Aravo

UNIFIED DATA PLATFORM Achieved 25m ARR

Aravo is a SaaS data platform for third party vendor management in San Francisco. Today the company is rated top in class by Forrester Research, ahead of industry giants like SAP and Oracle. We facilitated the development of product strategy and managed strategic deals with Accenture, Apple and Caterpillar. General Electric deployed the SaaS solution across a thousand business units and a million vendors.

Goal

Land flagship clients and guide product development.

APPROACH: Market Development & Product-fit Development

• Market strategy validation via main market segments and industry players

• Initiated and helped close deals with Apple, Cisco, GE, Caterpillar. (12 ms)

• Worked with engineering and product development to incorporate insights into product vision and scope

OUTCOMES

Growing 40%+ y/y six figure ARR with Salesforce, Ford, Unilever and Herman Miller. Company is top rated by Forrester Research for Third Party Vendor Management ahead of SAP and Oracle.

azeti

Closed & Enabled Cisco, Dell, Intel as global OEM Partners

Triggered funding at higher valuation.

azeti is a Berlin-based IoT for infrastructure platform and portfolio company of Earlybird. An Earlybird partner had become the CEO of one of portfolio companies. He wanted to see an exit in two to three years and began to see international growth as a key. Having raised 17m euro the company was tackling a 160b euro market and was active in 30 countries but not in North America. We began with a list of 25 global IoT market leaders like SAP, Siemens, Cisco. Nine months later, we’d closed an exclusive contract for global deployment as Cisco’s first ‘app’ inside the Linux guest system on routers for all IoT for infrastructure engagements. This meant being showcased by new CEO of Cisco and being sold thru the Cisco sales organization on a global basis. Intel and Dell shortly followed, as did the next funding round. Recently acquired by a German industrial.

Goal

Develop strategic partnerships and shorten fundraising time.

APPROACH: Market Development & Strategic Partnerships

• Growth Discovery in the United States into more than 100 strategic accounts

• Connected into 150 US and European VCs, leading to funding round

• Expansion into the US market (6 months)

OUTCOMES

Exclusive OEM partnership in IoT with Cisco. First enterprise application deployed on Linux guest system on industrial routers. Initiated future partnerships with Dell and Intel. Successfully closed the funding round that in turn, led to an exit.

Hippo - Bloomreach

international go to market for Sales & Marketing Cooperation

Implemented Customer Success program

negotiated 2nd largest deal of year

Hippo was a top open source SaaS platform for omnichannel content management. The company had just landed Disney as a new client and wanted a more structured approach to international markets. We developed a customer care program to ensure retention and expand existing clients. This resulted in a 50% increase in annual subscription from flagship clients like Fidelity and saving the Disney relationship after the client complained the product was not delivering. By using an integrated approach (networks, techniques and technology) for remote growth international became a business driver. The company merged with Bloomreach to become a category leader in AI powered customer experience.

Goal

Strengthen existing customer success and expand flagship clients.

APPROACH: SME Market & Enterprise Expansion

• Campaigns into US using Berkeley and other alumni networks, meeting with top existing clients

• Supplemented existing US team by bringing more sales capacity for deals, helped close 2nd largest contract of the year

• Implementing a new customer care program

OUTCOMES

Company had a more integrated process for sales, marketing and customer care. Demonstrated ability to upsell existing clients and save critical customers..

Netis

market Segment requirements in high tech industry for european Blockchain company.

Netis blockchain technologies has 50+ employees specializing in cohesive solutions for businesses, seeking a competitive edge from blockchain-based technology. Blockchain technologies and business model were explored in deep dive with Cisco, Samsung NEXT and SAP to validate the relevance to US Market. The company launched the new positioning for the company upon returning to Europe.

Goal

Complete a US market validation within major blockchain platform companies.

APPROACH: Product-Market Fit

• The discovery process with SAP, Cisco, Samsung NEXT and IBM (2 ms)

• Executive workshop in Calistoga

• Re-focus on European market and launch new site (3 months)

OUTCOMES

Company solution discovery process sped up and market demand validated.

Opentext (Cordys)

GTM strategy and execution for SaaS Middleware Business Unit selling into High Tech, Telecoms, Manufacturing Industries in Europe & US.

Prior to acquisition of Cordys, a new online markets strategy needed to be defined to partner with the cloud and SaaS players in the market and support digital transformation with traditional industry. This meant working with company CCO, Head of Product Marketing, CTO and MDs for Germany, UK, Benelux and the US. Coordinated in horizontal role with 25 members of the global team. Engaged market segments, enabled more cohesive solutions and delivered new opportunities in process engineering and integration to existing clients, as well as net new customers. OpenText considered process engineering a core differentiator for their global solution portfolio.

Goal

Support market engagement, definition and global rollout of business-driven solutions.

APPROACH: Market Development & Product-fit

• Discovery in four key markets - US, UK, Germany, Benelux. Defined industries, use cases, solutions

• Built consensus and collateral, battle decks. Embedded learnings and defined performance metrics

• Roadshows across many geographies and joint sales cycles in UK, North America and Europe

OUTCOMES

Successful rollout and pre-acquisition growth operations for business driven solutions.

