Four mistakes made within corporate venturing

Learn from others so you don't have to make the same mistakes

Old architecture and new architecture divided diagonally by a line.

It's best to learn from mistakes that others make so you don't have to.

Here are four mistakes that are made within corporate venturing:

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Let’s dive in:

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Mistake #𝟏:

Go for mass markets.

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Too often, board members choose to focus on the most significant markets based on desk research.

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They think the biggest markets bring in the big bucks.

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However, you only end up chasing your tail. These are existing markets, and you will only compete with others.

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Instead, you should be focused on finding and creating new markets or categories.

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This leads to paying customers, a great customer experience, and a product or service that could scale rapidly.

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Mistake #𝟐:

Only focussing on market share.

(Especially now that capital is not as cheap as it was in the past years).

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A good innovator can grow their market share.

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A bad innovator will grow their market share while losing a lot of money.

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But a legendary innovator can grow their venture profitably.

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Please don’t get confused: a significant market share is good, but it’s far from what makes the most difference.

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Focus on growing your market while staying at least break even.

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Mistake #πŸ‘:

Scaling your marketing and sales efforts too soon.

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Until you’ve reached a profitable customer acquisition process, don’t take your eye off the ball.

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Test and iterate until your reach a ratio of;

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Customer acquisition costs: 1

Gross margin: 2.5

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Mistake #πŸ’:

Focus on exploring a business model too late.

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Innovations will only become successful if you have a great product and a working business model.

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Don't build a great product nobody wants to pay for.

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It's an old and often repeated wisdom in innovation, but most innovators still need to act upon it.

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From the get-go, test your product AND business model assumptions.

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Let people commit to your vision and proposition.

It's hard, but it is possible.

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Don't create unicorns,

Let's breed blue whales.

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