End of year summary

We used to make quarterly transparency reports available to the world, but we found few read them and fewer probably cared about what they read. So this summary is a very reduced version of the statistics from this year and other progress/changes we have made.

Companies we (tried to or) helped accelerate

We started the year in a different operating mode than we operate in today. We were trying to be selective in our live engagement and broad in our outreach and information approach. Somewhere around midyear we changed our minds (or perhaps lost them). We decided to accept anybody we might possibly be interested in working with and anyone we thought we could help into our accelerator and to start to do much shorter presentations with more of a group benefit to the process. As a result, by end of year, we had

GWiz results

As part of our new process, we now offer free (to you - we pay for them) GWiz™ metrics for about a dozen companies per month and have one-on-one follow-on calls after the companies update to reflect and improve automated analysis results. This is producing more and perhaps better statistical information on valuations and related information across a wider cross-section of companies. It also supports an improved process of creating advisory boards for deserving companies and helps the companies better present and understand their situation. The folks who have done this, including the ones who paid for GWiz (we offer to pay for it for companies with no investments or income on place and who we think are interesting or initially deserving). You can view the results and drill down here:

Portfolio companies

Over the course of our existence, we have had about 50 portfolio companies, many of them exited (in a good or bad way). We provide update opportunities to them and monthly CEOs forum meetings to help each other. The ones that are currently active in our portfolio (14 of them) are shown in their separate GWiz listing:

New Articles

This year we have provided 18 new articles to help grow companies and understand the ecosystem of early stage companies and growth. We also added AI-generated audio drill-downs to provide different perspective - and some comedy if you compare the AI to the real things.

• 2025-12D: End of year summary
• 2025-12C: Why don't they listen?
• 2025-12: Creating a Feeling
• 2025-11B: Our process and why we use it
• 2025-11: How to NOT Sell to Investors
• 2025-10D: Choosing your opportunities
• 2025-10C: Stop crapping up your Web presence
• 2025-10B: When did committing felonies become a business model?
• 2025-10: Something is very wrong with those spreadsheets
• 2025-09: GAI is learning to be worse and worse
• 2025-08: Wildly successful failures
• 2025-07: Quality counts, and so does sincerity, at a cost
• 2025-06: Top 10 Hints for Your Next Pitch
• 2025-05: Inflection Points
• 2025-04: An excellent look at the Due Diligence process
• 2025-03: The Wild Ride
• 2025-02: How to use AI to enhance your business
• 2025-01: LLMs, huh, what are they good for?

AI Enhancements

Throughout the year we have provided AI and analytic enhancements to our already existing AI and analytic SaaS offerings:

• GWiz: Now with automated analysis of several sorts to help better understand how your company will be viewed by investors and help save time and effort by investors in understanding how you company fits in their investment thesis.
• Diligence: Integration of additional tools and automated summary generation (subject to your edits of course) through Cognos. Also, better drill-downs into your data room.
• GTM: Improved generation of marketing material and integration into Cognos for automated enhancement and analysis against various cognitive frameworks.
• Cognos: New modes and libraries for automating rewrites and write-ups for Diligence, GWiz, and other SaaS components; and new analytical libraries for influence and counter-influence operations.

Conclusions

It has been a building year with more activity, more progress, and more companies being helped. We are always working to do better, and we love to see and hear from more companies and engage with more opportunities.

More information?

Join our monthly free advisory call, usually at 0900 Pacific time on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month, tell us about your company and situation, and learn from others as they learn from you. And next time I tell you it's a bad idea, take me seriously!

In summary

We're doing more to help grow companies than ever before, and we hope you will join us.