Keep Healthy Businesses Healthy
The Plumbline approach focuses on the following 8 activities we believe keep healthy businesses healthy. These are not just 8 bullet points, but interconnected elements for optimal performance.
Therefore, we call this the healthy business octagon (HBO)!
Let’s dig into each of the aspects of the octagon below and how we provide support along the way.
Healthy Businesses:
Maintain Secure Data – A secure data room is like curb appeal on a house. It doesn’t increase the value of the home but it drastically increases the likelihood the home will sell. Even if a business never intends on being acquired, the stewardship and organizational health of having an up to date data room will increase the likelihood of investors injecting capital in your next round. We make this process easy, creating a data room for each company we serve along with a checklist to hold you accountable.
Produce Engaging Quarterly Reports – Primarily, we help ensure quarterly reports are being produced and made available to investors. Additionally, we strive to help portfolio companies create updates investors will actually read! Templates and graphic designers are available to support companies through the process of keeping investors engaged via quarterly reports.
Identify Resources for Venture Building Activities – We will never pretend to be experts for all businesses in all industries in all parts of the globe, but we can curate a strong list of references we trust on all types of venture building activities from HR to Legal to Software Development. Let’s determine what are the next best steps and who you need in your corner to make it happen.
Prioritize Founder Health – 72% of founders express mental health issues negatively affect their venture’s success. We are not a team of counselors, but we can ask direct questions, be a sounding board and point you to healthy resources when appropriate.
Prepare for Future Fundraising – We love helping founders grasp the concept that, to some extent, every decision they make is preparing them for future fundraising. Making decisions concerning the business with an ability to consider how it will be perceived by potential investors is a healthy habit. This type of thinking is greatly informed by some of the other activities on this list such as maintaining a data room and producing engaging reports. We help our founders to be in a confident position when it comes time to raise capital with strong relationships, organized financials and clearly crafted pitch decks.
Hosts Consistent Update Calls – We believe update calls are the easiest and yet the most critical keystone habit any company could incorporate into their business to bring alignment between investors and founders.
Track Non-financial Impact – This may be the most difficult tree to climb among all of the HBO activities but we believe it’s vitally important to hold financial growth in tandem with non-financial impact metrics that are strategic and quantitative related to social or environmental impact. We can help companies determine some options to consider, begin tracking them and assess the outcomes.
Address Team Relational Health – 65% of startups fail due to lack of team alignment. We love providing assessments, tools and resources to ensure your team is pulling in the same direction.
