Start-ups, Cure Your Disconnects
All start-ups have them: strategy-to-execution gaps that disconnect “where you are” from where you want to be, and where you need to be.
You’ve got a product and customers to validate it; enterprise users among them. Know that enterprise customers are like premium fuel: Their business drives awareness, their trust inspires confidence, and their logos enhance your website. But what enterprise customers can’t do is validating your potential for traction; the likelihood of achieving the momentum needed to scale.
To reach the promised land of traction, you’ll need to survive the gauntlet called “go to market” – a minefield whose vagaries doom 80% of start-ups.
Wildcat Venture Partners has its own name for “go to market.” They call it The Traction Gap™, the thrive-or-die period in which start-ups must produce both a “minimum viable product” and “minimum viable repeatability” – the latter a solution-grade product buttressed by a sustainable business model and a reliable process for generating sales.
Tigon Advisory Tames The Traction Gap™
By Dividing it Into Five Distinct Disconnects
The product/market fit gap
Early miscalculations often result in products mismatched to market demand. The match must be perfect. “Slightly off” is still off.
The Customer Voice Gap
Customers will tell you what they want. But you’ve got to leave the “lab” and listen, or have someone who does; someone who knows what to listen for.
The “define-minimum” gap
To be at least minimally viable, a product must be marketable – not evidence of technical prowess too impractical to sell. But how to make your vision marketable?
The process gap
It’s all about “The Process,” says Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid – the steps you take to systematize success. What’s true for a layup is true for a start-up. Success depends on establishing processes to make it repeatable.
The measurement gap
How to measure each function’s performance so that “success” is defined consistently across your company? There’s a science to it. It takes more than enterprise logos to turn a start-up into a scale-up.
Services
CXO
as a service
We move start-ups closer to achieving measurable business traction. How? By making them better at creating value, conveying their vision, designing their organizations (pre- and post-IPO), devising go-to-market strategies to drive sustainable growth, and designing metrics to drive alignment and accountability across the business.
Customer Success
as a service
We help startups leverage customer voice as a spring board to scale up. Our services include Customer Retention Optimization, Professional Services Growth Strategies, Sales-Offering Design, Education Offerings & Strategy, Customer Journey Mapping, Technical Support Strategy & Offering, and Voice of Customer Program Establishment.
Technology
as a service
We support non-technical founders with product design, technical feasibility, competitive analyses, user experience designs. We’ll contribute wide-ranging expertise: product ideation in emerging technologies, proof of concept, prototyping, minimum viable product development, budgeting, IP strategy and ecosystem development.
Cybersecurity
as a service
We offer Managed Security Services to help organizations understand the threat landscape, apply the NIST framework to identify and assess risk, improve defences, and develop manageable action plans. We also provide training to non-technical workforces and help organizations create a culture of cyber-risk awareness.
Helen Possesses a rare combination of intellect, work ethic, and compassion often not found in c-level executives. She was immensely helpful as we thought about our go-to-market strategy and how to scale a customer success organization at jebbit. Nothing is more important to helen than seeing customers succeed and she has a consistent track-record of ensuring that happens.
Jonathan Lacoste, President at Jebbit
I've never felt so alive when it came to us leading our company and being proactive rather than reactive. Helen's straight-edged, strategic counsel is a difference-maker from day one.
Michele Kelly, Founder & CEO at K+L
Helen has been very helpful in giving me guidance on laying the ground work for a successful business foundation and connecting me with people. She has helped me get organized so I can launch my business successfully. She has been instrumental in making sure I understand marketing and how to leverage my platform to ensure success. I could not have asked for a better mentor. It is because of Helen's guidance and for that I am able to say my product line is ready to be launched and I all forever grateful for her help.
Temika, Founder & CEO at Intimate Release
Blog & Media
The Obstacles and Opportunities of Democratizing AI for Enterprise Companies
03 December, 2021
Without question, enterprise deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) is positioned for tremendous growth. Published in early 2021,…
Read more
The Intersection of Digital Transformation and Data Privacy
01 November, 2021
Imagine for a moment your social security and driver's license numbers are stolen – and not by…
Read more
The Multi-Cloud Era: Where IT Freedom Becomes a Business Strategy
18 October, 2021
On the patio of VMware’s Palo Alto offices, lights were set against a backdrop of indigo night…
Read more
It’s 2025. What’s on the Priority List for Cybersecurity Leaders?
12 October, 2021
When asked about what 2025 looks like, some people fear it will bring a greater divide between…
Read more
3 Tenets Leaders Should Know About Ethical Artificial Intelligence
05 October, 2021
We set out to climb Vatnajökull; it’s Iceland’s largest ice cap and the largest glacial mass in…
Read more
Will Data Make Driving More Pleasurable?
