March 11, 2026
Ep 14 - Alan Costello - Partner at Resolve Ventures
On this episode Philip speaks with Alan Costello, Partner at Resolve Partners, about what founders should focus on when building and funding a startup.
They discuss customer discovery, building real traction, and how founders can find the right early investors.
A practical conversation on why customer insight should come before capital.
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Hi, welcome to the Founders and
Funding podcast.
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I'm your host, Philip Smith.
On the podcast, I'll be
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interviewing founders,
investors, startup advisors on
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how to fund the journey of your
startup and some tips and advice
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they have for you along the way.
This podcast is sponsored by
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Perfectly Technologies and
Laden.
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Enjoy the episode.
Hi all, and welcome to the
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Founders and Funding podcast.
Thank you very much for having
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me.
Pleasure to be here.
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I well, I really appreciate you
taking the time and to start us
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off, could you tell me a bit
about yourself and what you do?
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Sure.
So I'm part of a team that's
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called Resolve Partners.
We've been in various guises.
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We've been operating with early
stage start-ups in Ireland, in
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Europe, in the Middle East for
nearly the last 20 years,
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primarily helping them to grow
their part of market fit and
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grow into international markets,
often with corporate
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partnerships.
That's the work that we do and
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very often alongside were
involved in helping them to
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raise funding be that precede or
up to A and we've also been
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involved in some transactions at
the far side of that story as
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well.
So essentially we're we're here
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helping founders to interact
with their market opportunities
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and maybe some of their
partnerships and platforms in
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between there.
Fantastic.
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And tell me about your role
there.
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So the Resolve has three core
partners.
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Our team actually came together
almost 10 years ago when we were
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the investment team of the NDRC
and we, so we've been working
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together that long.
We're not exactly finishing each
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other sentences, but not far
off.
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And the role there is sometimes
you're working with startups and
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vendors, sometimes you're
working with partnerships.
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For instance, one of our big
programs is called Accelerate
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Green that we run in partnership
with with board and Mona around
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scaling climate companies and
scaling climate founders.
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We do a lot of work with efforts
on the universities as you'd
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expect.
But primarily our work is, is
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with the founders at varying
stages, helping them to, I
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suppose, position their value
propositions, their growth
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strategies, their investment
strategies, maybe acting as a
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sounding board or as a a white
board that they can reflect
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ideas and strategies off.
And we'll give push back and
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challenge.
And sometimes we're right,
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sometimes we're wrong.
But a lot of what we do, the way
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I see it is a little bit of
knowledge transfer.
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We've worked with hundreds and
thousands of founders.
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We've seen lots of things that
work and lots of things that
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don't work.
And it's part of our role to try
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and translate all of those war
stories into the most
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appropriate kind of learning
mechanism for founders to be
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able to link into their
problems, challenges and
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opportunities that they have
today.
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Fantastic.
But I think that's a really
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great addition to add, you know,
forced out of fun is because I
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think it is hard trying to get
that real market feedback and
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really try to refine that a
proposition and and what does an
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average day look like right now
for you?
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It's kind of busy, but good
busy.
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So it, it feels a bit portfolio
ish, our portfolio risk.
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So today I was working with the
founder to help them with their
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growth strategy and they're
looking to acquire a company in
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the states.
Then I was doing some planning
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for some events that were going
to be running that's kind of
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putting out a little bit of
learning and collaboration into
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the ecosystem, particularly
around the climate and
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sustainability space.
Then I'll be going on to a
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mentoring session with a company
that's on the Accelerate Green
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program with us.
So we're going to be chatting to
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them about, I suppose maybe not
forensically, but pulling apart
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their existing business model
and understanding it and seeing
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where there might be either
growth opportunities, problems
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or maybe strategic shifts and
pivots that we might explore.
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This afternoon I'm going to be
doing a mentoring session with
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the company that we work with on
another program.
