Speaking
Our speaking focuses on the process of innovation and in particular, Scaleup Math, the economics of efficient growth. Companies and products are eventually judged on economics; the ability to turn ideas and cash into growth. Understanding the economics of product introduction can accelerate growth, reduce capital requirements, and increase the chances of a firm succeeding globally. It can also lead to the creation of a successful scaleup. To understand the economics of success, or as we refer to it, Scaleup Math, companies need to develop an understanding of those factors that are essential to create a world class product or company. To find out more about the types of talks we give, please see below or contact Charles Plant – cplant@narwhalproject.org
Speaking and Workshops
Market Sizing
If you’re starting or scaling a new business, the most significant determinant of its growth rate and how big it will become is the market size you’re entering. Unfortunately, figuring out market size is not as easy as it may first seem. Market Sizing is a practical guide for entrepreneurs and product or service innovators aiming to launch new products and scale businesses effectively.
Product-Market Fit
If you’re trying to scale up your business, one of the steps along the way is to achieve strong product market fit. In order to get there, you’ll need to understand your prospective customers. In fact, if you listen very closely, your customers will tell you what business you’re in. Product Market Fit is a roadmap for understanding your customers. It’s about figuring out what triggers them to buy, what barriers get into the way of making a sale, and how they look at your competition.
Go-to-Market
Figuring out how to go to market is the most difficult thing that a startup will need to do. In comparison, developing a product is simple. In Canada fewer than 10% of financed startups will go-to-market effectively enough to be able to scale to a B Round or beyond. The Go-to-Market Workshop helps founders and their teams think through the process of: Market discovery; Client Discovery; Content Creation; Lead generation; Professional selling; Account management.
Scaleup Math
Companies and products are eventually judged on economics; the ability to turn ideas and cash into rapidly growing revenue. Understanding the economics of scaling up can accelerate growth, reduce capital requirements and increase the chances of a firm scaling up successfully. To understand the economics of success, or as we refer to it, Scaleup Math, companies need to develop an understanding of how to relate their market potential to the levers that will drive success. To introduce entrepreneurs to Scaleup Math, we have can conduct seminars or workshops which will help entrepreneurs figure out how to apply capital in an an efficient manner to create shareholder value through growth.
A Few Examples
Scaleup Math
Here is a slightly earlier version of Scaleup Math. It seems to be always under development.
Bringing Big Ideas to Life
This talk was done in 2019 for Rotman Magazine and is a good summary of Triggers and Barriers.
The Innovation Sweet Spot
While I was developing the concept of Triggers and Barriers, I gave this talk about what I called the Innovation Sweet Spot. It takes a consumer perspective on innovation and helps technology innovators appreciate a different perspective.
Building and Managing a Team
This talk was designed for prospective and early stage technology entrepreneurs who are looking at leadership for the first time. It helps them understand how to do a better job at implementing strategy. To do this, I go through how to use metrics effectively in a manner that is similar to the way Google uses OKRs to manage their activities.
Bootstrapping
Designed for prospective and early stage entrepreneurs, this talk methodically goes through a time-tested way of starting a company without other people’s money. The art of bootstrapping has been lost due to the promise of venture capital money but it is actually the best way of thinking about financing a startup.
Financial Forecasting
I’m not sure how often I’ve heard entrepreneurs (including me) say “The market is $300 million, we only need to get 2% of it to be successful.” Unfortunately, things don’t actually work that way.
This topic goes to the heart of Metrics, a subject I deal with as part of helping leaders connect strategy with action. It is on the execution side of Ideas and Execution and is particularly useful for entrepreneurs. If you knew what your revenue was going to be next year, do you think you could be more profitable? Using metrics effectively is the key to financial forecasting.
Recent Speeches
