You want to time your capital raise to maximize your valuation. A lot of people say to raise the money when you don’t need the money. It’s important, though, to acknowledge that raising capital isn’t a silver bullet to success.
Read MoreWhat does it take to cross that golden line? We sat down with three long-time Trajectify clients to talk about how they became multimillion dollar businesses and what other entrepreneurs can learn from their success.
Read MoreSome founders reach a point where they need to move beyond their MVP and provide greater value to their customers. Let’s talk about how founders often end up in a technical cofounder search, the problems with that approach, and what you can do instead.
Read MoreBootstrap startups control their own destiny, and they learn how to harness their own skills and creativity. They also need to control their spending, hold themselves accountable, and get creative.
Read MoreGrowing your business has costs — time costs and money costs. Making sure even the smallest investments pay off is key to growing organically and without big cash infusions you may not have.
Read MoreManaging your business’s finances might not feel intuitive. Many of us begin our entrepreneurial careers with a great idea. We spend the rest of that career trying to understand all the moving pieces that will make it profitable. There are people that will give you numbers. The truth is that there’s no clear rulebook. These profit and investment calculations are individual to each business.
Read MoreBeing part of building a seventh company taught me many things. It taught me that tech entrepreneurs can’t do everything — more than that, I learned that honesty about how your skills and expertise line up with what you’re trying to build is much more important than a passion for what you’re selling.
Read MoreMany entrepreneurs believe that being led by their passion is a prerequisite for starting a successful organization. Definitely for starting one that they’ll enjoy running. The problem with this narrative is that passion does not equal success. In fact, I would argue that too much passion in a business leads to failure.
Read MoreWe recently facilitated a panel of four pairs of co-founders/partners. They shared their experiences in building a business together - exploring benefits and challenges, offering advice and personal perspectives. Putting business partners on stage - including friends, siblings, and spouses - also made for great entertainment (watch the video). If you’re going to make partnership successful, have a good sense of humor :-) Here are some of the lessons learned and insights:
Read MoreIf you happen to be a football fan, you’ve probably now heard about the Double Doink. Let’s have some fun and create a general purpose definition for a double doink: the accomplishment of an improbable feat or an achievement from an impressive effort that results in failure or negative consequences. I’m not sure if I’ve had a double doink yet this year, but I know I’ve had plenty over the course of my career. I’ve been contemplating some of the things that you should do to recover from a double doink. Here are five things to consider after a mistake or failure.
Read More2018 brought Trajectify’s inaugural live business growth conference which brought together dozens of leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals. We held Trajectify Live on September 13, 2018 at the Science History Institute in Old City, Philadelphia, featuring four Trajectify coaches plus a line-up of guest speakers and presenters while filled the day with insights, lessons and experiences
If you missed the opportunity to join us in September, we’ve got you covered. Here are videos we took of ten presentations from the conference. If you’re interested to attend the next Trajectify Live, please sign up here to be notified about the next Trajectify Live.
Read MoreAs a CEO, there is an expectation of fearlessness. Does not mean we need to pretend that we have all of the answers? Vulnerability is an important leadership attribute. We welcomed CEOs and Trajectify coaches to the 2018 Trajectify CEO Leadership Retreat a few weeks ago. We discovered and worked on many of the challenges in growing a $1M+ business. Each CEO took the hot seat in a mastermind session, most discussing with their peer struggle they are facing. Everyone gained new insights and perspectives. After a day long event of content and mastermind sessions, we asked each attendee for their biggest takeaway from the event.
Read MoreStarting or building a business is exciting, though comes with challenges and roadblocks that can even scare veteran entrepreneurs. You're not alone. It is rare that the difficult challenges that an entrepreneur may face have not been previously encountered by others. That’s where the Bootstrappers Breakfasts step in - to facilitate entrepreneurs working together to exchange learning and information that grow the skills and confidence it takes to build a successful business.
Read MoreMike facilitated a panel discussion with four business owners who organically grew multi-million dollar revenues. He asked the entrepreneurs and CEOs to share their experiences, answer tough questions, in a no-holds-barred way that TAB members tackle challenges and attack opportunities.
Read MoreMy challenge with “Lean” is that as much as it’s a great philosophy for when you are starting out, you lose the ability to leap when you think about really big things. How do you do things that can’t be done in a one or two week sprint, the things that are too big to put on a little post it and stick to your bathroom mirror? In order to grow, you need to have a mindset of leaping, planning and doing big things, and then to figure out how to land after you take that leap.