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And then I'll be going back to
that founder and seeing where
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their financial advisors and
legal advisors have got to on
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the transaction that I was
talking about this morning.
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So it's, it's varied, it's very
founder centric and it's, yeah,
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it's, it's being able to try and
hold lots of different projects
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at once or during the, during
the course of one day.
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But fantastically interesting
for that.
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Like you're learning the whole
time you're, you're going deep
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and experiencing business models
and opportunities and the whole
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time really thinking about
problem solution and problems
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being fixed and being opportuned
or being opportunities out of a
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problem.
So it's it's fascinating and
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very stimulating, but busy.
Yeah, certainly sounds like it.
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That's fantastic.
But it certainly gives you a
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great opportunity to help those
steps because you're speaking to
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so many founders and seen so
many of the the challenges and
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put together the solutions for
them.
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Talking about some of the
startups you've seen in Ireland
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lately that have been
particularly interesting.
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Yeah.
And sort of at a high level, we,
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we, we would probably work with
hundreds of founders at the
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ideation stage every year and
through thing into contacts that
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we would have with say New
Frontiers or Enterprise Ireland.
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We would work with dozens of
founders every year that we work
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with more intensively through
either our private engagements
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or investment engagements or the
programs that we run through.
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And so there's quite a wide
breadth, but some of the
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companies that I'm really
interested in and have been for
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the last number of years around
the climate sustainability
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space.
So there's a company out of
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Kildare called EV Acts who have
some really interesting patent
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technology on combining HVAC
systems with EV charging.
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So we're looking at a couple of
big mega trends coming together
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and it's not, it's some of that
is combining the physical
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hardware, but a lot of that is
also about understanding the
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control systems around that and
how power management happens
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either at the home or in the
premises or in the industrial
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facilities.
Or another company out of Galway
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called Connery looking at
supporting fish farming by
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aiding the productive and
sustainable and healthy growth
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of fish farming.
So you think about that as being
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growing a new protein source and
it's a high impact business, but
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affected by environmental
concerns.
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And what the guys in Connery are
doing are finding novel
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technologies around helping the
fish, but that scales up and to
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think about providing protein
sources for emerging markets
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provide alternating between high
climate impact protein sources
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like like beef and aiding at
quite a significant commercial
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scale.
And the large, very large
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commercial fish farms might have
1/4 of a million salmon swimming
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around in in a fish farm in a
single cage.
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These type of solutions to help
their health and well-being
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become really, really impactful
both for for planet and for
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profit.
And that's always, that's a
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useful bifocal that you can, you
can take on a business having
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good positive impact, but that
also makes good commercial
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sense.
Another business again in the
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climate space that we've we've
worked to, there's a company
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that's spinning out of TUW at
the moment called Pyram.
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And they're looking at all of
the waste energy and the waste
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heat that's in very hard,
difficult to climate impact
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businesses like cement and
glass.
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And they've got hardware and
software technologies that's
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going to make use of the waste
heat and the waste energy that's
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been used in those processes and
be able to turn those back into
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productive energies in the
system.
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So a lot of the work we do and
we can, we do go quite deep on
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the technologies at the right
time.
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But on the on the 1st instance,
you're just trying to think
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about that value proposition
that is impactful, important and
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commercial and it just gives you
great, great share of companies
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to work with.
Absolutely, and those are some
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really fantastic Son of Irish
companies.
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It is absolutely correct.
I think even from a public
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standpoint, people love to see
companies that are both
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commercial, but they're trying
to do good, you know, they're
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trying to make their lives
better and to to look at the
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funding aspect of a startup's
journey.
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What do you think is the best
way to fund a startup's journey
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in your opinion, Ellen?
So there are some biases here, I
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guess, sure in the world of, of,
of this founders and funding
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podcast and the, the 2 or 3% of
companies that ever raised
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private investment were kind of
biased towards angels and VCs
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and that that's relevant and,
but different.
