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In 2012 the venture capital industry invested $26Bn in the US market, in 3698 firms at an average investment of $7m (NVCA). These were directed at start up companies. Approximately 40% of these firms will fail so it’s not an investment arena for the faint-hearted. Given only around 6000 companies s Read More

The first part of my assertion is pretty obvious but worth stating. Marketing today, more than ever, is about story telling. Great content tells a story about the challenges you solve and the results you achieve. However allowing your prospects to tell their story is more difficult. Read More

At some point in your career, you may encounter the VC or PE world. You might: sell a non-core subsidiary to them, use their funds to start a company, use their money to buy a company, buy out your partners, or even take a company private from the public markets. Whatever the transaction, the VC an Read More

If you only employ people that do what you tell them they will fail to execute. As CEO you need to see a little piece of yourself in them. They need to solve problems on the ground, to get stuff done. The solutions that will be needed will require curiosity, grit, problem solving abilities, problem Read More

Successful acquisitions start by buying what you want to buy not what is up for sale. Part 2 of my series outlines how to find targets and prepare for the all important approach. Read More

Everyone is moving to the understanding that marketing is the key to sales success. The problem is that if everyone is starting to do it, so how do you sound different? How do you create remarkable content? I've shared 6 little secrets from a recent blog post by Velocity Partners and added by own t Read More

We all need to justify spending money. Whether it's $1000 or $1m. It doesn't matter whether the expenditure is in the budget or not in the budget. Trust me, what drives the spending of money is the efficiency of capital. The Return on Investment. The ROI %. Using a version of the model below you ca Read More

We all know it makes sense to develop business from existing customers. It's so much more expensive attracting new customers cold from the marketplace. I've found developing a different mindset is helpful in getting sales professionals to look at this problem. Are they tourists or residents? Read More

Whether you are a practiced acquirer like Google or Oracle we all need a process to execute big projects successfully. Acquisitions can be small or large but they all need care and attention if the deal is to be a success. The Acquisitions Approvals Model sets out a great How-to model on 2 slides a Read More

How you prepare for a Board Meeting? What should it cover? How long should it last? What should it try to achieve? After completing 100s of them, here are a few ideas. Read More