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Your Development Dilemma – Growth Vs. Capital Efficiency


Source: Firas Raouf, OpenView Partners

For early-stage tech companies, growth vs. capital efficiency is a constant tug of war.

The dilemma has become quite acute these days since there’s been an expansion of available capital from VCs to fund growth companies. The more capital available, the more capital is raised, the more capital is spent, and the more capital is burnt.

I spoke with Greg Gianforte last week about this topic. Greg is a huge proponent of building startups organically, and he actively shuns VCs.

His point of view is that companies burning capital in pursuit of hyper growth or market share “land-grab” are copping-out. CEOs should be driving their teams to operate within the company’s capital means, and should be working very hard to uncover efficiencies and differentiations that would drive growth and profit. Spending your way into growth is very risky, and can result in reduced equity value for your shareholders.

Clearly there are many companies that have successfully adopted the spend-your-way-into-growth strategy. Jive, Box.net, and Hubspot come to mind. But there are thousands other companies that have tried to play that game and failed miserably. You just don’t hear about them as loudly as the ones that are successful (for now).

So, if you’re about to raise capital to fund new growth, you must make sure you have the basic elements required to achieve capital-induced hyper growth:

1) Your Market Is Big Enough

Make sure there’s enough perspective buyers of your solution to support your growth plans. Spare yourself the top down market sizing (Gartner says our market is $1B growing at 15% a year). They are meaningless.

Your market size is very simple. Figure out your target buyer. Figure out how many of them exist in your target geography. Figure out how many of them you can convert into customers. Multiply that number by your average revenue per customer. Et voilà!

2) Your Service Is Differentiated

Does your product or solution truly stand apart? Do you regularly win against your competition? (Small tip: Please don’t fool yourself into thinking that you have no competition. You do. You either don’t know it or you’re ignoring it.)

As a company grows, it becomes more challenged to deliver the competitive advantage it used to when it was a smaller company. It starts with the founding CEO spending less time with prospects and customers, and rolls down the organization. So don’t assume what differentiates your company today will be sustainable without a lot of hard work.

3) You Recognize Growth Is Harder & More Expensive the More You Grow

Founders usually think that growing ten-fold from $1 million in revenue to $10 million is as easy as growing from $100 thousand to the first million. It is not. It is ten times harder and more expensive.

Revenue growth rarely scales linearly. And growth percentages drop the bigger you get. Acquiring customers gets more expensive over time rather than less. So make sure to temper your growth projections, and double your cost assumptions.

4) You’ve Achieved Capital Efficiency

Only spend more on acquiring more new customers if your cost of customer acquisition is profitable. A dollar spent in acquiring a new customer should generate at least a dollar in recurring revenue. If your revenue is non-recurring, then that dollar should generate 3-4 dollars in revenue. If not, then don’t spend more money on sales and marketing until you have figured out how to optimize your customer acquisition cost.

The more money you raise to grow your revenue, the less time you will spend on optimizing your operation and improving your product/service delivery. Always be aiming for organic growth, and only spend more if you have a highly efficient and profitable operation.

About Scale Finance

Scale Finance LLC (www.scalefinance.com) provides contract CFO services, Controller solutions, and support in raising capital, or executing M&A transactions, to entrepreneurial companies. The firm specializes in cost-effective financial reporting, budgeting & forecasting, implementing controls, complex modeling, business valuations, and other financial management, and provides strategic help for companies raising growth capital or considering M&A/recapitalization opportunities. Most of the firm’s clients are growing technology, healthcare, business services, consumer, and industrial companies at various stages of development from start-up to tens of millions in annual revenue. Scale Finance LLC has offices throughout the southeast including Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham, Greensboro, Wilmington, Washington D.C. and South Florida with a team of more than 30 professionals serving more than 100 companies throughout the region.

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Knowledge Bank

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Understanding & Using Your Cash Flow Statement

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Managing Merchant Fees – Role of Zero Fee Processing

Can Accountants Value a Business?

Personal Guarantees – Should You Grant One?

10 Pieces of Advice When Someone Wants to Buy Your Company

Convertible Note Financing – Payback Time

Due Diligence Fiasco – A Look Back at HP-Autonomy

Applying for Business Loans – Hard Credit Checks

7 Ways a Business Name Generator Can Help Entrepreneurs

Citizenship by Investment Overview

Understanding the True Cost of Employee Turnover

How to Think About Valuation When Raising Venture Capital

What it Takes to Shift to a Recurring Revenue Model in Hardware & Software

Differences Between Major SBA Loan Programs – SBA 7(a) vs. SBA 504

5 Reasons Entrepreneurs Don’t Get Funded (Which Are Not Their Fault)

Balancing Profitability Versus Growth

Bootstrapping Your SaaS Business – What’s Changing

Best Options for Small Company Loans

Explore the Knowledge Bank…

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Recent News

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Media

Scale Finance Managing Director Dave Gilroy interviewed on WSIC Radio (local Fox affiliate)

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