Jill Beck (Consor)

Three lessons from building and launching a P2P payments app without doing the proper customer validation first (despite knowing better): 1) Building something you need is a great starting point - but not enough to validate an idea. As someone drawn to building solutions, I’m an early tech adopter. This led me to overestimate consumers’ willingness to onboard, especially with a P2P payments app that requires KYC/KYB compliance and relies on a network effect to be useful. 2) Manual solutions are often best to start with It’s good business to be in business - transitioning from ideating to operating as early as possible is the BEST way to learn effectively. While the move fast and break things mindset has attracted well-deserved skepticism, getting stuck in a multi-year build trap distracted me from critical real-world validation. 3) Consumer appetite shifts quickly In my case, the proliferation of free and instant P2P payment options like Zelle added additional pricing pressure that I couldn’t compete with. This disincentivized the consumer event/payment collection market, turning my bottom-up go-to-market strategy upside down. Pitch (https://www.pitch.fun) is currently on the back burner as I’ve begun building custom solutions in various industries to sharpen my skills, solve specific problems, gain a hands-on understanding of operations, pain points, and workflows, and build a network of experts to lean on as I keep my eyes peeled for high-impact opportunities.

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Early Adopters: The Unsung Heroes Right after we jumped into building InScope, we reached out to a few folks in our network to see if they needed help with financial reporting. One of our earliest customers was not just excited to be an early customer but he was disappointed that he was customer#2 and not customer #1. True story! In every industry, we have these brave souls who step forward before anyone else. They see potential where others see risk. At InScope, we've been fortunate to work with a number of amazing early adopters. They are not just customers—they are truly our partners in this journey. So what do these early adopters all have in common? 1. Early adopters can see beyond the present. They understand that today's ideas are tomorrow's standards. 2. Early adopters are opinionated, provide valuable feedback and influence product roadmap. A big thank you to our early adopters at InScope. Speaking of early - today, we’re excited to announce the release of InScope's Disclosure Library. The library is a simple and user-friendly resource that provides access to accounting topics, direct link to relevant FASB guidance, access to disclosure templates, and public company peers' disclosures from their recent filings. Did I mention it’s FREE? DM me to get you set up with a free account.

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Delayed post from last week's activity. 1 acquisition, 10 fundraising rounds, and 12 people moves & promotions highlighted below. 4 roles, 2 articles, 1 podcast, 2 newly added events, VC bingo, and a recap of my travels in the link: https://lnkd.in/ea3UQS75 General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero acquired a majority stake in GRESB (sustainability standards and benchmarks). AI Squared (AI-driven insights) raised $13.8M in a Series A led by Ansa Capital. Anvilogic (multi-data platform SIEM) raised $45M in a Series C led by Evolution Equity Partners. Arcadia (utility data) raised $50M in a round. Bridgewise (AI investment research) raised $21M in a Series A led by SIX Group. dataplor (location intelligence) raised $10.6M in a Series A led by Spark Capital. Emporia Research (B2B market research solutions) raised $4.7M in a Seed round led by Founder Collective. Gemini Sports Analytics (sports data) raised an additional $3.1M in a round led by Will Ventures. PeerDB (YC S23) (data movement) raised $3.6M in a Seed round led by 8VC. Satellogic (earth observation data collection) raised $30M in secured convertible notes led by Tether Investments Limited. Writ (data-driven decision making platform) raised $3.8M in a Seed round led by Gradient Ventures. John Farrall joined ModuleQ as Sales Director. Jim Goundry, CFA joined AlphaSense as Sales Team Leader. Saurabh Gupta joined The Modern Data Company as Chief Strategy & Revenue Officer. Michael Kovacs joined Allvue Systems as Director of Product, Public Credit. Kelly Mattie was promoted to VP, Head of Americas Sales, Financial Services at Consumer Edge. Prakhar Mehrotra joined Blackstone as Managing Director, AI. Jeremy Scott, CFA joined Flywheel Alternative Data as Director of Product & Research. James Sharp joined Placer.ai as VP, New Products Strategy. Daniel Sheehan joined Crosswalk Labs as Director of Data Solutions. Donal Simmie joined PEI as Head of Data Science & AI. Justin A. Sternhell joined Tradeweb as VP, Data Strategy & Governance Program Management. Allen Zimmerman joined SimCorp as MD, Head of Americas. #data #careers #funding

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Health and Wellness is a wave, and integrated care will be (and already is!) the defining characteristic of most winners. Many DTC healthcare companies are putting money into Meta/Google, and getting patients out. Something similar is possible at a Doctor's office, with a significantly lower CAC. Put in resources, get patients out. I think this is a compelling distribution channel for a lot of wellness companies--Pharmacies, Gyms, Nutritionists, Therapists, Longevity etc. Because if you're a healthcare company, chances are the people who you can impact the most (and who may be the most motivated to use your product!) are those at the Doctor's office. Yes it will be non-trivial to set up distribution through clinics... but those nuances are just a barrier to entry for your competitors. The rise of multi-clinic operators makes this extra powerful right now.

