Let’s face it, launching a successful business concept is often a thankless job of long hours, continued pivots, managing everything from the product(s) development, to people, to the finances, obtaining funding and much more, but founders take on this challenge because of their strong internal purpose they feel towards their product(s) and their focus on the research to bring the best products to market. Founders are often brilliant people who not only developed their product(s) that they are hoping to bring to market, but they often have other skills as well which they bring. Some bring some business acumen, while others bring more of the technology or science acumen. But asking a founder or founders to be the master of all disciplines is honestly a tough ask to make for anyone.
As we’ve established, starting a new business is difficult in and of itself, but building a successful company and product set on an entirely new business concept presents an entirely different level of challenges all together. Couple that with the increased pressure to be more integrated across the value chain, along with have profit margins that investors are attracted too, and the fact that we must feed the future population in a more connected, safe, transparent, and sustainable manner, and founders are often left feeling overwhelmed and a bit lost amid all the pressures they face.
At Cultivate, beyond the variety of skills that our people have amassed across business functions and the value chain as a whole, we have found that there are a certain set of principles that we believe startups should keep in mind as they are building the future of their business and products. We have found that if founders and startup leaders keep these five core principles as the center of all they do, they will be successful in their endeavor –
2. Understand that pivoting is a natural and necessary component of building any successful business. As long as your purpose is always aligned with the pivot, continue to pivot until you find the right product-market mix.
3. After identifying the correct product-market fit exists, continue to double down and focus on the opportunity at hand as you scale up
4. Employees are replaceable yes, but the cost to replace them is well known and it’s not cheap, so be transparent, treat them as part of the overall value of the organization, but also know when it is time to make a change
5. Know when you need to bring in a subject matter expert, or more, but do not overpay for the value they bring.
In keeping with these principles, we believe that startups cannot only become viable businesses with viable products, but they can become successful businesses with cutting edge products that can shape the future of the world’s food supply for the better. At Cultivate, it is that last bullet where we come in, and where we differentiate ourselves from other firms out there providing agribusiness consulting advice.
Whether you’re an early-stage startup still refining your product(s) and strategy, you’re about to launch your first commercial season, or a later stage startup who continues to grow and capitalize on the successes you have had, we can help. Our team is comprised of subject matter experts, all of which have worked with or for agriculture companies throughout their careers and who can hit the ground running to begin bringing value to your organization. Even more than that, we’ve seen what works, know much of what doesn’t, and we customize our approach and methodologies to meet your specific needs every time.
Within our startup planning and accelerated growth offering, we offer several services and methodologies to assist with your future growth and success, all of which are customized to meet your specific needs and culture. Below are a few of our offerings which we provide to our startup clients who are looking for that edge in growing their businesses and products, including but not limited to:
- One, Three- and Five-Year Strategic Planning
- Opportunity to Order (OTO) Business Process Definition and Implementation
- Order to Cash (OTC) Business Process Definition and Implementation
- Digital Technology Selections, Requirements Definition, and Implementation
- We have designed an ERP Lite Solution which we have built on a Salesforce platform with one of our partner companies, The Nuage Group and Nu Products, specifically for the Agriculture and AgTech industry. If your organization is already running Salesforce, it might be beneficial to examine whether this would be a fit for your organization
- Go-To-Market and Channel Strategy Definition and Programs Creation
- Independent Product Market Readiness Assessment and Market Adoption Modeling
- Customer Value Modeling, so that you can be confident that you are giving your customers what they truly want
- Business and Financial Strategy
- Investor Strategy and Pitch Support
- More…