StartupNation

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• 6 Strategies for Local Startups to Scale Up Nationally
• Crisis Planning: There’s Never Been a Better Time
• 10 Tips for Landing a Product Licensing Deal

6 Strategies for Local Startups to Scale Up Nationally Posted: 22 Nov 2021 09:00 PM PST If you're thinking about launching a business or have started one recently, there's no need to restrict your goals to the local area. Here are six ways to compete on a national level. 1. Create products that address common pain points. One way to increase your chances of becoming nationally relevant is to ensure your products meet nearly universal needs. The hope is that even if a potential client doesn't require what you offer now, they probably will someday. A Memphis, Tennessee, company called UpSquad certainly had near-universal appeal in mind as its founders explored how to reduce common struggles faced by businesspeople. It has raised $1 million in seed funding so far and is preparing for another push for financial resources soon. When asked to describe the company, Venki Mandapati, UpSquad cofounder and chief technology officer, said, "Imagine LinkedIn, plus Zoom, plus Eventbrite, plus Mailchimp, all combined together for your organization. We've made it very easy and efficient for (businesses).” Verizon Small Business Digital Ready: A free resource for learning basic business skills, the latest digital technology and more. UpSquad offers a customized, branded engagement platform that helps company team members communicate, stay productive, collaborate and more. For example, the tool's video meeting feature lets up to 1,000 people take part simultaneously. There's also a social networking component for posting company announcements, resources and event reminders. It can quickly get cumbersome if business representatives try to juggle numerous products during a given workday. Each one probably has different login credentials and user interfaces, and the lack of uniformity can hinder work output. The UpSquad team found an appealing way to bring essential tools into a single platform, boosting usability for everyone involved. 2. Investigate ways to increase user convenience. No matter the focus of your startup, the target audience will almost certainly appreciate anything you can do to show you want to make engaging with your product as straightforward and enjoyable as possible. People will wonder what makes your offering so different from and better than others without even consciously realizing it. When they recognize the convenience associated with your product, it'll be much easier for them to justify using it. Rent Ready is a startup specializing in technology to coordinate tasks related to preparing a property for someone to move into once the former tenant leaves. After completing a $10-million Series A round in March 2021, the startup expanded into Greenville, South Carolina, its fourth market so far. CEO Jonathan Kite said a new automated turn board feature was a significant factor accelerating the company's success. "This technology revolutionizes how apartment staff are able to turn their units because they can toss the archaic dry-erase board aside and let technology schedule their end-to-end turn services, from painting to cleaning and everything in between, with the touch of a few buttons," he explained. Kite continued, "This is also a huge milestone for our company. This technology not only elevates the customer experience and fulfills our mission of completely changing the way the industry turns units, but also allows us to scale much more rapidly." Most Popular: 10 Negotiation Techniques to Make You a Better Entrepreneur  3. Seek beneficial partnerships. Most people involved with startups eventually realize that the right partnerships can solidify and strengthen their chances of success. For example, combining an extremely well-known brand with a lesser-known one sometimes brings payoffs for everyone involved. Before forging ahead with such pairings, consider how to streamline the logistics involved. One possibility is to let all parties involved sign contracts and other official documents with digital signatures. This allows someone to add their name to a copy and verifies their identity in the process. That approach makes the necessities as simple as possible, paving the way for a fruitful pairing. Megan Smith is the vice president and head of HR at the Canadian branch of global software brand SAP. She felt excited about the potential of Maturn. This new company helps career-minded women prepare for all things motherhood, from planning child care needs to getting ready to return to the workforce after maternity leave. The company's focus struck a chord with Smith, particularly since she'd navigated the challenges of leaving and reentering the workforce for child-bearing reasons herself. Smith spoke of SAP's interest in Maturn, saying, "As soon as we learned of Maturn, we realized the maternity journey presents a possible barrier to a key population reaching their greatest career potential." She continued, "Knowing herself that motherhood is a massive investment for women — be it physically, emotionally, financially — it's a transformation that often happens right at the point in a woman's career when they are poised for their most critical career growth. Making this connection created the spark that led us to believe we had to partner." 