Daniel James Slater’s Post

Investors invest in founders who will figure it out. We understand that what we invest in today may not resemble your business in 24 months. I like to say with my founders hat on, we are in the business of 'making it work,' no matter the circumstances thrown at you. If you believe in what you're doing, nothing can stop you

If you are in need of some HR/People Work - but don't have budget for a full-time role - you need to check out Joe Kitson part of the here2elevate LLC "Elevators" - a team of #Fractional associates - for ALL levels/needs of your business. Leverage their expertise on a #Fractional basis - and you'll be AMAZED at how you can #Elevate your organization! Follow Suzanne Hopson for more updates on her #AMAZING #TEAM!

Elevator Spotlight! Check it out!

Founders and Investors don't talk Sustainable Profits enough Whether bootstrapped, or VC backed, every founding team, and their investors must stop focussing on growth at all cost and instead focus on sustainable or efficient growth. As an angel investor, special situations investor and quoted shares investor I see the full spectrum of management excess: 👎 Fancy expensive offices 👎 Excessive overheads and perks 👎 Overengineered products 👎 Building for hyper scalability without product market fit 👎 Too many cSuite and senior managers 👎 Big HR teams etc etc etc Its all bull 💩 Regardless of the amount of funding available management teams are custodians of investors capital and have fiduciary duties to ensure capital is carefully deployed. Until a business reaches strong profitability and free cashflows it should always adopt a frugal approach 👍 Simple low cost offices on flexible terms 👍 Minimal overheads and perks 👍 Keep product simple until product market fit established 👍 New functionality should be clearly linked to driving increased revenues 👍 Bare minimum of managers and simple org chart 👍 No HR team, its managers job to manage In our experience of working in special situations turnarounds in the B2B SaaS space the staff in a struggling business nearly always prefer the more frugal, sustainable, efficient approach. The ones that don't and leave were probably a bad fit. Interestingly we find that the pivot from wasteful to frugal often means that the wasteful staff who were not providing any value anyway self select and leave meaning we don't have to make redundancies and are left with the best staff who are aligned to the business vision and mission. What's not to like 😎 #bootstrapping #venturecapital #founders #investing

It's an Elevator Spotlight! 🤩 Please get to know Joe Kitson, our Fractional Chief People Officer. He has a variety of pretty cool talents but specifically, he knows what he is doing when it comes to people. ✨ Joe is passionate about helping venture capitalists (VC), private equity (PE) firms, and other investors in businesses accelerate growth through scalable talent solutions. He has spent over 20 years learning and practicing human resources. ⏲ Throughout his career, he has worked directly with founders, entrepreneurs, and investors to take their businesses from start-ups to Small and Midsize Enterprises (SMEs) and beyond through innovative people systems. 📈 Joe assists companies in navigating the murky waters of people management and allows them to scale with confidence, assured he will be there all along the way. 🙏🏼 DM me if you are in need - People are a challenge right now! From recruitment to onboarding to retaining to offboarding, hiring fractional talent until you have bandwidth can be a game changer! 🌠 Oh, I almost forgot...if you do talk to him, ask him about the Octopus.🐙 Joe Kitson Jennifer Carter, MBA Pam Pederson Steven Krutsch Jennifer Casey, PhD Chris Apostal Brady Barthole Tina Smothers Joe Monroe Mike Brewer #peoplematter #fractionalworks #painpoints #solutions #here2elevate

The importance of figuring it out Whether you're a founder blazing your own trail or an investor backing innovative ideas, now is the time to roll up our sleeves and dive in Empowering founders to tackle challenges head-on. From making strategic introductions to assisting with hiring and capital raising, we're here every step of the way we witness the daily grind of our portfolio companies, we're inspired by their resilience through the highs and lows. It's a testament to the unwavering dedication of entrepreneurs everywhere Here's to embracing the journey, solving problems, and driving meaningful change together. Let's figure it out, one step at a time Thoughts?

Rapid growth without a robust people strategy can lead to long-term challenges. As we scale, it's crucial to align our talent acquisition, development, and retention efforts with our company's growth objectives. A well-defined people strategy ensures that we're not just filling positions, but bringing in individuals who will thrive in our dynamic environment and contribute to our overarching goals. It's about creating pathways for development and retention that align with our evolving needs. This strategic alignment is key to sustainable success, preventing turnover, and fostering a culture that attracts top talent. Remember, our people are our most valuable asset. Investing in them is investing in the sustainable growth of our startup. #PeopleStrategy #TalentAcquisition #EmployeeRetention #StartupGrowth #HRLeadership

Tips for growing companies to successfully execute on making executive hires, from Andreessen Horowitz . Has other resources and information within the article #vcfunding #startupadvice #startupfunding #startuphiring

Scaling growth is a lot like stacking boxes on top of each other. You can safely stack the first few boxes on top of each other as you grow faster. Over time, however, the entire structure is at risk of collapsing if you don't: 1) Put the right processes in place 2) Put the right people in the right seats 3) Build the right infrastructure to scale faster Growing faster is the sexy thing to focus on. It's what companies are taught to show off about. YoY growth rates, more funding, more hiring etc. Not every company needs to "blitzscale", nor can every company do it. This is why you see a lot of companies go on hiring sprees and then eventually needing to lay off people as time goes on. People lose when companies scale unsustainably. Employees lose. Founders lose. Investors lose. Customers lose. Growing sustainably over a long period of time, while building the right foundation, is a much better business strategy. It's also how everyone wins. #marketing #digitalmarketing

There are 3 problems that many founders encounter when trying to build and scale diverse teams post-investment. 1. Little to no experience of sourcing and building teams 2. They have team building experience but not don't have enough time to dedicate to finding skilled talent in the market alongside other business operations. 3. Lack know how on the key to retaining top talent in a sometimes chaotic start up / scale up environment Here's what fund managers can do to support their portfolio operators ➖Founder Education: Help them understand the importance of how to find, build, and retain diverse talent as they grow. ➖ Work with and connect founders to industry experts that know how to find talent and scale teams. ➖Collaborate and partner with networks that have diverse talent pools in relevant industries. The success of your founders is the success of your investment. #venturebuilder #venturecapital #portfoliocompanies #startupsuccess