Rightnow Technologies

Market and international team development for Natural Language Processing, Chat and Social Monitoring across 60 person sales, marketing and business development team.

Rightnow was the 2nd fastest growing cloud company and considered Natural language processing a differentiator for customer care lifecycle. NLP needed to be embedded into solution sales in North America, Europe and Australia for business development, sales, marketing and customer care teams. This meant working with business unit CMO, Head of Sales, Product Head to define strategy and coordinate team across Europe, Asia and US. Focus was on defining and leading global process for outbound/inbound to close net new opportunities and expand existing clients using the NLP engine as differentiator.

Goal

Support post acquisition global rollout and adoption of Natural language processing solutions.

APPROACH: Market Development and Growth Engine

• Defined targets, teams, collateral, battle cards (1 m)

• Roadshows across many geographies and joint sales cycles in Australia, North America and Europe (6 ms)

• Worked with team to embed learnings and performance metrics

OUTCOMES

Successful post integration adoption of the new technology.

PrivacyCheq

Strategy and 6 European market expansion. closed first revenue outside US market in GDPR solution area.

A leading US-based SaaS company in data privacy for COPPA (Child Online Privacy Protection Act) Privacycheq wanted to position itself for the GDPR. Solution needed to be brought to select markets in Europe. This meant working with CEO, UK Head of Sales, Product Head to define strategy and coordinating GTM engaged in six European markets including Germany, UK, Estonia (Baltics), Poland, Belgium and The Netherlands. Closed first revenue in Europe. Focus was on defining and leading growth operations to close opportunities with new customers.

Goal

Support Europe rollout and adoption of SaaS solutions for GDPR.

APPROACH: EMEA Market Development & Paid Acquisition

• Defined target markets, verticals, discovery into 6 new geographies

• Discovery Roadshows in DACH, UK, Benelux, New Nordics, CEE

• Defined sales and marketing activities, worked with management and team to execute into markets and build partner network

OUTCOMES

Successful Europe market engagement and GTM growth.

Q-GO

International GTM strategy and service that delivered valuation and revenue. Big brand deals got company on radar for a future exit.

Q-go was a sixty person Natural Language Processing technology company based in Amsterdam. The company had raised 12+m euro including Prime Ventures and Newion. Doing 5m ARR and established a dominant position in Europe with KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, similar finserv clients. But no similar clients in the US. Within 5 months we did a full growth marketing and sales campaign, closing United Airlines and Bank of America for six-figure ARR.

Goal

Grow the US business by acquiring like-clients in US. Financial services, travel, and entertainment.

APPROACH: Market Development & Enterprise Campaign

• 500 accounts in travel industry, utilizing physical and digital marketing tactics (3 months)

• Expanded into two other verticals, and added monthly thought leadership webinars (2 months)

• Closed two US flagship clients with a big brand names by month 6. Build the growth engine for US around this success (7 months)

OUTCOMES

Company valuation grew significantly.

Synerise

Engaged three market segments leading to POC request from Top 5 US retail brand in < 5 months.

Synerise is one of the high potential enterprise AI companies in Europe. With 200 employees and global expansion ramping up in nearly every global market the company was looking for an agile approach to engaging the export markets and complement the Microsoft partnership rolling out. Global Expansion and CMO capturing requirements from the US market directly. Met senior Executives at brands like Wells Fargo, William Sonoma, Viacom/MTV and built GTM strategy. More than 50 major retail brands VP of Digital Execs in Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco were engaged, and head of eCommerce from a top 5 retail brand was open to a Proof of Concept with Synerise.

Goal

Complete market validation within three key industries: financial services, retail, and entertainment.

APPROACH: Market Development & US Campaign

• Discovery of strategy for two key verticals, with vertical advisors from the Berkeley community, a director and VP executive

• Engaged 50 retail digital VPs including POC request from top brand

OUTCOMES

Shorter cycles with bigger companies, validation of growth blueprint before major investments made in the market.

XTPL

Market development preceding launch of international HQ, after which shareholders saw a 50m euro valuation increase in 6 months.

One of the top technology companies in Central Europe XTPL is miniaturizing connected industry. Six month strategy engagement preceded the opening of a Silicon Valley office and going public on Warsaw Stock Exchange. Discovery work helped bring new insight and a senior network of Execs in important segments, with groups such as Microsoft Hololens, Apple, Tesla, Autodesk and Sony providing feedback on application areas of the core technology. Working at times in parallel to the management team and board, deepened market knowledge and facilitated an Executive workshop to make decisions on direction of the company. After engagement, market cap increase by 50m euro, new office in California opened and won E&Y entrepreneur award for 2018 - full credit to the team, advisors and investors, they are going for it!

Goal

Validate strategic market segments.

APPROACH: Market Development & Product-Market Fit

• Phase 1 - Defined targets, discovery Qs, collateral, battle cards (1 m)

• Phase 2 - Roadshows into California and four distinct market segments that included companies like GoogleX, Tesla, Sony, SAP

• Phase 3 - Worked with management and investors to capture learnings, facilitate decisions on focus and performance metrics

OUTCOMES

Successful identification of higher potential market segments for the new technology.