• Strategy

    Always close to the wind

Strategy development

“Think big but in small steps.”

There’s no harm in thinking big. In the end, you can only achieve what you can imagine. But the bigger you think, the longer the road will be.

Therefore, it is necessary to break down this path into small steps that can be adapted repeatedly to keep up with the evolving competitive landscape. A 50-page business plan is not necessary but a plan is required that shows the process and how it can be flexibly adapted. 

This is where the concepts from “Lean Startup” by Eric Ries, “Disciplined Entrepreneurship” by Bill Aulet, “Business Model Canvas” and the “Value Proposition Canvas” by Alexander Osterwalder come into play. 

An MVP (minimum viable product) should be tested on the market with little effort and adapted to the market again and again. It’s common for start-ups to “fail fast, learn fast and innovate”.

Only when you have found the product-market-fit, it’s worthwhile to invest in marketing. Only then do most investors become interested. Until then, it’s all about bootstrapping.

We can support you in this process from the very beginning, specifically with:

Module I: Product

  • Problem: What problem do you want to solve?
  • Solution: How do you want to solve the problem?
  • Value Preposition: What value do you create for your customers?
  • Business model: How will you monetise this value?

Module II: Strategy

  • Beachhead Market: What is your beachhead market and your first customer group?
  • Go-to-market Strategy: How do you want to enter the market?
  • Vision (“North star”): Where do you want to be in five to ten years with your company?
  • Strategy/roadmap: How do you want to get there? How do you want to grow beyond your beachhead market (expanded product range, new customer groups, internationalisation)?

Module III: Marketing & Sales

  • Testing, testing, testing: How can you test the market easily, quickly and cheaply?
  • Customer: How will you approach your first customers?
  • Sales: How do you want to sell your product?
  • Unit Economics: What Unit Economics do you expect?