The Business Development Hacker

My firm, Ramp Equity Partners, is hired to create transformative growth. We work with strong leaders and bright minds in innovative companies. They aim to create disruptive and industry-changing products. Even the best executives in the world can benefit from sober self-assessment. We created a go-to-market assessment rubric comprised of 24 questions in five key areas where execution is key to creating transformative growth. We do this at the start of our engagement. Start by asking each team member to independently score the company through this rubric. Compare your scores. Does your team feel the same about your strengths and weaknesses? Average your scores in each of the five subjects. We suggest that scores under four would require a plan of action. Beyond highlighting your strengths and weaknesses, this may also shine a light on areas where the executive team is disconnected from each other – areas where the team’s plans can be better developed and communicated. _...

A look at the last thirty years will show you time and again how innovative products - built by smart and talented people have failed, or fallen far short of their potential. You may recall a favorite program, service or startup that seemed destined for successes before something went wrong along the way. Too often we see great products die shortly after they get to market. We celebrate the brilliant technical minds of our engineering teams for good reasons; they find creative solutions to challenging problems. In truth, selling technology - bringing new programs and services to market – may be even more difficult than building the product in the first place. My firm, Ramp Equity Partners, is hired to address the unique challenges early stage technology companies face when taking new services to market. The executives and board members for the firms that hire us, see Ramp as rainmakers. We built a track record of working with small teams to do great things, but we lear...