Nice Company. But Can You Automate and Scale?

To grow your business, you need to automate and scale.
- Bob Summers

When I entered the VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Summit’s Open Business Concept Competition in February 2010, I believed my company had a business model that could automate and scale and merited an investment of outside capital.

Having been selected as one of five competion finalists, by the time I submitted my pitch presentation slides two months later, I had done much research and much deep reflection.  Most importantly, I had stepped outside of my entrepreneur’s passion for my idea and evaluated my business model with the dispassion of a potential angel investor.  Thinking as an angel investor might think, I realized my business model could not automate and scale for a variety of reasons and, therefore, could not generate 500% return in year 5 with an outside capital investment.  In other words, I realized if I were an angel investor, I would respect me as the founder of a promising company.  But I wouldn’t invest in that company for fast, high R.O.I.

During my presentation - the final of five in which the preceding four had business models that could automate and scale - I shared my company’s “business concept,” showed its value proposition and described the needs it addresses.  I explained how it works.  Then I displayed Bob Summers’s “automate and scale” quote.  In essence, I said I couldn’t.  Then I clicked to a slide showing that I knew what I would need to do to change that.  No market analysis, no revenue projections.  I said, "That's all I have to say."

One of the angel investors on the panel put his head in his hands.

At the post-competition networking reception, I shared with two women, who are both friends and colleagues, that I felt I had expressed what was true and needed to be said, but how hard and sad that had been for me.  They listened, they heard, they commiserated.  I shed a few tears of grief, they supported me, they didn’t tell me I shouldn’t feel the way I did, I thanked them, much comforted, and we turned to network, all in about three minutes.

I came home at the end of the next day, the last day of the Summit, so tired I needed a nap just to prepare for bed.  When I awoke and walked into the kitchen, I saw the bouquet.  I read the card and began to cry.  It was from one of the women.

Sometimes it feels lonely steering the ship, but that doesn't mean you don't know the course.

I do know the course.  I am navigating by the stars of my vision. 

I can barely express how seen I feel, how moved and inspired I am that she can see the stars, too, and that she found they  merited a bouquet.

Comments

[Monica]

OMG Anne! I've got goosebumps. What a thoughtful friend you do have.
I applaud you for stepping up to the plate. I know what that takes.
Many of the aspects your mentioned are exactly why I chose not to attend. You are far more courageous than me. Another reason I am glad to call you my friend.
Of course you know your course; that is what is so attractive about you and your work.
Your course, my course, your friends course are all unique and THAT should be celebrated!
Monica

[Z. Kelly Queijo]

Anne, I understand the significance of "automate and scale" and the importance of ROI. I get market size and growth potential and all the other components that contribute to the strength of a business model. I also know that being the first to do something does not necessarily fit an expected model. It's about creating a new model. Creating something new is what breathes life into business and allows us to continue to evolve. "Innovate and execute" may be a better fit for what you have planned. I know I can't wait to see.

[Monica]

Anne: I agree with Kelly, you are creating a new model; I am creating a new model. It will take some time for those guys to catch on. The Hub can be automated, but not scaled. That formula doesn't apply to my vision nor business plan. You and I are in the business of people, and that can never truly be automated nor scaled. Sad is the day when that does happen, for we then become nothing more than robots, and the evolving discontinues. There is more to this than just the ROI and I for one think its high time investors jump out of their cozy comfort zone with their blankets of "ROI",etc. and recognize the impact of business such as yours and mine that positively bring about growth and change and opportunity for large numbers of other people. It's time the investors recognize THAT potential, the one lies deep within the community, the one that can reach far beyond automation and scale, because it affords others to reach for their dreams. Where are the visionaries? Where have they gone? come out, come out where ever you are!

[Anne Giles Clelland]

Monica and Kelly, you helped me think. Whether or not I ever "automate and scale," what I love to do is post creative, inspiring content on Handshake 2.0 about people and their companies.

I made this video before last year's live angel funding event, but it's still just as true. Thank you for caring and for helping me re-see what I'm doing and why.

http://www.handshake20.com/2010/04/a-warm-handshake-from-handshake-20.html