How to build a runway
I’ll bet it must feel really sexy, for a business to be looking for investors.
Pitch decks, meeting influential people, all the money that they could invest in you…
Especially at a time like this, when there’s a lot of money sloshing around.
A time when investors have a hard time identifying companies that they would actually want to invest in.
So there they go, all the startups and SaaS companies, pitching their hearts out.
Didn’t Andy Warhol say that in the future, everybody will get their 15 minutes of Shark Tank?
Oh, right. Never mind.
Anyway, it makes sense to look for funds.
A business needs to grow, invest in resources and development, it needs runway.
And if an investor gives you that runway, then you can finally move, and scale up. Right?
Yes.
Unless a business makes the grave mistake of ignoring the revenue potential they have.
Sure you can try and sell your business to an investor – but you can also sell your product to a customer.
If you need funds, sell something.
If you do that, in many cases, you don’t need no damn investor.
Of course it doesn’t apply to all companies.
But almost every day I see businesses that are looking to raise a round, completely ignoring the potential they already have, for building their own runway.
And that’s just stupid.
No matter what type of business you run, you can generate revenue with two very simple things:
1️⃣ Intelligent analysis and segmentation of your audience (i.e. paying, and non-paying subscribers)
2️⃣ Email marketing, sharply adjusted to the different segments
And that’s where the majority of companies leave a ton of money on the table.
They have no idea who their audience really is, what segments exist, and what psychological motivators for buying those people have, and:
They don’t do anything to engage with those people, don’t do any email marketing that’s valuable and meaningful.
Or, indeed, that builds up a relationship that leads to a purchase.
But if you do segment, and you practice email marketing?
Then you too, very likely, can build your own runway, bootstrapping your way to growth, without ever needing an investor.
That segmentation and email marketing, that’s something I’ve been doing for years.
And if you’d rather bootstrap than raise rounds, I can help.
Let me know if you’d like to talk.
Cheers,
Martin