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🔥Tune In to the Latest Fireside Chat with a VC in Healthech🔥 What percentage of VCs are former founders? 30% maybe more? I'd think a fair amount, yet how *exactly* does that transition happen and what perspectives change *radically* afterwards? Sigvards Krongorns shared exactly that - his journey from PwC consultant to Healtech founder, to a VC shaping the future of Healthtech startups. What we talked about: ✨ Sigvards' transition from a PwC consultant to founder to a VC ✨ What steps are necessary to bring innovative medical devices from concept to market ✨ How being a founder can prepare you for a role in venture capital ✨ What strategies help navigate the regulatory landscape in healthtech startups ✨ The right way to engage with VCs for startup funding ✨ What future trends in venture capital and Healthtech look like #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Innovation #StartupJourney #HealthcareInnovation #Entrepreneurship #FiresideChat #VentureCapitalInsights Full conversation can be found here:

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Solve for information asymmetries! Architecture & Civil Engineering - Layout interpretation ~other industries: Healthcare - <Prescription> interpretation Financial Products - <Subject to market risks documentation> interpretation Loans - <Fine print> interpretation There’s going to be a slew of startups commercialising this year with a value prop of simplification using AI

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Today was a big win for consumer health, with Flo Health Inc.'s valuation at $1 billion. We're hearing talk about the market becoming frothy again, but I’d argue—without seeing the detailed financials—that this valuation could be entirely warranted. Flo has built an impressive business, with 5 million paid subscribers and 70 million monthly active users. At $60 per year for users to access the product, this business has hundreds of millions in revenue and plenty of room to grow. It's increasingly clear to me that innovators focused on healthcare have been wildly underestimating consumer business models for years, believing that patients would only opt for solutions covered by their health plans and prescribed or recommended by their doctors. That thesis needs updating, particularly given high deductible plans and soaring co-pays. Innovators building solutions that users genuinely love will win - even in healthcare. These businesses also have the potential to move into B2B channels, which is far easier to do when you have an engaged, loyal user base. I expect we’ll see many more consumer health businesses “pop” in the years to come, further proving that consumers are ready and willing to pay for such solutions. We're watching closely at Cherish Kudos to the team at Flo for this impressive milestone. Lainie Muller Charlotte Yeh Aashima Gupta Avanlee Christine Esther Dyson Alexandra Drane Jessica Kamada Vin Gupta, MD MPA Asheesh Saksena Paul Crnkovich Josh Kampel Steve Chazin Lee Wagner #agingwithattitude #independentliving #consumerdrivencare

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Weekend Reading: Do you pitch in to help your overloaded team? This article by Raw Signal Group takes us through a better way to help overloaded teams. What to think about before pitching in: 1. We talk ourselves out of making work better --> Before making a case for fixing the overload 2. You can cover the skills gap --> But it usually isn't that easy 3. A structural issue is causing the overload --> Pitching in prevents you from fixing the issue Read the article before pitching into an overloaded team. 🔥 https://lnkd.in/gR5uF57B #productmanagement #leadership #product

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When you're not in the board room, you're always wondering, "What's going on in there?". I have now worked with seven companies where I'd regularly present to a board, a mixture of PE and VC-led, and it's almost always centered around a few key topics. If you're meeting your numbers: - what's your future forecast  - how are you going to continue to grow - how will you grow faster and more efficient  - update on money in the bank and spend If you're not meeting your numbers (along with the things I mentioned above): - what is your plan to turn things around and meet your numbers (this includes new logo, back-to-base sales, and churn reduction) - what resources can they offer to help - do you have the right players in the right seat This is an oversimplification because many nuances are at play, but this is generally it. While board meetings can be stressful, almost every board I've worked with wants to be helpful. Of course, their interest is, first and foremost, that the business is healthy and growing, so there's always that undertone, but overall, they want to help. After all, they are guardians of the investments they make on behalf of others and have to report back on their performance. Think of them like they are CSMs for their investors (the folks that give them money). They need to get a great return on the investment they made on their behalf.

