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 the ground up is a critical process. Getting started is relatively easy: You work with friends who share your vision. Your technical background allows you to develop a product with excellent functionality. Now it's crucial to understand the bigger picture. You want to do business.
Therefore, bring someone with a completely different perspective on board. Find someone on your team who keeps an eye on standards or trends. Nominate a customer advocate to gather feedback from potential customers and who can develop a value proposition.
As your company evolves, the complexity increases. What once worked in a small, highly technical team is no longer enough. You need structure, clarity and a shared understanding of where you are heading.
This is the moment when you must define your strategic foundation:
👉 Establish a clear market focus. Identify who benefits most from your solution and why. Understand their operational pain points, decision criteria and success metrics. The more precisely you define your target customers, the more effectively you can position your offering.
👉 Create alignment within your team. Make sure everyone understands the core problem you solve, the value your solution delivers, and what differentiates you from others. A unified internal narrative leads to a strong external perception.
👉 Begin shaping a repeatable process. Product development, customer interaction and delivery must become reliable and scalable. Define responsibilities, implement simple governance, and enable fast but structured decision-making.
👉 Most importantly: build trust early. Investors, partners, and customers expect transparency, focus, and evidence. Show them measurable progress—proof of concept, proof of value, clear milestones, and a roadmap that demonstrates ambition as well as feasibility. When you combine technical excellence with strategic discipline, customer insight, and a scalable operating model, you transform a promising idea into a sustainable business. This is where real growth begins.
You want to set up your own company?
We accompany you on your journey to successful Business Preparation with concrete actions! 👉📧
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 Building process. 👉📧
GoToMarket
Starting a business doesn't mean doing everything yourself. It means building the right people, processes and structures so that your technology not only works but also survives and grows in the market.
Once you understand that technical excellence alone isn't enough, the real work of building a stable company begins. A successful company consists of far more than just a good product. It needs structures, clarity and a professional public image.
Sooner or later, you'll realize that technical solutions don't sell because of their performance, but because of their communicability, trustworthiness and predictability.
The sooner you create the right structures, the less chaos will ensue later - and the more attractive you'll be to customers and investors (if you want any). Professionalization isn't a luxury, but a survival strategy.
You want to establish your company in the market?
We accompany you on your journey to successful GoToMarket with concrete actions! 👉📧
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
Once the foundations are in place, the crucial part begins: your concept needs to be robust. Not just for investors, but especially for yourself. Because every ambiguity you ignore will later become a costly weakness. APILANi supports you from your initial pitch to a scalable business model.
APILANi helps you develop your business model so that you …
👉 clearly define the problem you solve.
👉 can describe why you solve it better than others.
👉 can explain who your product is truly relevant for.
👉 can demonstrate, in a comprehensible way, how you will generate revenue.
✔️ This transforms your idea into a business that can be planned, measured and scaled.
You want to convince investors to support you?
We accompany you on your journey to raising venture capital with concrete actions! 👉📧
1. Build market understanding before you scale
Most startups don’t fail because the technology isn’t good - they fail because they never understood their market deeply enough.
APILANi supports you in developing a clear market picture:
➜ analyze customer needs and priorities
➜ position your solution in a competitive landscape
➜ identify your true differentiation
➜ assess opportunities and risks realistically
📌 This enables you to demonstrate that a real market exists—and how you will access it.
2. Investor readiness, not just pitch performance
A compelling pitch is only the beginning.
What matters is your ability to withstand the deep-dive questions that follow:
➜ How will you develop and scale your solution?
➜ Which milestones can you realistically deliver?
➜ What does your 12–24 month financial plan look like?
➜ Which KPIs will you use to manage the business?
➜ How do you reduce risk for investors?
📌 APILANi ensures you are not just presenting - you are investable.
3. Structure instead of chaos – so you can grow without breaking
With the right setup in place, you avoid the classic pitfalls of early-stage companies:
➜ missing processes
➜ unclear responsibilities
➜ unstructured growth
➜ inconsistent messaging
➜ insufficient preparation for customer requirements
📌 APILANi helps you create a professional foundation that impresses investors and builds trust with customers.
