Startups Unplugged
I help businesses grow. This is how.
Timing and Product Success: I research and workshop ways to improve product success rates by understanding market entrance timing. Many people acknowledge the importance of timing, but I haven’t found anyone else go deep into the topic, so I wrote a book on it (the “why now” question).
Lifetime Value and Customer Acquisition Cost: I help companies understand their unit economics and what levers they can push on to improve their situation. That results in lower cost to acquire customers, higher retention, and higher margins. Understanding and improving your unit economics is especially important in a tough market. Here’s a related book and podcast.
Accelerators/Incubators: I’ve built and operated multiple startup accelerator or incubator programs around the world. Programs I’ve built include:
- Hong Kong’s first funded accelerator, focused on hybrid mobile app development, which helped the city develop as a tech hub,
- A community health-focused incubator for Volunteers of America ($1B national non-profit) to achieve the mission of its Futures Fund,
- The startup incubator at the University of Southern California, helping a portfolio of 200 startups raise over $220M (both tech and CPG businesses),
- An accelerator in Rome that focused on environmental tech deployments in emerging economies,
- Internal innovation consulting for funded startups and large organizations, including Unilever and Applied Materials, guiding my clients to solve problems that they couldn’t in other ways.
To discuss the way these focus areas could benefit your business, contact me.
