Maybe you have proof of concept and a few early customers. Maybe you have raised a round and now have to prove that the model delivers. The hardest step is turning early enthusiasm into a repeatable commercial system.
Punching through from idea and prototype to a viable company is the hardest leap in the life of any venture.
Most founding teams hit the same patterns:
- Revenue depends on one or two founders selling off their own network.
- The story changes every week because you are still working out what lands.
- Pricing is improvised on calls and nobody is sure what “good” looks like.
- Marketing activity is busy, fragmented and hard to link to results.
Runway gets burned on activity instead of progress. The product gets better, yet the commercial system does not keep up.
This is where the risk sits. Good ventures stall here and die quietly. The problem is rarely the idea. It is the lack of a clear model for how value moves from market to revenue and how the team executes it.
How we help
We run a short, intensive engagement that ends with a first working commercial system.
Commercial diagnosis and design
- Map product, market, buyers, revenue mechanics and current pipeline.
- Define the sharpest version of your core proposition, segments and use cases.
- Set a simple economic model that leadership and investors can understand.
Go to market build
- Decide the first scalable route to market: direct, partners, platforms or a mix.
- Build messaging, offers, scorecards and a simple operating cadence.
- Leave you with a basic but real system: campaigns, sales process, funnel and follow up.
IP, tools and data story
- Turn your know-how into one or two named assets: a diagnostic, framework or data narrative that earns serious conversations.
- Use applied AI to compress research, build early models and industrialise content so a small team can cover more ground.
The result is a venture that can explain what it is, who it is for, how it wins and what needs to happen every week to move the numbers.
How we work
The Start-Up work is built for specialist B2B ventures in areas such as fintech, trade credit, regtech, payments, risk and complex services.
Practicalities
- Remote first. Sessions run via video and shared workspaces. Travel happens only when it adds clear value.
- Tight involvement. We work directly with founders and the small group who will actually run the commercial engine.
- Limited pipeline. We support a small number of active ventures at any time so the work gets proper attention.
- Clear commercial terms. Work is fee based with a defined scope. In some cases we can add an equity or success element where there is a strong mutual fit.
Partnership and next steps
This work makes sense when:
- There is a real product or service, not just a slide deck.
- You have at least a few paying customers or strong evidence of demand.
- The founding team can commit time and energy to the process.
There is budget for a serious commercial project, even if the team is still lean.
If that sounds like your situation, send a short overview covering:
- What you do and who it is for
- Current revenue and sales motion
- The main constraints as you see them
- What “success” over the next 12 to 18 months would look like
We’ll review it and come back with a view on whether a Start-Up engagement is the right fit or whether another route will serve you better.
