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 mid-term and long-term Product Roadmap 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.

Our Business Preparation Checklist

🧩 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 the Company Buildung 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.

Our GoToMarket Checklist

🎯 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.

Our Checklist for Assessment of 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.

Our Collaboration Checklist

🧭 1. Gemeinsame Ziele und Werte

Alle Teammitglieder verstehen und teilen die Vision.
Klare Rollen und Verantwortlichkeiten fördern Orientierung.

💬 2. Offene Kommunikation

Transparente Informationsweitergabe (z. B. über Tools wie Microsoft Teams, Slack oder Confluence)
Aktives Zuhören und respektvoller Austausch unterschiedlicher Meinungen

🤝 3. Vertrauen und Respekt

Jeder Beitrag zählt — unabhängig von Position oder Erfahrung
Fehler werden als Lernchance gesehen, nicht als Schuldfrage

⚙️ 4. Zusammenarbeit mit Technologie

gemeinsame Dokumente (z. B. Google Workspace, SharePoint)
Informationssilos vermeiden
Projektmanagement-Tools (z. B. Asana, Jira, Trello) schaffen Transparenz über Fortschritt und Aufgaben.