Venture Business Development:Creating Value through

Continuous Relationships

Curtis McKee

WG’17, WEMBA 41

May 8th, 2019

The State of Early Stage VC:New funds offer competitive advantages to challenge Sand Hill

• New early stage firms looking to differentiate from the traditional venture model (investor + capital)• Unusual Ventures – the one stop shop, “Get Ahead Platform”• Clear Ventures - “Ecosystem Advantage”• Initialized – “Advisory on SW Dev, Marketing, Outreach”• Decibel VC - “Unfair advantage with Cisco”• Work-Bench – “Enterprise GTM Partner for NYC”• Village Global - “The power of the Village Global Network”• NFX Ventures – “The NFX Guild, a Founders Networks”

• Top Corporate VC firms offer: • Access to Corp parent technology & strategy• Access to a Global Salesforce and Scale partners• Dedicated company building resources (Talent, BD, IT, Dev, Eng, PR)• Unmatched Network of F2000 customers and top F50 CIO/CSOs• An experienced Investment & Business Development Team

• Observations• Financial VC firms, Corporate VCs mirroring each other to challenge Sand Hill at early stage• Both are financially driven, and strategically focused on adding value at earlier stages• Not here to debate who wins, but to share a Business Development plan to build connected

strategies to establish continuous customer relationships in Venture

Venture Business Development’s Mission

• To ignite value creation through execution of key objectives at each stage of our portfolio’s journey.

• The Business Development TRUST framework will ensure alignment of key customer and program milestones are attended to and completed.

• A curated lifecycle BD approach focuses on the exact needs and objectives of customer aka “Portco” to deliver optimum success for company building and business growth.

• Strive to amplify Portco within network of thought leaders, academics and IT business owners, and create an insatiable demand for their products in the Enterprise marketplace.

• Business Development and Investor will guide and lead portco to thetop of the apex.

Growth Opportunity

Investor

Portco

B D

Establishing TRUST with the Customer

Defining stages of relationship building through TRUST after investment

• Becoming a trusted partner in business doesn’t happen over night • BD would introduce a 5-stage repeatable process to step wise build

trust with the Portco and in-turn drive continued success

Tactical Business Development Framework for building TRUST:

• Together - Establishing an authentic personal relationship with Portco

• Review - Outline BD objectives with Portco, how we win together

• Understand – Portco needs, customer program objectives, market perspectives

• Support – BD will listen to Portco, curate a specific “BD Functions”

• Transform – Execute BD program, facilitate relationships, amplify Portco at organized events, drive value creation

Together

Review

UnderstandSupport

Transform

TRUST

BD Functions Plan KPIs for Seed/Series A Portco

BD Functions First 3 Months (TRUST) Next 6 Months Next 9 Months Beyond

Product/Tech Collaboration Business Development

▪ Understand Product needs ▪ Explore Partner fit (ISVs) ▪ Introduce 3 in-network ISV partners

▪ Make 5 Enterprise partner CEO intros

Sales and Marketing

(Team with Marketing & Events)

▪ Understand customer needs

▪ 10 Customer intros.▪ Explore CIO/CSO fit for

company

▪ 15 Customer intros.▪ Intro CIO/CSO at CIO

events

▪ Continue to make introductions at CIO/CSO events

Channel Business Development

▪ Understand BD needs ▪ Introduce to key sector IT Buyers at Events

▪ Intro. to value added resellers

▪ Introduce international VARs

Strategic Development ▪ Identity possible tech partners and influencers

▪ Introduce 5 tech partners and 3 academic thought leaders

▪ Introduce 10 tech partners and 5 academic thought leaders

▪ Introduce new Corporate Scale Partners (OEM, CSP, COSP, etc.)