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So yes, but the other 97% exists
and they're also brilliant
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businesses and, and all
businesses and all founders and
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all commercially successful
businesses weren't that type of
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support and weren't that type of
feel that so like for trying to
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bridge those kind of two
stories.
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And like we're always going to
start with customer revenue.
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And I understand that, you know,
if you're building a deeper tech
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or you may, your first customer
revenues might be €20 a month
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subscription and that doesn't
exactly pay for everything that
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a startup has to do.
So there's this delta between
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customer revenue, cash flow and
margin and cash flow positive
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capital efficiency versus then
also needing to raise some
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private investment of whatever
type.
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But the reason I'll always start
with revenue is because I'm
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looking for that validation
traction demonstration that
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there's something around problem
solution fish or the beginnings
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of product market fish.
Whether that's going to stand on
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it, whether the business is
going to stand on its own
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revenue generating fees or
whether that business is going
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to use a little bit of that
revenue generation and customer
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impact in order to build a, a
high quality investment
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narrative in order to raise
investment from from private
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investors.
So I'll start with revenue and
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then I'll look at some of the
programs and support structures
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that are around here, things
like the PSSF and it's
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predecessor Competitive start
fund, They were, they are some
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of the best funding programs,
opportunities that are available
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anywhere around.
So these type of mechanisms
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where there's an open call,
demonstrate your traction, show
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your vision, show the management
team have had a great story and
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a great potential and there are
support structures that are open
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for you.
But I'll generally hover back to
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at least show me some type of
some version of customer revenue
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to get me on that traction
story.
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Yeah, I think it makes absolute
sense and and to look at the
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founding team a bit.
What skills should founders
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possess?
And you know, what is the
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combination of skills do you
find?
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Yeah, so this is kind of
interesting and I'm, I'm, I'm
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not going to bring something new
to the story in this like I'll,
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I'll hone in so much on customer
discovery, customer insights,
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spending time with customers.
Yeah, I don't want to, this is
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sound disrespectful, but I I
don't want to necessarily have
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some Maven hardware code or
designer who's building and
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designing things absolutely the
best potential product that's
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out there or the best made or
the best designed or the most
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efficient code.
And then they look up blinking
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for their customers or their
market and it's not there.
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So I'm going to hone in on
founders that are very, very
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customer centric.
That's not to say the customer's
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always right, that's a different
thing, but who are customer
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centric about their needs and
developing a value proposition
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from that.
And then you layer on top of
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that something like insight
founders who, who can by the
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know things, work things out or
infer deductions from the market
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and from the customers that you
know that which can't be found
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on Google.
And so people are able to apply
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learning and have insight into.
So what, why now?
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What's next?
I can do that a little bit
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differently.
And those, those kind of when
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you see that coming at you,
it's, it's genuinely exciting
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and, and interesting and you're,
you know, you're on a fast
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journey.
You want to try and push some of
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the, the support structures or
the, the, the business tools
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around that person because
they're, they're the ones who
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are going to see things a little
bit differently.
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Yeah, I think that makes a lot
of sense.
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And then to look at this from
the founders perspective, how
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can those startup companies and
founders attract investors
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effectively?
I mean, they're let me think
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there's a high level tools and
frameworks are, you know, be be
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talked about, be in the media,
be get have some PR that they're
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interesting.
I'm not going to, they're
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entirely valid, but I'm kind of
old fashioned and I'll, I'll
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talk about going out and maybe
doing some of the leg worker
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sells.
So identifying what investors
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are going to be most useful,
most relevant to you in the
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business and going out and
trying to find your way directly
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or introduced to them.
And what I'm getting out there.
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Maybe a higher point is I think
the first investors can mean the
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business, all investors should
be bringing value.
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The first investors should be
people who get what you're doing
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to get the business model, get
the technologies that you're
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doing.
And that's about finding them
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and finding a way to being
introduced to them.
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And a, a VCs will have different
tools and structures where
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they'll go out and find you, but
that that's, you know, they're
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going to see if you're hiring
someone on LinkedIn and that's
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going to set off a little signal
for them in the, in the CRM.
