Taurus Consulting

Strength, Confidence & Experience in new technology and business

Methodology:

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  • Listen
  • Target
  • Formulate
  • Strategise
  • Measure

Taurus consulting exists to help companies and investors make the most of the products they have invested time and effort in.

Blogger mailto: info@taurus-consulting.co.uk

Taurus Consulting

Information

About

Words from the founder: In my career I have enjoyed creating, implementing and exploiting innovative solutions in order to address problems, which cost companies money or to exploit a key market opportunity. The most exciting parts of my career have involved turning ideas into money.

Alexandra Willard Profile:

I founded a successful software business and designed the original software models which are now licensed to blue chip customers. I have assessed market potential and external and internal risks and have consulted with my team in order to determine a shared vision.

I have built winning management teams, executed a business plan and secured early game changing key accounts. I have built relationships with stakeholders at different levels from initial seed investors and later stage venture capitalists - to demanding international 'C' level customers.

I have operated in companies with very different cultures and sizes. I have worked in large corporate organisations and have also worked in small consultancies and in a start-up. I have managed large diverse teams and have led small agile organisations.

I have successfully led software development teams running Agile methodologies and have balanced rigid customer requirements with the inherent flexibility needed in bleeding edge development.

I am a trained manager and entrepreneur who has been challenged with aggressive time to market needs within tight budgets and stringent quality requirements.

Taurus Consulting

Information

About

Most technology companies start with the invention or product at the core of the business. These companies are often founded by highly intelligent people who know their business very well… and then something starts to happen. The company starts making and selling. The company goes through growing pains.

The company will need new skills and competencies in order to successfully navigate these new challenges. In order to scale your business and realise your potential, you will need:

Reference

Flagship customers who will say nice things about you in public.

Innovation

You have to put clear blue water between yourselves and your nearest competitors.

Product Quality

Many young companies promise so much at the initial sales stage only to discover that their product quality does not meet the expectations of their customers. Quality problems are death to an early stage company because they soak up resource which could be used to great effect elsewhere – oh and it’s always the most senior people who have to take control of a serious quality issue.

Processes and Governance

In a early stage start-up, most things are done for expediency and for speed. Everyone likes a 'can-do' attitude. As the company grows things have to change… What are your trade offs – how do you evaluate risk. Who does what and why.

Taurus Consulting

Information

About

Investment or lending to early stage companies is considered inherently risky. There is often little trading history by which a conventional risk assessment can be made. Many companies have yet to make an operating profit and revenues may well be embryonic. This does not necessarily make them a 'bad' risk. An experienced technical/commercial entrepreneur should be able to quickly assess the inherent strength or weakness of a company and make a recommendation for progression or withdrawal.

Experience has given us extensive insight into the valuable elements of the due diligence process. The detail of the analysis has to be geared to the exposure undertaken. The more money the lender wishes to advance, the more evidence is required to mitigate risk. Many VC funds carry out the same level of due diligence no matter how big or small the investment. This blanket approach is sub-optimal as it is costly and very time consuming. This is often the reason for fixed minimum deal sizes from some funds.

Ability to Scale and Financial Governance

In order for a company to be successful it needs two things: scale and governance.

Governance

Can be improved by adding skilled non-executive directors to the board and by implementing good reporting processes. Financial governance is relatively straightforward in an early stage company. There will probably be insufficient transactions to make any financial audit complex. That said, an entrepreneurs' analysis of a set of accounts can be very revealing.

Scale

Scale is harder to assess and harder to improve. The ability to scale is determined by a number of factors:

  • Size of market opportunity
  • Quality of management team
  • Clear and well defined strategy
  • Shared vision
  • Sales pipeline
  • Product quality
  • Customer satisfaction – ( reference customers )
  • Innovation
  • IP
  • Culture
  • Funding
  • Competitive advantage

Some of these elements such as size of market opportunity are critical. If the addressable market is very large compared with the projected sales in the business plan then that is reassuring. If the projected sales are large ( even 10% ) compared with the addressable market then there needs to be a great deal of evidence to suggest that sales figures can be achieved.

As investors you cannot be all things to all men, it makes sense to bring specialist expertise.

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