Our process and why we use it

We have a process for understanding who we want to work with and in what ways. It's likely different in some ways and similar in other ways to what other folks do. This article explains it to you, not so much because we want you to like it, but because we follow it, and if you try to avoid it, we are less likely to end up succeeding together.

The process

This is not the whole process, but the beginning of it. And it's not fixed in stone, and will be changed some day when we decide to experiment or find a better one by accident. But for now, it is what it is.

• We read and listen to what others write and provide: This helps us keep up to date and learn from others. We are generally skeptical, especially with folks we don't yet know and trust in their areas of special expertise. We check it out with secondary sources, look things up, and so forth. Our goal it to always get better at what we do and give better advice and assistance to those we work with.
• We produce helpful content: As a fundamental, at least once a month, and frequently more often, we produce content to help others learn from what we have learned and to express / vent our learnings. This provides a free path for you to get benefits from us and others we work with, and it is part of our donation to the well being of others and hopefully the world at large. It benefits us for a range of reasons, including providing explanations that we embed in our software and analytical capabilities so we don't have to explain it again and again, and acting as our memory to remind us of the past and help those who work with us understand how and why we do what we do. This includes workers we pay as well as customers and others who are seeking knowledge or different perspectives.
• We develop automation: This is for several reasons, including; it keeps us keenly aware of what it takes and the errors and omissions that can creep in; it provides us with unique capabilities to better understand situations and make decisions; it saves us time and effort in explaining things to others, like inconsistencies in what they are conveying to us and problems we used to find manually; and it makes us more efficient at providing our expertise to others.
• Leads: We get leads for collaboration like everyone else. Most of them these days come from a provider that we pay a small amount to in order to get us connected to potential collaborating companies and their CEOs. Others come from referrals, lists we are on, and folks we meet. When we engage with these leads, after a very quick check on whether we think they are worth our time listening to, we invite them to present briefly to get to know them, and let them know about our free content.
• Introduction: We have live online remote meetings where lots of folks present very briefly, listen to others who present, and hopefully make connections that they later find valuable, even if they have nothing to do with us. We do this because it's helpful, and being helpful is part of our culture and approach to life. It's part of who we are. In these calls, we also briefly explain our process and the next step, which is GWiz™ the Growth Wizard. Folks get to know how we operate, learn about personalities and approaches, and get a sense of whether there is interest or a feeling that we would like to do something else together - or not. If we don't like how it goes or you don't like how it goes, we are unlikely to move forward together, and it's usually best to wish each other well and maybe get back in touch later if there arises new interest.
• GWiz™: The Growth Wizard is our metrics and initial descriptives program. It involves you providing us with information similar to what we have gotten from hundreds of other companies before you, and us providing you with a platform to show it to others; automated analysis to help you improve your presentation and understand how you will likely be perceived by investors; automated analysis of the next best step to improve the value of your company; the details of what you will need to get through due diligence; and most of those who use it find it helps them better understand what they may have missed in their thinking about their company. We can also do things like analyze valuations based on our internal datasets and records of actual investments and use the output to do apples to fingernail comparisons of companies for decision-making using our Decider tool.
• Options: At this point, we have various options for ways we work together depending on mutual interest, including the financial model for cooperation, detailed contract terms, and the different paths forward together that fit into our business model and hopefully yours. These tend to change with time based on performance, interest, and other factors; and it is part of a conversation we have with you to come to mutual comfort and decisions.
• Closing a deal: Other than the click contracts for signing up to standard services like SaaS software access and similar short-term engagements, we will not close a deal with you unless and until; you read the contract; we read the contract with you in real time and answer any questions; you have a chance to run it past your lawyers and others you trust; you sleep on it over night, we sign it and start moving forward. The reason we do this is because we only want deals with people who understand the details, have gone over them, have checked them out in a diligent fashion, and have concluded that we have a meeting of minds and mutual interest in working together, usually for several years. We don't want to tolerate you or have you tolerate us over the contract period; we want to enjoy working with you, have you enjoy working with us, and gain mutual respect and value by our association. Of course it doesn't always work out that way, but that is what we are seeking, and our process helps make sure we get it most of the time.

Like it or not, that's what we do and why we do it. If you don't like it, you should decide that sooner rather than later and not waste your time and money or ours trying to force something that you are not comfortable with; because you think it is the only path forward; or you think there is something other than mutual success and positive value going forward by our association.

It's a test

One more thing. We put time limits on things and expect you to read and follow directions, show up for appointments, and follow the rules we set forth. While we try to be forgiving, especially if you ask us to, we expect a level of respect from you equivalent to the respect we give you.

• When we offer you a free GWiz and follow-on call to go over it, we put a deadline on it, send you detailed instructions, and provide help and advice along the way. It's a test! If you are unwilling or unable to read what we send you, follow directions, consider the advice, and do it all in a timely fashion, you are disrespecting us. We take our time and effort to do this with you, and we usually spend at least as much time as you do in the process.
• If we arrange a call with you and others, you should show up on time, stay for the duration, wait for your turn, or if you cannot make it or have special constraints, let us know in advance and we will try to accommodate and/or reschedule. It's a test! If you are unwilling or unable to follow the rules we set out, you are disrespecting us, and for calls with others, you are disrespecting everyone else in the call as well.

We find that almost everyone we deal with is polite, reasonable, respectful, and friendly almost all the time. However... nobody's perfect, and we don't expect you to be.

This is our process. We don't do things where some people are more privileged than others, like having calls where you can listen but not talk or making you ask to be unmuted. We expect politeness and respect for and by all, like muting your microphone when you are not talking in a large group call, and showing up on time for meetings. If you don't want to follow our process, why are you here?

Conclusions

We do our best to be transparent and work toward mutual success and positive associations with those we engage with. We hope you will do the same with us. Don't feel bad or hurt if it doesn't work out the way you hoped, or if we say things you think are harsh or whatever. We try to be who we are and let you know who that is. And we want you to be who you are with us and let us know who you are. We try to get to this as soon as possible, and that is why we do things the way we do them.

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.

In summary

We want to be as transparent as we reasonably can be, and that's why we tell you how and why we do things the way we do them. We know you have choices, and so do we. By letting you know what you are getting in to, we hope you will decide you either like it and want to do it, or don't like it and don't want to do it, and act on your decision appropriately.