09 September, 2021
Perhaps there is no greater sense of freedom than stepping into a car with a flawless and…
Read more
Data Fabric: Winning the Battle Against Data Deluge
08 September, 2021
We live in a connected world. By 2025, Statista predicts there will be 30.9 billion devices compared to the…
Read more
The Next 10 Years: Profile of the Future-Ready Manufacturer
27 July, 2021
In his private notebooks, author Albert Camus wrote: “Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all…
Read more
When We Innovate With Our Whole Self, Everything Changes
05 May, 2021
It feels like the world is evolving faster and faster, from a sudden reset on remote work…
Read more
Can Manufacturers Reach Their Greatest Potential in the Factory of the Future?
04 May, 2021
When I talk to people about Industry 4.0 – that being, at its simplest level, applying smart…
Read more
Manufacturing becomes more inclusive as AI enables hiring of workers with disabilities
28 April, 2021
In a webinar entitled “The Art of Possible: Manufacturing Priorities that Will Define 2021,” Çağlayan Arkan, Microsoft’s…
Read more
The Software-Defined Car for the Human-Centered Experience
22 January, 2021
I believe growth thrives at the crossroad of technology and humanity. This is where technology creates solutions…
Read more
How We Look at Cars Today is Changing How We Make Them
05 October, 2020
Early in my career, I remember being at a stoplight, looking over and admiring a sleek, red…
Read more
Top 10 influencers in digital transformation you should follow in 2019
29 May, 2020
Let’s start by explaining, at a very high level, the concept of digital transformation. It’s a term…
Read more
Getting CyberFit: How to Start? Lose The Rose-Colored Glasses!
29 May, 2020
“Crampons make it easy to climb the ice without slipping,” says a guide to scaling Vatnajökull, Iceland’s…
Read more
IBM’s latest mainframe technology from A to Z
29 May, 2020
Many say beauty is in the details. The phrase came to mind as I entered the glass…
Read moreMeet Team
Ninety percent of start-ups go to market but never get there because they lack access to affordable talent skilled at jumping the hurdles. Tigon Advisory smashes this status quo; we believe that every start-up with a valid value prop deserves a chance to scale up. We’ve built our firm to enable that.
Based in Chicago, with additional presence in Silicon Valley and New York, Tigon is led by former founders of successful tech startups and executives who’ve managed over $250M P&L at companies that include Oracle, Adobe, Cisco, Google, Facebook, NVidia, Marketo, NetApp, EarthLink, Apple, Jebbit, and Thrive Global.
Helen Yu, Founder & CEO
Helen Yu is a global customer-success executive and board advisor who delivers board value by designing innovative approaches to drive growth, solving complex challenges, and turning around underperforming organizations. Through a career spanning early stage start-ups to Oracle and Adobe, her work has enabled multibillion-dollar revenue growth and record profitability. A highly respected thought leader, she is a top Twitter influencer in AI, Blockchain, HR, revenue growth, and startups, with a weekly reach of more than 10M. In 2019, Helen was named to the “Top 10 Influencers in Digital Transformation” by IBM, “Top 10 CyberSecurity Influencer” and “Global Top 15 Thought Leader” by Thinkers360. She has spoken at a variety of conferences, among them: SXSW, TiECon, DMS, and Money2020.
Almer Parez – Design Principal
Almer Perez is a senior UI/UX design expert based in the Silicon Valley. He has worked with many notable companies from start-ups to enterprises, including Facebook, Cisco, Nvidia, and Siemens. Among his highest-profile projects: He designed Cisco’s Content Media Exchange portal, the platform on which Cisco employees post and share content; produced a digital marketing campaign for Siemens HiPath – a leading converged communications platform for enterprises; and designed a campaign in support of a calculator made by Dupont to equip people to carbon offset their travels. A graduate of California College of the Arts, he was the co-founder of moBack, a tech incubator in the Silicon Valley.
In Partnership with Grazitti – Technology Principal
Tigon Advisory’s technology principal have spent over 20 years in software development for some of tech’s most successful companies. Among them: Cisco, where they built cloud-based network management solutions, and Beachhead Solutions, where they managed the design and development of SAAS-based enterprise security solutions for mobile devices. Several have leveraged expertise in AI, Machine Learning, and Blockchain to fill engineering roles at Marketo, Adobe, Network Appliance, Earthlink, and Sony, and to co-found start-ups where they built data-integration platforms and services for mobile, social, and IOT verticals.
Revenue Principals
With collective expertise in value-based selling, marketing, leadership, GTM strategy, digital transformation, and health & wellness, our revenue principals are entrepreneurs with extensive experience driving enterprise sales for Salesforce.com, SurveyMonkey, Sprinklr, and Thrive Global. Adept at creating productive alliances, they’ve secured strategic relationships with Apple, Adobe, Facebook, Google, GoPro Juniper, Clorox, Under Armour, eBay, Logitech, NetApp, Wells Fargo, WeWork, and Uber.