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And that's, that's valid.
Or for early stage founders, I
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think you're going to have to go
out and find sectrally or
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service or structurally specific
Angel investors were involved in
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your space.
Ideally those who have been
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Angel investors a little bit and
then maybe not first time Angel
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investors.
And they're they're going to be
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gold for an early stage founder
because they bring so much
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knowledge capital, yes,
knowledge links, credibility for
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the later other and other
investors that might be coming
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in behind.
So that that's a little bit of
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legwork and a little bit of
thinking.
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And I think that's where
founders probably have to start
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rather than manufacturing it too
much.
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I think it's it's, it's do the
hard yards.
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Yeah, yeah.
And if you'd won't keep his
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00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,160
advice to share on phone in a
serpent and making it
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00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:22,360
successful, what would it be?
The one key advice I always come
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back to, and it's going to sound
tweet, is go back your insight.
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And so let me give an example.
I was working with the founder
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before Christmas and we
introduced them to the concept
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of the mom test.
This is the book by Rob
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00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:40,120
Fitzpatrick.
Lots of startups and we will
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00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:44,040
know this book and it's kind of
it's, it's a foundational stone
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for startup customer discovery.
But we introduced it to him.
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He leaned in hard.
He introduced his, a couple of
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his team members to it.
And between the middle of
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December and the middle of
January, they did 80 mom test
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interviews.
And they weren't a start up.
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They were probably doing a
couple of million in revenue,
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00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:01,800
but they probably doubled their
revenue target for this year as
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a result of those mom test
interviews being customer, being
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close to the customer, getting
the insight, listening to the
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customer's voice, understanding
what the problem was.
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And then those customer
discovery interviews, if you can
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imagine, I'm doing air quotes on
a bean market research.
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Of course they were sales
pipeline.
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00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:23,360
Of course they were developing
those customer discoveries as as
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customers full stop.
So I'm going to lean hard into
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those vendors that stay, that
get involved with their
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customers, understand the
problems that understand how to
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develop a value proposition
around that.
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That's going to be the so much
else can be built and supported
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around you.
That's not to diminish tech
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00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:47,320
building, that's not to diminish
marketing, branding, PR and
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00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:49,640
sales support, financial
supports.
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That's not to diminish the
impact of early stage event
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investment capital, but being
that close to your customers
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problems so that you can insight
and develop a value proposition.
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Yeah, that's.
A really fantastic advice.
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Alan, thanks so much.
According to the podcast issued
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a lot of really great advice
there from your experience.
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Thank you.
Hi, thanks for listening to this
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weeks episode of the Founders
and Funding podcast.
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00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:17,160
If you'd like to be a guest to
have a guest suggestion, please
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00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:18,960
get in touch.
Thank you.
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,480
Hi, welcome to the Founders and
Funding podcast.
2
00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:06,080
I'm your host, Philip Smith.
On the podcast, I'll be
3
00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:09,840
interviewing founders,
investors, startup advisors on
4
00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:13,520
how to fund the journey of your
startup and some tips and advice
5
00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:17,120
they have for you along the way.
This podcast is sponsored by
6
00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:19,160
Perfectly Technologies and
Laden.
7
00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:23,880
Enjoy the episode.
Hi all, and welcome to the
8
00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,000
Founders and Funding podcast.
Thank you very much for having
9
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:28,240
me.
Pleasure to be here.
10
00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,920
I well, I really appreciate you
taking the time and to start us
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00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:34,640
off, could you tell me a bit
about yourself and what you do?
12
00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:38,040
Sure.
So I'm part of a team that's
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00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:41,200
called Resolve Partners.
We've been in various guises.
14
00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:44,320
We've been operating with early
stage start-ups in Ireland, in
15
00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,760
Europe, in the Middle East for
nearly the last 20 years,
16
00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:52,560
primarily helping them to grow
their part of market fit and
17
00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:55,680
grow into international markets,
often with corporate
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00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:57,800
partnerships.
