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Introducing a simple yet impactful guide designed specifically for founders who are ready to align their ventures with the expectations of venture capitalists, validate sustainable business models, and strategically prepare for fundraising.
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Introducing a simple yet impactful guide designed specifically for founders who are ready to align their ventures with the expectations of venture capitalists, validate sustainable business models, and strategically prepare for fundraising.
Early-Stage Founders who are preparing for venture capital funding and want to ensure their business models are validated and sustainable.•
Impact Entrepreneurs who need to demonstrate tangible, data-backed results to attract investors and scale their operations.
Sustainability-Driven Startups across industries such as food, fashion, clean energy, and more, aiming to make a significant impact while securing financial backing.
You’re passionate about the problems you solve for your customers and you want to build the best business you can. Join live, expert-led programs or explore on-demand content with lifetime access. We run new programmes every 10 weeks, 365 days a year.
To build a successful sales funnel for a B2B sales model, startup impact founders need to address the following 10 key factors.
Define the specific types of businesses (industry, size, geography) that are the most likely to benefit from your product or service.
Identify key decision-makers within target companies (e.g., CEOs, procurement managers, sustainability officers).
Articulate the specific benefits your solution provides to businesses, particularly how it solves their pain points and adds value (e.g., cost savings, efficiency, sustainability).
Highlight how your product’s impact-driven approach (e.g., ESG compliance, sustainability) benefits the target customer in a measurable way.
Create content (e.g., blogs, white papers, webinars) that attracts B2B prospects by addressing their challenges and offering solutions.
Use sales outreach (cold emailing, calling, LinkedIn networking) to proactively identify and engage potential clients.
Develop criteria to quickly assess whether a lead is a good fit based on factors like budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT).
Prioritize leads based on their potential value, urgency, and alignment with your offering to focus on the highest-quality prospects.
Develop personalized messaging that resonates with different buyer personas within a company. Address the specific concerns of stakeholders in departments like procurement, finance, and sustainability.
Use case studies, testimonials, and success stories to build trust and credibility with prospective clients.
Establish clear stages of your sales funnel (e.g., awareness, consideration, decision) and define what actions move a prospect from one stage to the next.
Continuously optimize each funnel stage by identifying and addressing bottlenecks, whether in lead nurturing, demos, or negotiations.
Focus on building trust and rapport with prospects, knowing that B2B sales cycles are often longer and involve multiple stakeholders.
Adopt a consultative approach that involves understanding the client's specific needs and offering tailored solutions rather than a one-size-fits-all pitch.
Provide a clear business case for how your solution delivers a measurable return on investment (e.g., increased revenue, reduced costs, compliance with sustainability goals).
For impact-driven solutions, showcase how adopting your product helps businesses achieve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ESG objectives.
Use customer relationship management (CRM) software to track leads, manage pipeline stages, and automate follow-ups.
Implement tools that automate repetitive tasks (e.g., email sequences, scheduling demos), allowing your sales team to focus on high-value activities.
Provide excellent post-sale onboarding and ongoing support to ensure customer satisfaction and retention.
Use existing relationships to upsell higher-value services or cross-sell related solutions, turning initial customers into long-term partners.
By addressing these factors, impact founders can successfully build a pipeline that turns prospects into paying customers while ensuring alignment with both business and impact goals.
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Explore the importance of developing a Theory of Change (ToC) for founders aiming to raise funds from impact-investors. Articulate the journey from your core model to the vision you have for long-term climate and social change. In these sessions we'll ensure your interventions are strategically aligned with measurable outcomes, fostering credibility with investors, stakeholders, and customers alike.
Enhanced storytelling skills to communicate your impact vision to investors and stakeholders.
A clear framework to map your startup’s activities to climate impact outcomes alongside tools to measure and track the effectiveness of your interventions over time.
Guided by the insights of a successful Pre-Seed to Series B CEO, we’ll dive into Building Scalable Revenue Models for impact-driven startups. You’ll learn how to generate sustainable revenue streams that align with your mission, proving that profitability and purpose can coexist.
Strategies to build sustainable revenue streams while delivering measurable climate impact.
Create a roadmap to scale your business rapidly while maintaining alignment with your purpose with the tools to communicate your business growth potential to investors and partners effectively.