Human Resources

(Team with Talent)

▪ Identify hiring needs ▪ Introduce Sale Rep partners ▪ Assist with VP of Sales hiring

▪ Assist with International planning

• BD Plans will be tracked in Affinity CRM for KPI transparency

Establishing Product/Market Fit/MVP Transition to Growth Growth

In Summary:5 Takeaways for Establishing a Connected Strategy in Venture

• Proactive Business Development: Build TRUST to create a deeper relationship with portco

• Grow an Advisory network: Close founder Alumni, Technology partners, Execs, and academics that are very-founder friendly, and want to be involved in early MVP and/or growth stage discussions

• Execute Engagement strategy: Connect the portco with F500 CIOs/CSOs/IT Buyers through events like “CIO Strategy Exchange”, onsite socials, conferences, and alpha dinners

• Utilize CRM: Create a virtual rolodex leveraging and tracking our collective networks will enable streamline event and program management, use Affinity more effectively to mine connections

• Provide 24/7 Communication Platform: Slack Channel, social feeds, monthly letter, outreach surveys, office hours

Back Up

Portco Communication

• Building trust with the Portco must include on going open dialogue, to show we are there for them at all times as part of their team.

• Business Development will connect Slack Channel with our Portco CEOs and Co-founders for quick and effective communications

• Develop a monthly newsletter for sending out reminders on sponsored events, fun insightful blogs to our Portco, candid video interviews from thought leaders, or messages from the investment team to the Portco

• Solicit feedback from Portco leadership on how we can do better. Use surveys after key events or offsites to gather insights on what works and what doesn’t

Together Objectives

• Relationship building begins with establishing open dialogue and rapport with Portco

• Host an onboarding event with Co-Founding team with Investment team to have some fun

• Team Building Event options: Weekend Offsite, Dinner, Sports, Hike, Tour, Golf

• Show we’re there to build a personal relationship for the long run

• Face to Face round table discussion that gets everyone communicating

• Make a concerted effort to build upon investment team’s relationship with Portco

• Plan ongoing events to keep building the partnership between VC and Portco

Together

Review

UnderstandSupport

Transform

TRUST

Review Objectives

• Host an onboarding meeting to present BD role and responsibility with Portco

• Clearly defining Win-Win objectives, and outline BD functions

• BD functions overview would include:• Organize Events (ex. CSO/CIO summit, dinners/socials, Portco CEO

offsite)• Partnership strategy planning (intro to key VARs, SIs, OEMs, etc.)• Introductions to key IT buyers and corporate partners in ecosystem• Promotion of Portco via co-marketing/social blasts/sponsorships• Introductions to Gartner for engaging portco in their Cool Vendor

reports• Note: BD will propose annual budget requirements for planning of

events

• Plan for a bi-annual meeting to track Win-Win objectives and partnership progress

Together

Review

UnderstandSupport

Transform

TRUST

Understand Objectives

• Portco to share needs (hiring, marketing, sales, customer and partners intros, etc.)

• BD must:• Visit Portco HQ where company presents overview and business strategy

• Understand market and competitive landscape of Portco (with help from Investment team)

• Leverage network for market intelligence and become eyes and ears for VC and portco

• Create new and leverage previous industry contacts to build upon VC’s presence with relevant F500 companies

Together

Review

UnderstandSupport

Transform

TRUST

Support Objectives

• BD to roll out curated Business Development Plan to Investment team for review and input• BD Plan will be time-based with key objectives, KPIs and events listed

• Key objectives may include customer and partner intros, Sales/Marketing hiring recommendations, and other BD Functions listed in the Review

• Events would include the CIO/CSO Summit, Alpha Dinners with key IT buyers and/or VARs

• Program manage regularly scheduled meetings with BD and Portco

• Share notes in CRM database

Together

Review

UnderstandSupport

Transform

TRUST

Transform Objectives

• BD meets with Portco and presents Business Development Plan

• Execution of BD Plan includes meeting with Portco Bi-Annual to track Win-Win Objectives and KPIs

• Ongoing program management of Business Development schedule of events with Investment Team and Portco

• Quarterly review of plan success and failures with Investment Team, and course correction report outs to also be provided.

Together

Review

UnderstandSupport

Transform

TRUST