{"id":10478,"date":"2015-11-25T00:21:22","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T08:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foundersnetwork.com\/blog\/?p=10478"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:56:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:56:37","slug":"growth-a-balancing-act-for-founders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foundersnetwork.com\/growth-a-balancing-act-for-founders\/","title":{"rendered":"The Balancing Act: A Conventional Growth Framework"},"content":{"rendered":"

A focus on funding and building dominates much of the founder-centric conversation \u2013 but without growth, you don’t have a business. Even product-focused founders are often their startup’s best sales tool. This month we asked four very different Founders Network founders what cost-effective approaches they\u2019ve found beat the textbook growth strategies currently being buzzed about in the tech world. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read on for six hard-learned lessons they\u2019ve learned growing startup after startup, through successes and yes, a few shut-downs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a01.\u00a0Funding isn\u2019t traction. Neither is product iteration.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAs you\u2019re trying to grow, there\u2019s this balancing act between sales activities and product activities \u2013 if you get stuck in product, you\u2019re not closing any business, and then you\u2019re screwed,\u201d says <\/span>Joel Garcia<\/span><\/a>, whose startup\u00a0TidalWave<\/a> offers an\u00a0Online form and app builder.<\/span>
\nEven more so, fundraising gets all the noise in startup land – but entrepreneurs focused on building a sustainable business often reverse the ratio.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“The conversation seems to be 80 percent fundraising and only 20 percent growth, and it needs to be a complete reverse.” -@airik @justunosocial<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe conversation seems to be 80% fundraising and only 20% growth, and it needs to be a complete reverse. Then we can become focused on sales, building our business and profitability,\u201d says <\/span>Erik Christiansen<\/span><\/a>. He founded <\/span>Justuno.com<\/span><\/a>, a conversion optimization platform to create personalized promotions for a site\u2019s individual visitors. <\/span>Christiansen just took in his first external funding, but started as a revenue-based, self-funding company.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cW<\/span>e don\u2019t need mass sums of money, what we need is to be very resourceful and smart. My focus is different \u2013 on sales and on building a resourceful team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 2.\u00a0Stop prioritizing an MVP – first, do your homework<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019re building our hardware we\u2019re doing our homework in the background, building relationships, and really being smart so that when we\u2019re ready we can say we\u2019re set, let\u2019s go,\u201d says <\/span>Christopher Ayala<\/span><\/a>. He founded <\/span>Vertisense<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>a startup developing connected sensor technologies for non-invasive measurement of human conditions, allowing users to track and monitor their personal health data.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I was a SaaS software app where I could roll out a minimum viable product and let people beat up on it, then roll out another two days later, but I can\u2019t do that,\u201d he says. \u201cIt takes us 7 months to create a hardware product we can then use to solve a problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

How does he compensate for this apparent lack of agility? He knows the landscape for which he\u2019s (slowly) building \u2013 well enough that when he does demo for a customer, he can be pretty sure he got it right the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of time in meetings, going out to speak with people and really validating the solution,\u201d he says. \u201cI walked into one meeting with the Kansas City Police Department\u2019s head of information services and head of the DUI task force \u2013 I was just trying to get feedback \u2013 and at the end of the meeting when I said thanks, they said \u2018we should do a trial program.\u2019 <\/span>They<\/span><\/i> were asking <\/span>me<\/span><\/i> to do this, which was totally bonkers. If I hadn\u2019t gotten in front of them I never would have known that. Get out of the office \u2013 go validate stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“Get out of the office \u2013 go validate stuff.\u201d -@_ChrisAyala\u00a0@Vertisense<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Before he <\/span>created <\/span>Incode Technologies<\/span><\/a> earlier this year,<\/span> Ricardo Amper<\/span><\/a> had been a part of many bigger businesses \u2013 and he\u2019s seen growth strategy from both sides, as a well funded but bootstrapping founder and a resourced executive. One thing he learned on the job: how important it is to really know your customer or user, before you do anything else. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I\u2019ve done differently than most startups is my time management \u2013 and money \u2013 which proportionally, I\u2019ve spent more on old-fashioned market research and focus groups,\u201d Amper says. \u201cI am all about learning and agility, but I\u2019ve seen companies make mistakes when they just \u2018launch and learn.\u2019 There is no substitute for talking to users and quantitative research. Make sure you have data about how customers actually feel about the problems you\u2019re trying to solve, and your proposed solution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“I\u2019ve seen companies make mistakes when they just \u2018launch and learn.\u2019” -@rickyamper<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He is building Incode as a product aimed at consumers who are increasingly conscious of \u2013 and concerned about \u2013 their lack of privacy and control of personal information in the digital realm. Understanding attitudes about privacy has been core to his product development process \u2013 and he sees it as inextricably related to growth and future sales, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to launch so quickly that ok, they might learn in the process \u2013 but they will alienate their potential users, and the brand will be affected,\u201d Amper says. \u201cBy the time you improve it and create a great brand, the users you were already in touch with will be alienated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 3) Product and growth feed each other<\/strong><\/p>\n

