The results of our Product Market Fit Survey revealed that founders fit themselves into a couple different frameworks. The four focuses we noted were: generalist, product, sales and marketing, and operations. So how should each of these founders think about using capital? Here is how to leverage capital no matter what your focus.
Generalist
What is it?
A generalist is an entrepreneur that thrives in a variety of different facets within their company. These founders see the necessity of keeping a multitude of strategies at top priority for the success of the company. They have knowledge of a wide range of topics that all add to the improvement of their venture.
Thoughts on Capital
Generalists typically see the importance of capital to their business, it’s an essential part of growth, but not the only driving factor. Some of the founders surveyed revere capital as an “accelerator” or a “growth factor”. Generalists should think about using capital in a way that distributes the capital evenly to the most productive departments of their company.
Product Focus
What is it?
Product-focused founders thrive with a more specialized set of skills, channeling their energy towards the development of the product itself and letting the excellence of the product drive the profit.
Thoughts on Capital
Founders that consider themselves product focused have a very distinct outlook on capital. When asked “How do you think about capital for your business?” founders responded with “it is a means to an end” or “a necessary evil that controls too much of our destiny.” It is evident that these types of founders prioritize an impeccable product to drive their profit rather than capital. With this frame of mind, it’s essential to make sure that the product is top of the line and pursue the motivation to make a perfect specialized product while upholding the necessity to grow the sales of the product and its market.
Sales and Marketing
What is it?
Sales and marketing focused founders create a growth approach to gain capital from their product and company.
Thoughts on Capital
A sales and marketing driven founder should use their capital in the way they know best, through a great sales and marketing campaign. That being said, capital should be dispersed in a way that ensures a quality product/service.
Operation Focus
What is it?
Through the Bigfoot Capital PMF survey research, about 11% of founders identified themselves as partially operations-focused leaders. Operations-focused founders’ agenda is to increase efficiency within the company to improve their company.
Thoughts on capital
Operations-focused founders see capital as a means to “get there fast” whether ‘there’ be profit, breaking even, or successfully running a company to their standard. With an operations focus, founders may be driven to place capital within the company to increase profitability but the product cannot be ignored so capital should be implemented here as well.
Summary
There’s no definitive way to disperse capital to ensure a successful organization that produces a substantial profit. The way that founders “should” view capital is within a frame that utilizes the strengths of each focus. So, which founder style do you most identify with? Take the Product Market Fit Survey and let us know. This is how to leverage capital no matter what your focus.
