We are huge believers in the nail it before you scale it doctrine, expounded most cogently by Steve Blank. We also believe that once you nail it, you have to scale it and scale it quickly; that is where we come in. We like to invest in innovative technology companies, after product market fit has been established, a go-to-market channel has been solidified and early customers are happy. By that point, a company is ready to scale. On average our companies have grown revenues 92% in the year after our investment.
We have learned that there is no magic moment when the answer to “can you scale?” is obvious. Instead we have seen that, just as establishing product market fit is a process of discovery, so too is scaling. The scaling plan at $1M can be adding two telesales reps, at $10M adding field sales and at $100M, adding international and getting channel leverage. In every case what we are looking to understand is a roughly predictable relationship between adding sales and marketing expenses and seeing revenues grow- usually with some lag. As long as that relationship is understood, it pays to invest aggressively to build winners.
We have been fortunate to be involved with some great companies. We aim to provide a consistent perspective on growth that can help them scale but are more than mindful that the real work is being done by the teams making it happen every day.
Check out this Infographic to see if ScaleVP is the right investment partner for you.