For <\/span>Christopher Ayala<\/a>,<\/span> planning for future growth verticals has been a fundamental part of his development process. His <\/span>startup <\/span>Vertisense<\/span><\/a> is developing connected sensor technologies for non-invasive measurement of human conditions, allowing users to track and monitor their personal health data. For him, a building with a multimarket strategy in mind is all about the timeline to revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can create a consumer retail device, put it in the market and sell it relatively quickly,\u201d he says \u2013 you can already buy his first product, Alcohoot, the world\u2019s first smartphone breathalyzer. But the consumer market is only an early part of Vertisense\u2019s play \u2013 and one that establishes revenue early. Enterprise sales may ultimately be bigger – that doesn\u2019t mean they come first, or should be built first. Ayala built a platform that can serve different markets, given small tweaks. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re able to monetize an asset we have in hand today through a diff channel than the one we think has the biggest application, we\u2019d be foolish to ignore it,\u201d he says. \u201cTo put together a healthcare product takes a great deal of regulatory approval, process, and clinical programs.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 4) Founders are often a startup\u2019s best sales team. Draw on your pre-founder identities to become a better seller.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ayala had another life as a corporate attorney before he turned to entrepreneurship, so he appreciates the painful regulatory hurdles startups face in some enterprise arenas. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve targeted healthcare and law enforcement, and it\u2019s both good and bad,\u201d Ayala says. He\u2019s needed his background knowledge to build credibility as demonstrated that Vertisense could go where others have not \u2013 and has already raised $4.6 million on that promise, and is in conversation with his first prospective institutional investors. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe hurdles to get into those markets require a lot of regulatory nonsense, but if you can get over that, you \u2018re going to be pretty sticky and that\u2019s a natural barrier to entry for competitors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before he started building <\/span>Incode Technologies<\/span><\/a>, Ricardo Amper successfully led and then sold two companies, and his experience developing those brands has made him a \u201ctrue believer\u201d in focusing on marketing from day one. For him, it can\u2019t be separated from growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c90 percent of the value for the beverage company that I sold was the brand when a huge company bought us,\u201d he says. \u201cEven though we had a small part of the market share, we had built a brand that resonated with a very particular group of people, and that was very valuable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s not that much valued in Silicon Valley, but brand is a huge thing, and is equally important to traction,\u201d he says. \u201cBrand is any point of touch the user or potential user has with your company, so one of the things I do differently is investing in starting to create amazing marketing at the same time we\u2019re developing the technology.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 5) It\u2019s painful to start building a sales team from scratch. Try focusing on how you measure the process. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Every founder has heard the stories, if he or she hasn\u2019t seen it in person: building a sales team is really, really hard, especially as you first start to delegate from a passionate founders pitch to onboarding sales specialists who haven\u2019t lived and breathed the product. The only solution – \u2018hire the right people\u2019 \u2013 is easier said than done. But one incremental way to identify weak links in the sales process is to measure <\/span>everything.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love a lot of information on is where in the process are the conversations not working – is it first pitch for the product, is it third conversation where we start talking about what the price is, or is it the fifth conversation?\u201d says Vertisense founder Chris Ayala.<\/p>\n

Amper, too, built a system that would capture growth data. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cW<\/span>e measured almost every process that the company had \u2013 \u00a0every interaction that a sales rep had with a customer. If he quoted 10 products, we didn\u2019t get 5, what were the 5 and what were the prices?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Understanding better how to de-risk a commitment from a potential buyer requires analysis \u2013 and that takes infrastructure within a startup that can measure more than the froth of basic notes and commentary. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re implementing more of a timeline reporting process,\u201d Ayala says. \u201cThe challenge is getting the information out of the sales people, who are good at sales but not great at communicating back information.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 6) Don\u2019t buy the hype about the latest growth model<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before starting <\/span>AllCode<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Joel Garcia<\/span><\/a> worked at a number of startups in healthcare, enterprise software, and SaaS. He\u2019s followed the trends in SaaS and revenue models based on harvesting large numbers of small, recurring payments. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost a myth you can do that easily,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve found is that even if you sort of know what you\u2019re doing, if you don\u2019t have the connections or the rolodex to raise a lot of money \u00a0a SaaS startup that will fall flat on it\u2019s face because you can generate a couple of thousands dollars a month and that doesn\u2019t even cover the bills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI pay the sales guys a decent commission. They\u00a0cold call, send people emails, it\u2019s basically just hustling..” -@joelgarcia<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He raised tens of millions of dollars in his previous enterprises but came to believe that without an in-house team of sales guys \u201cwho can actually sell stuff,\u201d even that much wouldn\u2019t have been enough. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI pay the sales guys a decent commission. They\u00a0cold call, send people emails, it\u2019s basically just hustling, and taking work that may not be in other people\u2019s wheelhouse,\u201d Garcia says. Like most founders, he\u2019s a salesman too, of course. Every event or conversation becomes an opportunity to connect to the next client. At least in the enterprise context, he believes that hustle on the part of the founder will beat cheaper, but ultimately anonymous, plays on social media or Adwords. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReally what it comes down to is networking and meeting people who might want your service, and finding an appropriate opportunity to sell it to them.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat personal referral by being at a specific location works, and it sort of cuts through the crap,\u201d he says. \u201cWith San Francisco being such a tech hotbed right now, that makes sense, right?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n