Read MoreThis month, August 2018, is the 5th anniversary of Trajectify. Words cannot express how grateful and lucky I am to have been able to build this business and accomplish all that we have. HOW A BUSINESS IS BORN. I decided to leave startup #7, Real Food Works, in May 2013. I had turned 50 a few months earlier and found myself wondering, “what do I want to be when I grow up.” I told myself no more startups. So I embarked on what turned out to be a three month discovery mission that led me to create Trajectify in August 2013.
Read MoreIn this month’s Philly Tech Week and anniversary edition, we brought in guest speaker and product expert Joe Cotellese, who shared his journey to becoming his own boss with some important lessons he’s learned along the way.
Read MoreThe NYC Bootstrappers Breakfast is back… with new mentors to help facilitate serious conversations about starting and growing a business. Thanks to our friend Alex Portera, Co-Founder of Nowhere Men Media, here are a few quick and valuable points from the inaugural NYC Bootstrappers Breakfast comeback.
Read MoreBootstrappers Breakfast is a mastermind-style meetup where we have serious conversations about growing a business. This group offers a combination of brainstorming, education, peer accountability and support in a group setting to sharpen your business and personal skills. As a group, we diagnosed the following four topics: referral marketing as a powerful lead generation tool, the importance of practicing your pitch, learning not to stand in the way of your own success, and validating product ideas through user research.
Read MoreWhen starting a business, it’s no secret there are going to be risks involved and difficult decisions to make. It may take a while to find a steady stream of revenue. One mistake could end up costing you lots of time and money. You’re aware of the relatively high possibility that your company could eventually fail. But most entrepreneurs know this and are prepared to take challenges head-on with grit and determination. Here we share three common challenges entrepreneurs face when building their own business.
Read MoreStartups and Small Businesses sometimes find themselves at the edge of a chasm. With success in developing and growing their business, a stage is reached where they find that the "next step" is a big one! Trajectify partners with the entrepreneur to build momentum and trajectory to be able to cross the chasm.
We offer private and group (Mastermind) coaching and hold frequent events and seminars.
Trajectify is founded my Mike Krupit, veteran of eight startups. Mike has helped dozens of companies grow and mentored and advised hundreds more.
I don't think every CEO needs to become a LinkedIn personality. The question is simpler. Who needs to know you exist? Where are they? And what would help them understand how you think before they ever sit across from you? That answer will change as the company grows, as your buyers change, as platforms come and go. You adjust. That I don’t think you can do anymore is decide visibility isn’t part of your job at all. Your personal brand is important to your company’s brand.
Most founders and executives I work with are uncomfortable talking about how they look. It feels shallow. Not the point. I get it. They started their companies because of a vision, not an ego. By the time they're working with an advisor, they're wrestling with real problems: who belongs in which seats, how to build accountability, how to run a leadership meeting. Thinking about personal image can feel self-indulgent by comparison.
Founders tend to think about a major transition as a singular event. You prepare, announce, close, and now you're a different company. In my experience, the company starts changing well before any of that happens. I've been through this several times now, and the details were different every time. The weirdness was pretty consistent.
Sometimes exploration is worth it. Sometimes you just spent a week of the team’s attention answering a question the founder could have tested in an afternoon. That is the part I think leaders underestimate. Ideas do not only cost money. They cost time, focus, and brainpower long before anyone approves a budget. The question I’d want answered is: how much of the organization does this idea deserve yet?
Ask a room of leaders why they set goals and most will say accountability. That answer creates the problem. Goals exist for alignment. The company needs to reach a number, so this group does this, that group does that, and together the math works. Everyone is pointed in the same direction. Focus comes second. A good goal tells you what to say no to.
The instinct to build a team that moved in the same direction, at the same pace, with the same set of perspectives is limiting. Consistency is created at the expense of range. The goal isn't alignment of strengths. It's coverage. The most dangerous teams I've seen weren't the ones with conflict. hey were the ones with none. Where every conversation ends in agreement. Where nothing gets surfaced. Where the people who see things differently may have learned to stop saying so.
The same restlessness that makes it hard to stay on plan is what made them start the company in the first place. The wandering mind, the refusal to be satisfied with what already exists, the ability to see something before it exists: that's not a disorder. That's the source.
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I’ve been facilitating CEO peer groups for fifteen years. The biggest factor in whether someone gets value from a group is vulnerability. Not performative vulnerability. The kind that costs you something to say out loud, the thing you'd rather not say because it makes you look uncertain, stuck, bored, scared, or wrong. The people who get the most from these groups aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest problems. They're the ones willing to let the room see the problem clearly enough to help.