Business Acceleration Services
You are an Entrepreneur or a team of experts and about to start your own Company.
As technicians you have a clear vision of your Product. Version 1.0 is about to be generally available.
⇒ APILANi is Your #1 Alliance Partner to be prepared for a mid-term and long-term Product Roadmap.
Our Business Acceleration Services include ...
Business Preparation
Building a company from scratch is a critical process. The start is relatively easy: You team up with friends you have similar perceptions with. Your technical background enables you to develop a Product with great functionality. Now, it is critical to understand the whole context. You want to do business.
Therefore, get a person on board with quite a different perspective. Find somebody in your team who has an eye on standards or trends. Nominate a customer advocate to get feedback from potential customers and who does a value proposition.
⇒ APILANi guides you through the Company Building Process.
Founding your Company
You want to found you own Company. In the beginning, you all earn "the same". But with the money there comes the trouble. If you have a investor on board you are not "free" in your decisions any more. Product Development, Customer Acquisition and Relationship Management, Team Building as well as the whole Administration process isn't your "own" business any more. Now these topics are written in capital letters and there is always somebody around asking nasty questions.
If you don't like this kind of constant supervision it might be a good idea to delegate some responsibilities. Descriptions of Products and Services are necessary the same as Business Plans, Market Overviews, Strategical & Operational Concepts, Management Resumes, Material for Consulting, Training and Sales. Esp. technically driven companies heavily underestimate the impact of non-technical topics on the overall success.
⇒ APILANi helps you with planning & financing your Company and the non product related dues.
When you have customers and want to keep them you need to anticipate the future. You need to be prepared for a planned process, do Market Research, meet with other technical talents and be sure there might be a Market for your Product. No success wothout a potential market.
⇒ With APILANi you keep an eye on the market.
GoToMarket
As part of your business strategy, you will ask yourself six relevant questions:
► Who are we selling to?
► What are we selling?
► Why do our customers need our product?
► When should we launch the product?
► How do we go to market?
► Where can we reach our target customers?
⇒ With APILANi your GoToMarket plan revolves around your ideal target customer.
Market Research
Target Customer: Who are we selling to?
► Which industry is suited best for our offering?
► Which kind of customer is suited best for our offering?
► Do we expect a complex sales which several parties involved (enduser, technical people, finance, executive)?
Scope: What are we selling?
► Do we have a complete solution or a niche product?
► Would it be better to partner with another vendor to offer a more extensive solution?
► Do we sell a "deliverable" the customer can handle by his own or a complex solution with 7x24 support?
USP: Why does our customer need our product?
► Is our customer dissatisfied with our competition and does he expect a better solution from us now?
► Is he ready for technical innovations or disruption?
► Is he willing to act as an early adopter?
Timing: When should we launch the product?
► Do we have a seasonal product with fluctuations in sales?
► Is our product mature enough or should we do another round with our early adopters?
► Do we have an alternative offer if we have to withdraw the product from the market due to technical problems?
Strategy: How do we go to market?
► Is this a new market where we should find early adopters or is it a mature market?
► How is our offering sold best: through direct sales, inside sales, online sales, indirect sales (channel)?
► How long is the sales cycle do be expected?
Location: Where can we reach our target customers?
► Should we establish branch offices to be closer to our target customers?
► Should we have implementation partners in place or can we do everything on our own?
► Do we have enough staff?
Venture Capital Planning
Every Start-Up is different and so is the opportunity. There is no "one fits all" package.
If you don't have customers yet it is more difficult to stand the hard questions. Therefore, before you approach a potential investor you need to be clear on your Market entry, your Business Model and your financial situation.
APILANi guides you to the right setup and helps you with promising answers for the questions of the VCs.
⇒ APILANi helps you with planning tasks and a convincing Pitch Deck for your investor presentation.
Potential of growth
► How big is the Market in total and what will be our piece of cake?
► How does our ideal customer look like and how complicated is it to find potential customers?
► What is our potential for growth and when will we approx. reach break-even?
► How far do we get with our current setup?
► Might it be better to get Seed Invest first before entering the Market as we are too small?
► How will we sell our product or service: Do we have an own salesforce or are we dependent on third party?
► How will we create recurring revenue and how should we set up a customer retention program?
► When will we have a predictable yearly run-rate based on solid customer relationships?
► How much money do we need and what will we do with it?
Team Building & Collaboration
Your team is your capital. Homogeneous teams have a common understanding of a specific topic. It's easy to communicate. But your company has to grow.
Building the right team is at least as important as building the right product. Investors look at the team even in the seed phase - the "who" behind the "what. As the company grows the company culture is essential.
Heterogeneous teams can develop a more sustainable business model than homogeneous teams, but they are more complicated in many aspects.
⇒ APILANi helps you to set up the right team based on complementary skills.
The right collaboration
► How does our team adapt to the challenges of the market and the environment?
► Which team member plays which role and which tasks can he/she take over best?
► Which topics are very good / less well-developed?
► How do we deal with heterogeneous teams?
► What opportunities arise from this and where do conflicts arise?