ScaleUpExec

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President of an investment firm.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A values-based investment firm, focused on acquiring and managing private businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ScaleUpExec to accomplish?

• Analyze our portfolio of private companies, and determine a path to scaling them

SOLUTION

How did you find ScaleUpExec?

Referral

Why did you select ScaleUpExec over others?

• Company values aligned
• Technical insights and depth of knowledge from our interviews was impressive

How many teammates from ScaleUpExec were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We hired ScaleUpExec's team to give an outside perspective on the businesses in our portfolio and provide a detailed view into what can be done to grow the profits being generated by these businesses. They spent the first 2 months of our engagement diving into each of the businesses and providing a detailed set of actions that could be taken to help improve margins and revenues. 

After being impressed with this first scope of work, we extended the scope so that they could get directly involved in one of the key portfolio companies to implement the recommendations and iterate thereafter.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

1. We gained a much deeper insight into what is/isn't working well in each of our businesses along with an actionable set of recommendations to help improve the short and long term trajectory of the businesses. We were impressed with the viewpoints (many of which we weren't aware of before) and the innovative ideas. There was real business strategy, marketing, and supply chain expertise exhibited. 
2. We decided to extend the scope of our work to have ScaleUpExec actually implement the ideas into one of our key companies. They've been working with the team members to redo key aspects of the supply chain (including the fulfillment strategy, procurement strategy as well as renegotiating our shipping contracts). This has already resulted in a 20% improvement in our COGS and more savings are expected in the next few months.

This is a B2C business and they've also been working on revenue growth - optimizing the marketing funnel after having found some interesting insights from a data-heavy analysis on the current marketing strategy. We're already seeing Average Order Values increase by 10%+ and are excited to see how the lifetime value of customers is impacted by some of the recent improvements that have been implemented.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Highly responsive, and even though they're consultants, they feel like part of the team. There was a clear project plan and timelines at the beginning of each phase of the project, and all timelines have been hit. When we expanded the scope of the project, they moved quickly to start implementing their recommendations.

What was your primary form of communication with ScaleUpExec?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

It's hard to find people who have both depth and breadth in a wide set of areas in business growth. We were impressed that we saw this in our initial interviews and it panned out to be accurate during the course of the projects. This is a rare find and hence we're continuing to work with ScaleUpExec.

Are there any areas for improvement or something ScaleUpExec could have done differently?

I've been happy so far. There is some bandwidth constraint as we want them to work on more projects simultaneously, but I know they're building out their team currently which will be helpful.