That's the work that we do and
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00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,400
very often alongside were
involved in helping them to
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00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:04,280
raise funding be that precede or
up to A and we've also been
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00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,160
involved in some transactions at
the far side of that story as
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00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:09,000
well.
So essentially we're we're here
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00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,560
helping founders to interact
with their market opportunities
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00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,120
and maybe some of their
partnerships and platforms in
25
00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:17,640
between there.
Fantastic.
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00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:19,320
And tell me about your role
there.
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00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,040
So the Resolve has three core
partners.
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Our team actually came together
almost 10 years ago when we were
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00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:29,880
the investment team of the NDRC
and we, so we've been working
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00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,760
together that long.
We're not exactly finishing each
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00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:34,440
other sentences, but not far
off.
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00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,760
And the role there is sometimes
you're working with startups and
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00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:41,960
vendors, sometimes you're
working with partnerships.
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00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:44,240
For instance, one of our big
programs is called Accelerate
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00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:47,840
Green that we run in partnership
with with board and Mona around
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00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:51,720
scaling climate companies and
scaling climate founders.
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00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:54,560
We do a lot of work with efforts
on the universities as you'd
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00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:56,920
expect.
But primarily our work is, is
39
00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:01,280
with the founders at varying
stages, helping them to, I
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00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,800
suppose, position their value
propositions, their growth
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00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,400
strategies, their investment
strategies, maybe acting as a
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00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,600
sounding board or as a a white
board that they can reflect
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00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:15,400
ideas and strategies off.
And we'll give push back and
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00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:17,280
challenge.
And sometimes we're right,
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00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:20,520
sometimes we're wrong.
But a lot of what we do, the way
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00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:22,280
I see it is a little bit of
knowledge transfer.
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00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:25,200
We've worked with hundreds and
thousands of founders.
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00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:27,160
We've seen lots of things that
work and lots of things that
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00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:30,520
don't work.
And it's part of our role to try
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00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:33,880
and translate all of those war
stories into the most
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00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:38,960
appropriate kind of learning
mechanism for founders to be
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00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:41,400
able to link into their
problems, challenges and
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00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:42,720
opportunities that they have
today.
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00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:45,160
Fantastic.
But I think that's a really
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00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,840
great addition to add, you know,
forced out of fun is because I
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think it is hard trying to get
that real market feedback and
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00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:56,240
really try to refine that a
proposition and and what does an
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00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:57,680
average day look like right now
for you?
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00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:01,600
It's kind of busy, but good
busy.
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00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:07,120
So it, it feels a bit portfolio
ish, our portfolio risk.
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00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:12,840
So today I was working with the
founder to help them with their
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00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:15,680
growth strategy and they're
looking to acquire a company in
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the states.
Then I was doing some planning
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00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:22,240
for some events that were going
to be running that's kind of
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00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:25,680
putting out a little bit of
learning and collaboration into
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00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:27,400
the ecosystem, particularly
around the climate and
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00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:30,360
sustainability space.
Then I'll be going on to a
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00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:33,400
mentoring session with a company
that's on the Accelerate Green
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00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:35,880
program with us.
So we're going to be chatting to
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00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:42,520
them about, I suppose maybe not
forensically, but pulling apart
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00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:46,120
their existing business model
and understanding it and seeing
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00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:49,400
where there might be either
growth opportunities, problems
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00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,440
or maybe strategic shifts and
pivots that we might explore.
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00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:57,400
This afternoon I'm going to be
doing a mentoring session with
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the company that we work with on
another program.
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00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,960
And then I'll be going back to
that founder and seeing where
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00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:06,000
their financial advisors and
legal advisors have got to on
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00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:07,720
the transaction that I was
talking about this morning.