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I’m fortunate to spend time with a small group of people whom I consider to be the next generation of startup c-level executives. These folks have a lot in common. They’re often in VP level roles, have crazy high ceilings, and they’re perpetually looking to take their game to the next level. They’re running hard. Really hard. Oftentimes, they’re running just as hard at home. In many cases this career apex seems to coincide with having a young family. Sometimes, they run until they crash. I find this comes up a lot in our conversations. I’ve been there. I’ve seen good people leave good companies simply because they’re tired. Longevity is about maintenance. I'm into maintenance. Here are five maintenance strategies that have worked for me; 1/ Align time and priorities. In startups workload exceeds capacity so you need to decide when you work and what you work on. This is a life decision, not a business decision. 2/ Develop a maintenance process to increase longevity. What are you doing daily, weekly and monthly to ensure you’re operating in easy mode? 3/ Understand the power of identity. Exercise caution if what you do is who you are. Startups are volatile and high risk. Detach professional failures from failures of self. 4/ Play the infinite game. Understand that the game you're playing has no finish line. The goal is to keep playing and find joy in the pursuit. 5/ Build a personal board of directors. Startups may be for pirates and romantics, but that doesn’t mean you have to face the world alone. Building a network around you will help commiserate and think through difficult problems. More here, On Longevity: https://lnkd.in/duMCPtSV

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If you want to get more out of your webinars, try this: Stop thinking of that 1 hour for your webinar as the deliverable. Think about the webinar as you spending 1 hour to create an evergreen, valuable resource. Some people might show up live - but the majority of people will watch on-demand (don't think people watch on-demand? I disagree; why do people watch YouTube or listen to Podcasts? If they are not watching on-demand it's because of the content - it was boring, not relevant, or not interesting. It's not because "people don't watch webinars later" but that's a post for a different day). I like to think about the webinar as a trojan horse for creating other content. Who knows what kind of content (and signals) we'll get from the webinar that we can use for the rest of our marketing. It's like a comedian testing out ideas. You can be on the webinar, testing out new content, sharing new ideas, and figuring out what lands with your audience. What's cool about using Goldcast is the make this super easy with their AI Content Lab. After a webinar, I can note interesting moments and timestamps, then go into Goldcast and grab the transcript, blog post and article ideas, key takeaways, email copy, and video clips. In the past I would have had to learn how to edit videos by myself, hire video producers, or send to a writer. Now with a tool like Goldcast you can get it all to use immediately after the webinar. Content distribution is the name of the game in the marketing world you have to play in today. Here's a clip from our session earlier this week with Knak CEO Pierce Ujjainwalla and Subject Line . com Founder Jay Schwedelson -- we had 1,110 people register and 350 show up live. Not bad for a "webinar" Here's a clip from Jay sharing some of his subject line knowledge. ___ This is a sponsored post because Goldcast is currently a sponsor of Exit Five.

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🌶🌶 Category creation has been all the rage. 🌶🌶 Kyle Poyar's post from James Evans is gold on this topic. My TAKEAWAYS: 1️⃣ Category creation = playing the game on HARD mode 2️⃣ Before & after narratives = critical 3️⃣ Repositioning > Pivoting I feel like I've been waiting for years for someone to call out category creation like this. Category creation seems great. It sounds so bold. So "Blue Ocean." Very "Alpha." We don't play by other people's rules... we make up our own rules! But being so novel nobody "gets" what you are? That's hard. Hard for customers. Hard for investors, Hard for employees. If you loved the book "Play Bigger"—the latest darling of category creation—this is the counterpoint to round out the topic. Locally, Qualtrics was the poster child for category creation. They hired the authors of "Play Bigger." But “experience management?” Really? What does that even mean? Are they an app for travel agencies? When’s the last time you took a survey and felt like you were having an experience? Never made sense to me. ... also if you need further proof that I know what I'm talking about and that Qualtrics is up in the night...well, I’m still working for a living and Ryan Smith owns the Jazz after scratching $8 Billion on a napkin while playing basketball. 🤷🏼‍♂️ 😜 😱 Win some, lose some. P.S. IMHO, "Play Bigger" is an "also ran" to the O.G. and much more practical "Positioning: the Battle for Your Mind" Don't believe me? 🤔 Never heard of Positioning: the Battle for Your Mind? 😕 That's okay. FYI Play Bigger was a best seller with over 150,000 copies sold world wide. It only needs to sell 3,850,000 more copies to catch up to Positioning. 😁 #cmozen #positioning #categorycreation

