The largest motivator of a buying decision is a solution that solves a deep pain in the present. Imagine you have a pin stuck in your bum; nothing else matters until it’s removed. That’s the kind of pain we’re looking for our portfolio companies to solve and, from our experience, has the largest lifetime value as it connects emotionally with the buyer.

The question that drives our investment diligence is, “What’s the 3 am, stare at the ceiling visceral pain for your persona?”

When a company makes a buying decision, it’s not the company but a collection of employees that comprise a budget holder, user and decision-maker(s).

We back Founders who clearly understand which roles make up the collection of employees that make that decision but also have a clear thesis of which organisations fall within their scope.

Who is your middle-of-the-dartboard customer? What are their firmographics?

As previous serial entrepreneurs, we want Founders to paint the picture of the pain, who it’s felt by, and how deep it is and we put our assumptions aside. We then ask Founders to map those pains to how their solution addresses it. We call this Market <> Product Fit and once we have this, we focus on supporting our Founders get Product <> Model Fit and Model <> Channel Fit.