4. Utilize existing networks. A significant part of succeeding as a startup involves understanding your competition. From there, it's necessary to determine what your company could do to stand out from those other entities. Many teams at startup businesses see Amazon as a competitor since it has such a tremendous presence in the marketplace. The company has also spanned far beyond its book-based roots. For example, Amazon's online prescription-filling service offers customers up to 80% savings, plus Prime members get two-day delivery. CourMed is a local startup based in Dallas that has achieved outstanding success in the medicine-delivery space. However, it offers something Amazon doesn't. CourMed expanded its services, sending medical professionals to customers' homes to administer COVID-19 vaccines by teaming up with local pharmacies and other parties. Joining forces like that has been key to gaining momentum. Derrick Miles, the company's CEO and founder, clarified, "We have been able to provide new revenue for community pharmacies if you were not a customer of that community pharmacy at that time. We are bringing community pharmacies new patients by offering concierge delivery." CourMed also connected with Meals and Wheels and Dallas Fire-Rescue to get vulnerable residents vaccinated. Another recent opportunity involved CourMed collaborating with a children's hospital's school telehealth pilot, delivering prescribed drugs to a student's home. The company's leaders hope to continue their expansion by working with other health systems in the area, too. 5. Use data and firsthand insights to frame your startup. You'll have an easier time getting nationwide traction by using statistics to show interested parties there's a genuine need for what you provide. It's even better to support the statistics with perspective from people who have dealt with the issue your startup solves. BestyBnB is a technology platform that connects domestic violence refuge workers with people who are ready and well-equipped to foster the pets owned by people using emergency shelters. The company's founders heard a report that shocked them and spurred the pair to act. About 50% of people decide to stay in life-threatening situations if they can't escape with their pets. Additionally, 70% of the animals left in dangerous homes are abused or killed by the perpetrators. BestyBnB provides an online search engine that connects pets that need temporary homes to vetted individuals who are ready to welcome them. The startup's leaders laid the necessary groundwork before launching their company, including touring various domestic violence shelters. Feedback from refuge workers told them it was typically unfeasible for organizations to house abuse survivors along with their pets. BestyBnB's data shows that shelters cannot do it in 95% of cases. Such statistics grab attention and show how the company meets a genuine need. 6.  Look for opportunities to spotlight your efforts. Most startup founders understandably think they have great ideas. However, brilliance is not enough for success. It's also vital that enough other people notice the startup and agree with its potential. One way to help that happen is to enter local startup competitions. In one recent example, a Pennsylvania startup called Organtick recently earned top honors at a competition. The company specializes in an all-natural tick repellent that has such safe ingredients it could be consumed. Besides getting $5,000 as the overall winner, founder Nicole Chinnici received another $1,000 as an audience-based award. While discussing another award she'd won in 2019, Chinnici admitted it hasn't always been smooth sailing for her business. She explained, "It's been a roller coaster. You can go two weeks without any progress and think you have nothing, then a day later, you can make a breakthrough and be on cloud nine." Startup competitions are often valuable for the people who don't win, too. At the very least, entering them makes the judges, spectators and fellow participants more aware of what you do. You never know if publicizing your business like that could lead to unexpected positive outcomes. Set the stage for success Getting people around the country interested in your business may seem like an out-of-reach goal, and it often is in the early stages of operations. However, these six tips should help you realize what's possible and prompt you to explore practical ways to make headway. Sign Up: Receive the StartupNation newsletter! The post 6 Strategies for Local Startups to Scale Up Nationally appeared first on StartupNation.

Crisis Planning: There’s Never Been a Better Time Posted: 22 Nov 2021 09:00 PM PST Excerpted from “Culture Ignited: 5 Disciplines for Adaptive Leadership,” by Jason Richmond (Ideal Outcomes, Inc., September 2021).  