it conjures visions of high-pressure sales, annoyed prospects,...
Several of our companies have asked us about pilots lately, so we thought we'd organize the insights that we've been sharing into a GrowthX Guide.Pilots are one of the most powerful tools in an early-stage...
Conferences can be a goldmine for B2B founders. They offer a unique opportunity to connect with prospects, learn from industry experts, and grow your network.But let’s be honest: attending a conference is an investment of...
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