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00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:13,720
So it's, it's varied, it's very
founder centric and it's, yeah,
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00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:18,440
it's, it's being able to try and
hold lots of different projects
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00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:21,279
at once or during the, during
the course of one day.
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00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:24,440
But fantastically interesting
for that.
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Like you're learning the whole
time you're, you're going deep
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00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:33,120
and experiencing business models
and opportunities and the whole
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00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:36,760
time really thinking about
problem solution and problems
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00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:43,160
being fixed and being opportuned
or being opportunities out of a
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00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,560
problem.
So it's it's fascinating and
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00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:49,520
very stimulating, but busy.
Yeah, certainly sounds like it.
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00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:52,040
That's fantastic.
But it certainly gives you a
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00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:55,400
great opportunity to help those
steps because you're speaking to
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00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:58,080
so many founders and seen so
many of the the challenges and
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00:04:58,360 --> 00:04:59,800
put together the solutions for
them.
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00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:03,200
Talking about some of the
startups you've seen in Ireland
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00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:04,880
lately that have been
particularly interesting.
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00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:09,840
Yeah.
And sort of at a high level, we,
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00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:13,920
we, we would probably work with
hundreds of founders at the
97
00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:18,080
ideation stage every year and
through thing into contacts that
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00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:20,800
we would have with say New
Frontiers or Enterprise Ireland.
99
00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:24,080
We would work with dozens of
founders every year that we work
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00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:27,360
with more intensively through
either our private engagements
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00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:29,720
or investment engagements or the
programs that we run through.
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00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:33,040
And so there's quite a wide
breadth, but some of the
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00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:35,600
companies that I'm really
interested in and have been for
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00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:37,760
the last number of years around
the climate sustainability
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00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:40,400
space.
So there's a company out of
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00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:44,440
Kildare called EV Acts who have
some really interesting patent
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00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:49,480
technology on combining HVAC
systems with EV charging.
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00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,320
So we're looking at a couple of
big mega trends coming together
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00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:54,880
and it's not, it's some of that
is combining the physical
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00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:57,960
hardware, but a lot of that is
also about understanding the
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00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:01,960
control systems around that and
how power management happens
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00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:05,960
either at the home or in the
premises or in the industrial
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00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:08,400
facilities.
Or another company out of Galway
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00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:14,160
called Connery looking at
supporting fish farming by
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00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:19,120
aiding the productive and
sustainable and healthy growth
116
00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:22,080
of fish farming.
So you think about that as being
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00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:25,880
growing a new protein source and
it's a high impact business, but
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00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:27,480
affected by environmental
concerns.
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00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:30,520
And what the guys in Connery are
doing are finding novel
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00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:35,120
technologies around helping the
fish, but that scales up and to
121
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:39,880
think about providing protein
sources for emerging markets
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00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:44,160
provide alternating between high
climate impact protein sources
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00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:48,160
like like beef and aiding at
quite a significant commercial
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00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:50,480
scale.
And the large, very large
125
00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:53,840
commercial fish farms might have
1/4 of a million salmon swimming
126
00:06:53,840 --> 00:06:56,320
around in in a fish farm in a
single cage.
127
00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:00,080
These type of solutions to help
their health and well-being
128
00:07:00,280 --> 00:07:03,720
become really, really impactful
both for for planet and for
129
00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,120
profit.
And that's always, that's a
130
00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:10,000
useful bifocal that you can, you
can take on a business having
131
00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:13,280
good positive impact, but that
also makes good commercial
132
00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:15,800
sense.
Another business again in the
133
00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:18,600
climate space that we've we've
worked to, there's a company
134
00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:21,840
that's spinning out of TUW at
the moment called Pyram.
135
00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:25,480
And they're looking at all of
the waste energy and the waste
136
00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:30,120
heat that's in very hard,
difficult to climate impact
137
00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:31,680
businesses like cement and
glass.
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00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:34,520
And they've got hardware and
software technologies that's
139
00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:37,680
going to make use of the waste
heat and the waste energy that's
140
00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:41,160
been used in those processes and
be able to turn those back into
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00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:43,280
productive energies in the
system.