Crisis planning Few companies had a crisis management plan in place that could handle the pandemic and, in all likelihood, few have one in place now. Yet the time to prepare for a future crisis is right now, on the heels of the pandemic. As Vibhas Ratanjee, Senior Practice Expert, Organizational and Leadership Development, Gallup, says, "You may not be ready to think about the next catastrophe, not now when the unknowns outnumber the knowns. It might feel like trying to change bald tires while the car is skidding on ice. But a crisis is exactly when CEOs and boards most need what a cohesive executive team offers—strong partnerships, shared vision, and mutual accountability. The best time to disaster-proof a team is before trouble starts, but the second-best is during it." We slip all too quickly into a focus on immediate issues, and we need to balance that with long-term thinking. Crisis planning requires a thorough postmortem of the most recent crisis—preferably with the aid of an independent third party that can provide objectivity—and a plan for preparing for and responding to future threats, unknown though they may be. It's easy to focus on the day-to-day challenges rather than take time out to plan for an event that might occur years down the road. We slip all too quickly into a focus on immediate issues, and we need to balance that with long-term thinking. Related: 5 Leadership Traits No Entrepreneur Succeeds Without Teamwork and leadership Collaboration and teamwork are critical competencies if an organization is to thrive beyond a crisis. Key to thriving is being able to balance transitory or tactical responses with those that drive true transformation. Such balance is achievable when companies bolster their collective strength with diversity and teamwork. CEOs must lead this charge and can only do that when they deeply understand the strengths and weaknesses of each team member so individuals and teams can be deployed in ways that are efficient, effective, and fulfilling to the people involved. Perhaps of greater importance is for a CEO to understand his or her own strengths and weaknesses so they can become a good leader, not only when times are good but also, and especially, when times are bad. Yet CEOs rarely invest time to reflect on their own strengths and skill gaps. An Egon Zehnder survey of 402 CEOs who together run companies with $2.6 trillion in sales, found that: 68 percent admitted that with the benefit of hindsight, they weren't fully prepared for the job, 50 percent said driving culture change was more difficult than they'd anticipated, and 47 percent admitted that developing their senior leadership team was surprisingly challenging.69 The survey respondents said that while they had felt ready for the strategic and business aspects of the position, they fell short when it came to the equally important personal and not as a "fix" or "remediation" but as a strategic solution for growth and transformation. High level skills that can be significantly enhanced though executive coaching include communicating with candor; building genuine relationships with empathy; creating, inspiring, and leading hybrid, diverse teams; and leveraging adaptability and resilience. It's understandable that CEOs working through a crisis—especially one as crippling as a pandemic—may fixate on urgent corporate priorities and the fight for survival. But this shouldn't be done at the expense of purpose. Going forward with purpose It's understandable that CEOs working through a crisis—especially one as crippling as a pandemic—may fixate on urgent corporate priorities and the fight for survival. But this shouldn't be done at the expense of purpose, which is essential in the long haul. The real test with purpose is reimagining how it becomes a vital part of your post-pandemic business. McKinsey research during the pandemic found that people who said they were "living their purpose" at work reported levels of well-being five times higher than those who weren't, and they were four times more likely to report higher engagement levels. There was also a positive correlation between the purposeful living of employees and their company's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) margin—which is an indicator of overall corporate profitability. One thing that may be hard for leaders to admit is how often they have taken talented, motivated employees for granted. Employees deserve better, and a focus on organizational and individual purpose must be part of a broader effort to ensure that employees are given the primacy they deserve. Related: 5 Reasons Why Startups Need to Create a Crisis Communications Plan Now What can leaders do to help ignite purpose? Zappos is a fine example. The company set up a customer service hotline that moved beyond fielding questions about shoes to resolving people's pandemic-related issues. It kept Zappos' customer service reps occupied in a meaningful, psychologically satisfying way—helping people who were struggling. Purpose needs to be embedded into the entire employee life cycle, including recruiting, onboarding, strengths-based feedback, and performance management. The more you accomplish this, the greater the value you will reap and the more company alignment you will realize. In many ways, organizations have already fast-forwarded into the future of work, says Deloitte in its "2020 Global Human Capital Trends Report." Lessons learned and actions taken need to be permanent. The report says, "While moments of crisis can lead to heroic and unprecedented actions, the sustainability of those actions is where the true path towards recovery will begin. That path must be paved not only with good intentions but with meaningful change. Organizations face a choice between returning to a post-COVID world that is simply an enhanced version of yesterday or building one that is a sustainable version of tomorrow. The risk is more than that of falling behind—it's the possibility of never catching up at all."79 "Culture Ignited: 5 Disciplines for Adaptive Leadership" is available now and can be purchased via StartupNation.com. The post Crisis Planning: There’s Never Been a Better Time appeared first on StartupNation.