Provide evidence of a large, growing market that supports both business viability and impact goals.
Highlight your understanding of the competitive landscape and the company's unique position within it.
Investors back strong teams, so founders need to show domain expertise, experience, and a deep commitment to the mission.
A diverse team with the right mix of skills (technical, operational, and business) to execute the vision.
Demonstrate that there is demand for your product or service, supported by early adopters, customer testimonials, or pilot results.
Show that you’ve incorporated feedback into your product or service development to meet customer needs.
Highlight key metrics such as revenue growth, customer acquisition, partnerships, or product development milestones.
Illustrate momentum in terms of growth rate, user engagement, or other key performance indicators (KPIs).
Clearly outline how the seed round will be allocated to achieve specific milestones (e.g., product development, market expansion).
Provide realistic financial projections that show how the business can be profitable while scaling.
Identify potential risks (e.g., regulatory, market, operational) and show how you plan to mitigate them.
Highlight any competitive advantages such as intellectual property (IP), proprietary technology, or unique partnerships that protect your business.
Target investors whose values and impact objectives align with the company's mission.
Show how your business will deliver both financial returns and positive social/environmental outcomes.
Present a well-defined exit strategy (e.g., acquisition, IPO) to show how investors can realize a return on their investment.
Ensure that the exit strategy aligns with the company’s mission and does not compromise long-term impact.
By addressing these factors....this point
To effectively measure the impact a startup is having on sustainability and society, impact founders need to address the following 10 key factors:
Establish clear, specific, and measurable sustainability and social objectives that align with your mission (e.g., reducing carbon emissions, improving livelihoods).
Determine the key focus areas (e.g., environmental sustainability, social equity, circular economy) to track your contribution toward solving global challenges.
Choose metrics that accurately measure the outcomes of your activities. For environmental impact, this could include metrics like CO2 reduction, energy savings, or waste diversion. For social impact, it could be jobs created or improvements in well-being.
Use established frameworks like the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), or B Impact Assessment to standardize your metrics and reporting.
Collect baseline data to assess your starting point. This allows you to measure the progress or change over time in key impact areas.
Compare your baseline with industry standards or peer organizations to contextualize your performance.
Develop robust systems for collecting accurate and reliable data (e.g., software tools, IoT devices, surveys). This is essential for tracking impact consistently.
Collect both quantitative data (e.g., emissions reduced, resource use) and qualitative data (e.g., stakeholder interviews, case studies) to provide a holistic view of your impact.
Set up mechanisms to track impact in real-time or at regular intervals to identify trends and areas for improvement.
Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that allow you to track progress against set goals and adjust strategies accordingly.
Clearly demonstrate how your actions directly contribute to positive social or environmental outcomes, ensuring that the impact can be attributed to your business activities.
Be transparent and ensure that claims about impact are backed by data to avoid overstating or misrepresenting results.
Involve key stakeholders (customers, communities, employees, investors) in the impact measurement process to gather insights and validate your approach.
Ensure that marginalized or affected communities are part of the conversation when measuring social impact, fostering inclusive growth.
Create a standardized impact report, detailing your progress, challenges, and successes. Follow frameworks like ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) or Impact Management Project (IMP) for comprehensive reporting.
Be transparent about both positive and negative impacts, making it clear what is working and where improvements are needed.
Engage third-party organizations or certifiers to validate your impact data (e.g., B Corp Certification, Carbon Trust), ensuring credibility and trust with stakeholders.
Collaborate with NGOs, academic institutions, or consultants who can provide expertise in measuring and verifying your impact.
Identify which elements of your business model can be scaled while maintaining or amplifying the positive impact on society and sustainability.
Develop strategies that ensure impact increases alongside business growth, tracking how scaling up operations affects your overall sustainability goals.
By addressing these factors, impact founders can build a comprehensive and transparent approach to measuring the positive changes they’re driving in sustainability and society.
The venture lab consists of structured programmes to provide you with targeted support throughout your journey. Together, alongside expert C-Suite Leaders, Investors and Industry practitioners, you'll 10x your chances of scaling revenues and raising Seed of upwards of £5M for your business.
Helping impact-driven leaders build profitable businesses tackling environmental and social challenges.