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00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:48,720
So a lot of the work we do and
we can, we do go quite deep on
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00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:50,360
the technologies at the right
time.
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00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:53,080
But on the on the 1st instance,
you're just trying to think
145
00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:57,080
about that value proposition
that is impactful, important and
146
00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,200
commercial and it just gives you
great, great share of companies
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00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:02,600
to work with.
Absolutely, and those are some
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00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:04,640
really fantastic Son of Irish
companies.
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00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:08,440
It is absolutely correct.
I think even from a public
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00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:10,960
standpoint, people love to see
companies that are both
151
00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:13,480
commercial, but they're trying
to do good, you know, they're
152
00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:16,960
trying to make their lives
better and to to look at the
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00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:18,840
funding aspect of a startup's
journey.
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00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:22,000
What do you think is the best
way to fund a startup's journey
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in your opinion, Ellen?
So there are some biases here, I
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guess, sure in the world of, of,
of this founders and funding
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podcast and the, the 2 or 3% of
companies that ever raised
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private investment were kind of
biased towards angels and VCs
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and that that's relevant and,
but different.
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So yes, but the other 97% exists
and they're also brilliant
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businesses and, and all
businesses and all founders and
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all commercially successful
businesses weren't that type of
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support and weren't that type of
feel that so like for trying to
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bridge those kind of two
stories.
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And like we're always going to
start with customer revenue.
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And I understand that, you know,
if you're building a deeper tech
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or you may, your first customer
revenues might be €20 a month
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subscription and that doesn't
exactly pay for everything that
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a startup has to do.
So there's this delta between
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customer revenue, cash flow and
margin and cash flow positive
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capital efficiency versus then
also needing to raise some
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private investment of whatever
type.
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But the reason I'll always start
with revenue is because I'm
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looking for that validation
traction demonstration that
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there's something around problem
solution fish or the beginnings
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of product market fish.
Whether that's going to stand on
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it, whether the business is
going to stand on its own
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revenue generating fees or
whether that business is going
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to use a little bit of that
revenue generation and customer
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impact in order to build a, a
high quality investment
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narrative in order to raise
investment from from private
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investors.
So I'll start with revenue and
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then I'll look at some of the
programs and support structures
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that are around here, things
like the PSSF and it's
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predecessor Competitive start
fund, They were, they are some
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of the best funding programs,
opportunities that are available
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anywhere around.
So these type of mechanisms
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where there's an open call,
demonstrate your traction, show
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your vision, show the management
team have had a great story and
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a great potential and there are
support structures that are open
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for you.
But I'll generally hover back to
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at least show me some type of
some version of customer revenue
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to get me on that traction
story.
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Yeah, I think it makes absolute
sense and and to look at the
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founding team a bit.
What skills should founders
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possess?
And you know, what is the
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combination of skills do you
find?
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Yeah, so this is kind of
interesting and I'm, I'm, I'm
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not going to bring something new
to the story in this like I'll,
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I'll hone in so much on customer
discovery, customer insights,
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spending time with customers.
Yeah, I don't want to, this is
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sound disrespectful, but I I
don't want to necessarily have
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some Maven hardware code or
designer who's building and
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designing things absolutely the
best potential product that's
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out there or the best made or
the best designed or the most
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efficient code.
And then they look up blinking
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for their customers or their
market and it's not there.
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So I'm going to hone in on
founders that are very, very
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customer centric.
That's not to say the customer's
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always right, that's a different
thing, but who are customer
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centric about their needs and
developing a value proposition
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from that.
And then you layer on top of
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that something like insight
founders who, who can by the
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know things, work things out or
infer deductions from the market
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and from the customers that you
know that which can't be found
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on Google.
And so people are able to apply
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learning and have insight into.
So what, why now?
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What's next?
I can do that a little bit
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differently.
