Growth-Stage Startup Advisors | Hard Tech | Deep Tech

The time period right after you receive funding is often called the "honeymoon phase." You and your team are (rightfully) excited that you now have the funding to commercialize your tech and grow your company.

Enjoy your celebration day because the next day, it's all about speed and urgency.

We can anticipate what's coming 6, 9, and 18 months down the road. Your actions in the first 9 months after receiving your first institutional round (Seed or A) will irrevocably change your startup's outcome. There are critical steps that you need to take right away. And most startups don't. Your fume date will start to loom, and you'll never get that time or cash back.

As your company starts to grow and scale, the Market Operandi team will help you determine the actions you need to take immediately to avoid adverse outcomes, accelerate the positive ones, and proactively drive the organizational changes required to succeed.

Most importantly, we’ll identify and address the "Unknown Unknowns" that can kill your business before you see them coming.

Before you know it, you'll need to raise your next round, and you won't have the time (or the money) to go back and correct your mistakes.

Market Operandi's diverse team members are highly technical and have extensive executive and commercial experience across a wide range of industries.

Our team of experts has experience launching and growing our own deep tech businesses through this specific phase.

As your advisors, we will help you:

Validate product/market fit and alignment with your segments before you lock down your product and offering(s).
Understand how to prioritize your target market segments based on product/market fit.
Immediately identify any product changes you must make before you start to pursue the market(s) where your product has the highest probability of commercializing and scaling.
Spend your money strategically and avoid burning through your first round before you need to start raising your next one.
Position your company for accelerated growth before you receive the next round.

Product Market Fit

After you receive funding, you must immediately dig deeper into your product/market fit.

First, you must:

Challenge your assumptions about the problems your product solves for the markets you have identified.
Validate your key markets and prioritize your top market segments. Then, rank your top segments based on product/market fit and their potential to scale quickly.
Understand the time frame and action sequence required to start penetrating your top-ranked market segment and how that may or may not align with your current funding level.

This process must begin immediately, or you risk burning through your first round before you achieve the right product fit for the market segment you have identified as the most profitable and scalable.

Use of Funds

You have to prioritize how you spend your funds, starting in your first six months. What is the number one variable according to your investors? Speed. But it's not the variable you think it is.

Allocating your funds:

Your investors, including Venture Capitalists, expect you to spend money. It's the "how and how fast" that matters.
Spend your money in the wrong areas, and your startup will fail.
Spend it in the right areas at the wrong speed, and you will also fail.

Time = Money = Priorities

As CEO, you will face multiple demands on time and money. They'll come all at once, and you can't afford to be inefficient with either one. You'll have to learn to spend money on the things that will speed you up and postpone spending on things that won't pay off until later. The MO team will show you how to systematically prioritize how and when to spend your startup's funding over the next 6, 9, and 12 months.

CEO Advising & Org Design

As a deep tech startup, your organization will evolve rapidly while you mature as a CEO and your management team becomes senior executives. MO has decades of experience advising and mentoring management teams and proactively developing efficient, scalable organizations.

Leadership team development:

CEO advising (not to be confused with coaching). A startup is only as strong as its CEO. As former CEOs and C-Suite members, we are here to help you become the CEO your startup needs to succeed. We will also advise you on managing your relationships with your board and investors.
Systematically (and proactively) evolving your org, structure, and processes. For example, hiring the right head of Business Development/Sales at the right time is critical. Statistics show there is a 90% chance that your VP of BD/Sales will turn over within the first 18 months without a proper understanding of your startup's needs at this stage.

"We formed this team and systematized our proven processes; we've been through these stages multiple times with our own deep tech startups."

– Kevin Fahey, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Market Operandi

We will use our proven system, developed across a range of companies and industries, to move you into the 10% of hard tech/deep tech startups that succeed. By working with us, you will:

Understand which market segment(s) to pursue first based on product/market fit and ability to scale quickly.
Learn how to allocate your funds – where, when, and how to spend your money to position your startup for growth. This will save you time and money – before you run out of funding.
Turn up the heat on hiring the right team members at the right time. Know which type of VP you need for Sales/Business Development and when to bring that person on board.
Develop a deeper understanding of what your board and investors expect of you. We will help you proactively manage those relationships; we spend time with both groups and have an insider's knowledge of their expectations. As we advise you, you will become the CEO your company and your teams need to lead you into rapid growth and scalability.