Your advantage: Support that truly understands technical Startups
Technical founders need sparring partners who understand technology yet also know the market, customer behavior and investor logic.
This is where APILANi makes the difference:
✔️ structured
✔️ pragmatic
✔️ realistic
😀 with deep understanding of both tech and business
✔️ APILANi helps you with a convincing Pitch to win investors. 👉📧
Growth Potential & Market Outlook
You want your company to grow and act in a future-proof manner?
We accompany you on your journey to Growth potential & Market outlook with concrete actions! 👉📧
1. Market Size & Market Share (TAM / SAM / SOM)
➜ 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
📌How big is the market overall and how big is our slice of the pie?
2. Ideal Customer Profile & Acquisition Complexity
➜ small / medium / large companies
➜ special departments
➜ special industries
➜ Industries Location: DACH / EU (high regulatory pressure & security focus)
📌How does our ideal customer look like, and how complicated is it to find potential customers?
3. Growth Potential & Break-Even Scenario
➜ 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
📌What is our growth potential, and when will we approximately reach break-even?
4. Resources & Setup
Without additional resources (sales, pre-sales, support), growth is usually severely limited.
📌How far can we get with your current setup?
5. Financing & Seed Question
➜ 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
📌Might it be better to get seed investment first before entering the market, since we're so small?
6. Sales strategy & dependencies
➜ 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)
📌How will we sell our product/service? Do we have our own sales force or are we dependent on third parties?
7. 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
📌 How do we generate recurring revenue?
8. 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)
📌 How should we set up a customer loyalty program?
9. Predictable run rate & forecast
➜ 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%
📌 When will we have a predictable annual run rate based on solid customer relationships?
10. Capital Requirements & Use
➜ 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
📌 How much money do we need and what do we do with it?
✔️ With APILANi you have a realistic view on your Market Share and Growth Potential. 👉📧
Team Building & Collaboration
As your company grows, the challenges of team composition become more complex. Diversity in expertise, background and perspectives can significantly strengthen your business - but it also requires intentional leadership.
🔍 Managing complexity through clarity and structure
Heterogeneous teams bring innovation, creativity and new ways of thinking.
However, they also introduce:
⚠️ different working styles
⚠️ varying communication preferences
⚠️ conflicting priorities
⚠️ contrasting expectations
To harness these strengths, you need clear processes, defined roles and strong internal communication.
Without structure, diversity becomes friction. With structure, diversity becomes a competitive advantage.
🔍 Culture becomes a strategic asset
A growing team needs more than tasks and objectives—it needs a shared understanding of how you work together.
A unique culture is emerging:
❓ How do you make decisions?
❓ How do you handle disagreements?
❓ How do you give feedback?
❓ What behaviors are rewarded or tolerated?
A healthy culture reduces complexity, aligns expectations, and keeps your team focused even under pressure.
Investors value culture enormously because culture determines whether a team can scale.
🔍 Leadership must evolve with the company
What works in a small, technical founding team won’t work as you hire new talents, expand into new markets, or add customer-facing roles.
As your organization grows, you must shift from …
⇆ doing to enabling
⇆ controlling to empowering
⇆ improvising to planning
⇆ reacting to anticipating
Strong leadership creates an environment where diverse teams thrive and individuals take ownership.
🔍 The right people at the right time
Every growth phase requires different skills:
➜ In early stages: product builders, problem solvers, generalists
➜ In scaling stages: operators, process experts, specialists
➜ In mature stages: leaders, strategists, commercial talents
APILANi helps you identify which roles you need now, and which roles you will need next, ensuring your organization grows in a planned, controlled way.
🔍 Team development is business development
Ultimately, your company will only grow as far as your team can carry it.
With the right mix of people—aligned, empowered, and purpose-driven—you create an organization that:
➜ innovates faster
➜ adapts more flexibly
➜ performs more reliably
➜ attracts stronger talent
A strong team doesn’t just execute your strategy - it becomes your strategy.