And those, those kind of when
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you see that coming at you,
it's, it's genuinely exciting
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and, and interesting and you're,
you know, you're on a fast
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journey.
You want to try and push some of
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the, the support structures or
the, the, the business tools
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around that person because
they're, they're the ones who
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are going to see things a little
bit differently.
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Yeah, I think that makes a lot
of sense.
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And then to look at this from
the founders perspective, how
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can those startup companies and
founders attract investors
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effectively?
I mean, they're let me think
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there's a high level tools and
frameworks are, you know, be be
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talked about, be in the media,
be get have some PR that they're
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interesting.
I'm not going to, they're
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entirely valid, but I'm kind of
old fashioned and I'll, I'll
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talk about going out and maybe
doing some of the leg worker
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sells.
So identifying what investors
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are going to be most useful,
most relevant to you in the
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business and going out and
trying to find your way directly
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or introduced to them.
And what I'm getting out there.
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Maybe a higher point is I think
the first investors can mean the
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business, all investors should
be bringing value.
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The first investors should be
people who get what you're doing
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to get the business model, get
the technologies that you're
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doing.
And that's about finding them
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and finding a way to being
introduced to them.
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And a, a VCs will have different
tools and structures where
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they'll go out and find you, but
that that's, you know, they're
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going to see if you're hiring
someone on LinkedIn and that's
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going to set off a little signal
for them in the, in the CRM.
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And that's, that's valid.
Or for early stage founders, I
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think you're going to have to go
out and find sectrally or
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service or structurally specific
Angel investors were involved in
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your space.
Ideally those who have been
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Angel investors a little bit and
then maybe not first time Angel
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investors.
And they're they're going to be
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gold for an early stage founder
because they bring so much
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knowledge capital, yes,
knowledge links, credibility for
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the later other and other
investors that might be coming
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in behind.
So that that's a little bit of
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legwork and a little bit of
thinking.
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And I think that's where
founders probably have to start
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rather than manufacturing it too
much.
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I think it's it's, it's do the
hard yards.
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Yeah, yeah.
And if you'd won't keep his
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advice to share on phone in a
serpent and making it
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successful, what would it be?
The one key advice I always come
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back to, and it's going to sound
tweet, is go back your insight.
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And so let me give an example.
I was working with the founder
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before Christmas and we
introduced them to the concept
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of the mom test.
This is the book by Rob
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Fitzpatrick.
Lots of startups and we will
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know this book and it's kind of
it's, it's a foundational stone
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for startup customer discovery.
But we introduced it to him.
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He leaned in hard.
He introduced his, a couple of
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his team members to it.
And between the middle of
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December and the middle of
January, they did 80 mom test
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interviews.
And they weren't a start up.
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They were probably doing a
couple of million in revenue,
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but they probably doubled their
revenue target for this year as
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a result of those mom test
interviews being customer, being
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close to the customer, getting
the insight, listening to the
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customer's voice, understanding
what the problem was.
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And then those customer
discovery interviews, if you can
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imagine, I'm doing air quotes on
a bean market research.
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Of course they were sales
pipeline.
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Of course they were developing
those customer discoveries as as
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customers full stop.
So I'm going to lean hard into
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those vendors that stay, that
get involved with their
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customers, understand the
problems that understand how to
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develop a value proposition
around that.
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That's going to be the so much
else can be built and supported
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around you.
That's not to diminish tech
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building, that's not to diminish
marketing, branding, PR and
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sales support, financial
supports.
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That's not to diminish the
impact of early stage event
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investment capital, but being
that close to your customers
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problems so that you can insight
and develop a value proposition.
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Yeah, that's.
A really fantastic advice.
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Alan, thanks so much.
According to the podcast issued
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a lot of really great advice
there from your experience.
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Thank you.
Hi, thanks for listening to this
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weeks episode of the Founders
and Funding podcast.
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If you'd like to be a guest to
have a guest suggestion, please
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get in touch.
Thank you.