- by Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt
Commit to a growth sprint.
Set commercial goals and I will support, challenge, pace and guide you and up to 2 other executives in your organisation to hit them.
This is my advisory service for founders. It's unique in that I'm solely aligned to your interests as a founder - unlike your investors, board members or paid-by-the-hour experts.
I've started and sold 3 businesses myself. Faced the hiring issues, cash crunches and the big wins. And I've since helped 100+ growth companies focus on what matters and create transformational results.
My Advice. Your work.
Examples of goals for a 3 month engagement:
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Launch a new product successfully with good pricing and packaging.
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Redesign value proposition and terms and conditions to increase short-term cash flow.
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Close a negotiation with a large enterprise customer.
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Review pricing and implement tweaks to increase growth.
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Upgrade how you work with product roadmap to ensure customers want what you build.
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Hire the right CSO or CRO
Examples of goals for a 1 year engagement:
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Build an internal pricing function in your organisation to handle packaging and pricing.
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Hit ARR target before next funding round - and close it.
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Enter a new market successfully.
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Bring a long sales cycle offering to market, validate it, test it and implement it into operations.
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Migrate large cohort of legacy customers to new pricing.
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Prepare for a sale or public listing.
Note: You decide on your goals and the timeframe. We may add additional goals as we go along. I will tell you what I think is realistic and force you to prioritise or increase ambitions as appropriate. If I think your goals are unrealistic, unethical or in some way insincere I will cancel our work and refund your payment.
The 'Pricing Phone' advisory service includes:
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A three or twelve month engagement (just tell me if you want the full year in our first intro call)
- Creation of organisational, commercial and financial objectives
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Metrics for success
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Deadlines, timelines, and accountabilities
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Mandatory weekly phone calls
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Personal meetings as desired and we deem appropriate
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Unlimited email
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Unlimited review of work
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Unlimited additional phone calls
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While you will be the key stakeholder and owner of the goals I will provide unlimited access, calls, review of materials via emails etc. from you and up to two additional executives or co-founders that may need the coaching or specific advice for us to move forward.
What to expect:
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I might say no. I only work with 2-3 startups at a time on an advisory basis and will often say no. If we agree, however, expect the following.
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A very high pace. If you are not good at executing already, you will be.
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Disagreement. My primary value comes from giving you my clear and unequivocal opinion on what to do, why, when and how. But you are in charge and can decide otherwise. That is fine.
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Accountability. I will hold you - and your two included co-founders or executives - accountable to the actions and timelines we discuss. I will proactively call you, write you - stalk you if I must - to help you reach the stated goals.
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More time - not less. While I insist you execute on your goals I will also work to free up 'dead' and inefficient time you currently spend spinning your wheels. As a result, you should get more bandwith and execution power, not less.
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Results. Whatever your goals you will move towards them at a highly accelerated pace, with more clarity and less risk. There should be no question in your mind after a few weeks that this is transformative.
Your Investment:
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Priority. The greatest investment you’ll make is your commitment to respond to someone who is driving your progress, and to execute on the necessary actions to move your business forward. If you fail to execute because you chase goals outside our scope I will let you know in no uncertain terms.
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Ego. To grow you must change. That includes realising you probably lack skills, hard and soft. If you feel challenged, skeptical and in-over-your-head but remain committed to execute I have done my job. Your ego is expendable.
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The fee is €60K for a full year. That is half the salary of a developer. And about a third of the minimum retainer I charge from non-startups.
- If you choose the three month engagement the fee is €30K - about the same as a fully loaded senior developer for the same period. Our collaboration, however, will yield immediate tangible results.
Terms & Options
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Payment is due upon commencement. You will book our first intro call via the 'Book Now' link. I will then send you an invoice within 1 business day which you must pay before the intro call.
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Period starts at the time of the intro call and is non-cancelable. There are no 'breaks' or 'freezes' and we will be in contact at least weekly - or at least I will.
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If you wish to start a 3 month period but then wish to extend to a full year you can, if I have the availability. The price is simply the €30K differential. There are, however, certain goals that it does not make sense to undertake within the frame of a 3 month collaboration.
HAVE QUESTIONS? : Write me at Ulrik@willingnesstopay.com
Note:
My 'Services for Startups' are just that - for startups only.
(Defined as any company that has yet to turn a profit.)
The vast majority of my consultancy practice comes from serving non-startup clients from SME's to Fortune 500 corporates. These projects usually start at a minimum of €100K and are - by their nature - highly tailormade to the situation at hand.
My startup services are not. I've done this enough to know how to get you to that 'next level' efficiently and expediently.
For that reason I don't change the format (it has plenty of built-in flexibility) and I never offer discounts.