10 Tips for Landing a Product Licensing Deal Posted: 22 Nov 2021 09:00 PM PST When you've got a great idea for a product, there's an important decision to make right up front: Do you want to build a brand new company from the ground up in order to commercialize the product, or do you sign a product licensing deal with a preexisting company that already has the resources in place in order to get your product out into the market? If you choose the latter, and you're successful in getting your product or invention licensed, you'll receive royalties on sales of the product, and you'll have a lot more time on your hands to tend to other activities in your life. Most popular: The Benefits of Encouraging Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace We know a thing or two about both commercializing and licensing products, having pursued them both on many occasions over the years. If you're considering licensing an idea, be sober. Getting a company to license your invention from you is far from a simple task. The fact is, the rate of inventors who successfully license their inventions is very low—much less than 10 percent. If seeing your product on the shelves is your dream, you not only have to have an appealing invention, but you also need to be an appealing inventor. Tenacity, preparation and professionalism must become your hallmarks. And we're here to tell you that you can succeed. We're proof positive! We were fortunate to successfully license our invention, "The Battery Buddy," to a Fortune 500 company. And we generated upwards of $1 million dollars in royalties by doing so. From there, we went on to help other inventors license their inventions to Fortune 500 companies in exchange for a share of any royalties generated. Related: 10 Reasons to Patent Your Startup's New Invention Below are tips we have learned along the way to help you land a product licensing deal: Know your stuff. First and foremost, to have any chance of licensing your invention, you must know your stuff. You have to become an expert in the field to which your invention applies. You should be able to rattle off who the competition is, what the potential market size is, what the projected demand for your product is and why your product is the best to meet and satisfy that market demand. Know the downside. While it's important to be passionate about your idea, it's also important to be sober. Your credibility will be assessed by potential licensees partly based on whether you present a realistic analysis of the risks the licensee will have to deal with—things like product failure, the potential for slower-than-expected customer adoption, etc. Present like a pro. Information you present to potential licensees should be provided in written form and in a PowerPoint presentation. The information should include market research data, competitive analysis information, patent status and extent of coverage. It helps to provide a letter from your patent attorney summarizing the initial search results and any other pertinent opinions relating to the extent and value of the patent coverage awarded to you. Also include your product specifications, drawings, prototypes—even if they demonstrate only what the product looks like without the actual functionality. Add to this presentation your production cost estimates, testimonials you've collected, and any and all other materials that help demonstrate the potential your invention has in the marketplace. Get it protected. Big corporations usually have intellectual property or licensing departments specifically set up to handle and manage the inflow of product licensing opportunities. Most of these offices will not accept any submission of a licensing opportunity for which a patent has not yet been issued. And many will not sign a confidentiality agreement, while many others will require that only their own agreement be signed. In some cases, companies might be willing to sign your confidentiality agreement, but only rarely. Submit smart! Work closely with your intellectual property attorney when submitting an idea to a potential licensee to ensure that your idea is adequately protected. Never sign a confidentiality agreement without first having an attorney review it. And never turn over materials to a company without your attorney giving you the green light. It may be dangerous unless you have adequate patent protection in place or a confidentiality agreement that your attorney deems sufficient to protect your intellectual property. Analyze your targeted licensee. Always do research on the company you're targeting prior to pitching them. Check to see if the potential licensee has the manufacturing and distribution capability you need already in place. If they do, their risk is mitigated to a substantial degree, and they will be much more likely to seriously consider the opportunity. Believe it or not, though, you may have to educate them on how your product can fit into their existing lines of business. Don't reinvent procedures. It's important to follow the established protocol of a licensee when submitting your idea for consideration. If you attempt to bend the rules, your submission can be stopped dead in its tracks before ever being given consideration. If a targeted licensee has a licensing office, always start there to get a case file started at the company's licensing office, and attend to their confidentiality procedures. Find a champion. Once you have clearance from the company to present your idea, always try to find a champion from within the company who gets excited about your idea and works to "pull" the idea into the company rather than you simply attempting to "push" the idea onto the company. "No" is an opportunity. Remember, it's always safer for the company to say no to an idea than it is to say yes. The key is to be able to overcome the likely onslaught of negative responses the company will undoubtedly throw your way. It's imperative (even in the midst of a no) that instead of hanging up or walking out in defeat, you ask to understand specifically why. If someone says no to you, that's a perfect opportunity to learn. Immediately ask why? What are the concerns? Are they insurmountable? What could be done to address the concerns? You'll use what you learn to create a yes! next time around. Multiple baskets. As the old saying goes, "don't put all your eggs in one basket." Relying on a single potential licensee just adds more risk to a challenge that already has plenty of inherent risk. It's smart to approach more than one potential licensee to increase your odds for success. Further, playing multiple bidders off of each other can actually put some well-needed leverage on your side of the negotiating table by bringing out the competitive nature of the potential licensees. Ultimately, if you generate serious interest (and your aim is to license your invention to just one licensee) be sure you know when to stop playing competitors against each other. The moment you select your licensee, you'll have to begin building good faith with them and you don't want "bad blood" to tarnish how they perceive you and work with you in the long run. Product licensing: our bottom line While obtaining a license from a third party to produce and sell your product is very challenging, it can be done. And if you properly prepare and equip yourself for the challenge, you have a shot to have the dream of landing that product licensing deal, and collecting royalties while the licensee does all the work and takes all of the risk. Originally published April 22, 2005. Sign Up: Receive the StartupNation newsletter! The post 10 Tips for Landing a Product Licensing Deal appeared first on StartupNation.

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