Business Acceleration Services
You are an Entrepreneur or a team of experts and about to start your own company.
You have a clear vision of your Product, and version 1.0 is generally available soon.
⇒ APILANi is your #1 Alliance Partner for a successful company start-up with ...
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.
We accompany you on the journey to successful Business Preparation! 👉📧
🧩 1. Business Idea & Positioning
➡️Target Group: Who are your customers, what problems do you solve?
➡️ USP (Unique Selling Proposition): Why is your offering better or different?
➡️ Competitive Analysis: How do you position yourself against others in the market?
➡️ Business Plan: Brief, clear presentation of objectives, market, strategy and financing
⚖️ 2. Legal Form Depending on capital, liability, and structure
➡️ Sole proprietorship – quick & easy, but full personal liability
➡️ GmbH – a common choice in B2B, requires €25,000 share capital
➡️ UG (limited liability) – "mini-GmbH," starting at €1 share capital, a good entry-level solution
➡️ GbR / OHG / Partnership – for multiple founders
🧾 3. Business Registration & Formalities
➡️ Registration (depending on legal form), Tax office: apply for a tax number
➡️ Bank account (separate from your personal account)
➡️ Insurance policies: business liability, professional liability and legal expenses insurance
💰 4. Finances & Accounting
➡️ Create a financial plan: realistically calculate liquidity, costs and income
➡️ Taxes: VAT, corporate tax, trade tax – clarify early on
➡️ Accounting system: digital, GoBD-compliant (e.g. sevDesk, lexoffice, DATEV)
➡️ Funding & grants: e.g., EXIST, BAFA advice, KfW loans
🧠 5. Brand, Name & Intellectual Property Rights
➡️ Check company name: availability at the commercial register
➡️ Secure domain (.de, .com, .io …)
➡️ Trademark search & protection (DPMA)
➡️ Develop logo & corporate design
🌐 6. Online presence & communication
➡️ Website (professional, GDPR-compliant, SSL certificate) with imprint & privacy policy
➡️ Corporate email address (e.g., name@firma.de)
➡️ Social media profiles (LinkedIn, Xing, possibly Instagram depending on your target audience)
➡️ Google Business profile
👥 7. Team & Partners
➡️ Define founding partners, freelancers, or external service providers
➡️ Regulate contracts: responsibilities, involvement, confidentiality (NDA)
➡️ Build a network: tax advisors, IT service providers, marketing, and legal professionals
🚀 8. Launch & Growth
➡️ Go-to-Market plan: How will you get your first customers?
➡️ Build references and testimonials
➡️ Standardize processes: so the company becomes scalable
➡️ Long-term goals: growth, employees, internationalization, sustainability
⇒ APILANi guides you through your Company Building process. 👉📧
GoToMarket
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.
If you want to attract and retain customers, it's good to anticipate the future. Be prepared with a planned process, conduct market research, meet with other technical talent and ensure there's a potential market for your product. Without a potential market, there's no success.
We accompany you on the journey to successful GoToMarket 👉📧
🎯 1. 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)?
📦 2. 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?
💎 3. 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?
⏰ 4. Timing – When should we launch?
➡️ 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?
🧩 5. 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?
🌍 6. 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?
⇒ With APILANi your GoToMarket plan revolves around your ideal target customer. 👉📧
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.
We accompany you on the journey to Growth potential & Market outlook! 👉📧
📈 1. Market Size & Market Share (TAM / SAM / SOM)
How big is the market overall, and how big is our slice of the pie?
➡️ TAM (Total Addressable Market): Total market
➡️ SAM (Serviceable Available Market): Segment for a specific solution
➡️ SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): Realistically achievable market share within 5 years
🧩 2. Ideal Customer Profile & Acquisition Complexity
How does our ideal customer look like, and how complicated is it to find potential customers?
➡️ small / medium / large companies
➡️ special departments
➡️ special industries
➡️ Industries Location: DACH / EU (high regulatory pressure & security focus)
🚀 3. Growth Potential & Break-Even Scenario
What is our growth potential, and when will we approximately reach break-even?
➡️ Year 1 (pilot phase): 2–3 large customers / pilot projects
➡️ Year 2: Launch of managed service offerings
➡️ Year 3: Recurring revenue stable, partner network established
➡️ Break-even point: realistic at 8–10 Enterprise Customers
🧱 4. Resources & Setup
How far can we get with your current setup?
Without additional resources (sales, pre-sales, support), growth is usually severely limited.
💰 5. Financing & Seed Question
Might it be better to get seed investment first before entering the market, since we're so small?
➡️ Bootstrapping (own funds): full control, organic growth → slower & risk of resource bottlenecks
➡️ Seed investment (€0.5–1.0 million): faster scaling (marketing/sales), establishing 24/7 support → divesting company shares
🧭 6. Sales strategy & dependencies
How will we sell our product/service? Do we have our own sales force or are we dependent on third parties?
➡️ Primary: direct enterprise sales (CIO/IT operations level)
➡️ Secondary: partner/channel sales via system integrators and consulting firms (e.g., APILANi)
➡️ Online/Inbound: supplemented by content (webinars, white papers, SEO)
🔁 7. Recurring revenue
How do we generate recurring revenue?
➡️ Managed Operations as a Service (MOaaS) – monthly fees (e.g., per server/location)
➡️ Support & SLA contracts – 24/7 availability & update management
➡️ Training & Certifications – additional revenue, customer loyalty
➡️ Subscription-based software packages/plugins
🤝 8. Customer loyalty program
How should we set up a customer loyalty program?
➡️ Partner+ program (discounts, priority support, certificates)
➡️ Loyalty benefits (e.g., price stability starting at 3 years of contract term)
➡️ Technical community (events, webinars, contributions)
📅 9. Predictable run rate & forecast
When will we have a predictable annual run rate based on solid customer relationships?
➡️ Year 1: 2–3 pilot customers, irregular revenue
➡️ Year 2: 50% recurring (first managed customers)
➡️ Year 3: stable run rate → break-even reached
➡️ Year 5: scalable, predictable recurring revenue >70%
💵 10. Capital Requirements & Use
How much money do we need and what do we do with it?
➡️ Sales & Marketing (40%): Expansion of B2B sales, campaigns, partner enablement
➡️ Technology & Product Development (30%): Automation, security
➡️ Support & Managed Services (20%): establishment of a 24/7 structure
➡️ Operating Costs & Reserves (10%): Office, tools, legal reserves
⇒ APILANi helps you with planning tasks and a convincing Pitch Deck for your investor presentation. 👉📧
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.