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If you’re an early-stage founder, finding out what your customers *really* want so you can build the right product is critical. I’m excited to share some of First Round Capital's PMF Method program with Gagan Biyani on Friday! Gagan has founded 3 companies including Udemy, Sprig, and Maven. We’re hosting this live conversation for product leaders & founders on how to reach PMF. You’ll learn: - How to identify your customers' real problems - How to test demand by selling before building - When to write code vs. build a no-code MVP RSVP to join on June 14th (it’s free): https://bit.ly/3VBAK69

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VISION => TALENT => TEAM Founders: The strength and clarity of your vision precedes your ability to attract great talent, which in turn precedes the construction of teams who will build great products. If you think you have a team problem, you likely do... but the root cause is that you have not effectively crafted your vision, ambition and business model in a way that will attract the best talent.

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Some of the most inspiring founders I've backed take expertise from one field and apply it to another. They're able to create solutions that might not emerge within disciplinary silos. I call these people "missionary misfits.” I'm drawn to these misfits because they tackle big problems without being constrained by the “rules” of individual domains. They combine their deep subject expertise with unbounded curiosity for adjacent disciplines to solve real-world problems. I believe that the most disruptive innovations come from the unconventional remixing of insight and experimentation. That’s why missionary misfits are the apex predators of innovation. These are the ones who initially raise eyebrows yet become study material for future generations. They will transform industries and solve societal problems. And I want to partner with as many as possible.

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Employee terminations: they're a topic no one wants to discuss but that every company has to navigate. Thankfully, Melanie Naranjo and wonderful Ethena advisor (& Gusto's former People Leader) Jess Yuen are tackling this tricky topic for the next Ethena webinar. Register if you want to learn more about these topics: How to pressure test whether or not termination is the right course of action Best practices for communicating termination decisions How to minimize risk and choose the best course of action when things get tricky Critical pitfalls to avoid

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✨ I'm excited to announce the launch of LeanTiger, a new product consulting agency dedicated to helping startups with all their digital product needs. LeanTiger is in partnership with my colleague, Jordan Carlson, and together we bring over 3 decades of experience in product management, agile methodologies, and design thinking. Our mission is to partner with ambitious companies and guide them through the complex challenges of product development, from ideation to launch and beyond. LeanTiger's services include: 🚘 Product strategy & roadmapping with Lean startup principles - Do you have Product Market Fit? 👩‍🎨 User experience (UX) design - Are you prioritizing your features based on your personas, value propositions, and feel-good habit cycles? 🤼 Agile coaching and implementation: Already have a prod/dev team but no process and transparency?  We can step in and create a framework. 📈 Data-driven decision making powered by the latest AI tools: Save time and money, while making better decisions org-wide with our suite of AI tools. 👨‍🏫 Fractional product leadership roles to strengthen your team: Hire LeanTiger for a few hours a week to get full-time results. We believe in the power of collaboration, which is why we also offer team building workshops to foster alignment and innovation within your organization. If you're a business leader looking to innovate, optimize your product offerings, and stay ahead of the competition, I'd love to connect. Visit our website www.leantiger.co to learn more about our approach and how we can help you achieve your goals. Let's build something remarkable together! #ProductManagement #Consulting #Startup #Innovation #AI

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What does bold leadership look like in 2024? In this latest Product Thinking episode, I sit down with Margaret (MJ) Jastrebski, the SVP of Product at Tegus. We dive into the key strategies for uniting teams, breaking down silos, and leading with transparency. Margaret knows the investor research space inside and out from her work at Tegus, a platform that consolidates key company intelligence to help investors make smarter bets. With experience spanning product, sales, and marketing at companies like Stylitics and TXI, Margaret brought a unique 360-degree view. We discussed: ►Uniting fragmented teams behind one vision ►Breaking down silos between product, marketing, sales, etc. ►Leading with transparency to build trust and alignment Margaret emphasized the need for product leaders to externalize their decision-making process. By communicating rationale openly, you empower teams to truly understand and even constructively challenge your calls. Whether you're an up-and-comer or a seasoned pro, you'll want to hear Margaret's insights on casting a clear vision, tearing down organizational barriers, and inspiring teams to achieve big outcomes. What strategies have you found effective for aligning teams and leading with transparency? Share your insights below! Listen Now: https://lnkd.in/gAdV7k56 #ProductLeadership #Alignment #Transparency #BusinessStrategy

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