Underpinning any successful strategy is knowledge and understanding. We practice what we preach and so the first steps in any Epik engagement is our own research, evaluation, and audit to get to know and understand our prospective clients’ business, product(s), and/or initiatives in depth. For example, with a startup company we would talk through:
What business are you in?
Why was the company founded? …to solve what problem?
What 3 things will be fundamental to the company’s success going forward?
What does the company plan to do better than anyone else?
Who cares?
How easy or difficult would this be for another company to replicate what you do?
What kind of company are you: best product, best solution, or the best price?
What’s the most valuable problem you solve for customers?
What’s the most valuable problem you solve for partners?
And more….
This provides the opportunity for Epik to become “believers” and engage in a way that fosters a longer term more strategic relationship rather than a tactical transactional one. And conversely for our clients to see us as their trusted advisors.
– Think like a Venture Capitalist as well as a Founder
Customer
Epik can help craft a clear summary of what the product (and service) does, uncover your “unfair advantage”, and tie this to a meaningful description of market(s) served together with a forceful statement of why this makes a big difference for those customers. In essence the WHAT, for WHOM, and WHY.
Opportunity
Understanding the market landscape is critical to quantifying revenue potential in terms of Total, Addressable, Accessible market size, demand drivers, technology trends, emerging business models, and competitive market forces. Epik are experts at building this landscape that also becomes the foundational component to differentiated positioning.
Competition
Identifying your “secret sauce”, that translate into vectors of differentiation, allows graphical depiction of your competitive advantage. Think Gartner Quadrant but constructed to show the story you want to tell.
Funding
You know your customer, you know your market, you know your competition. Add a realistic revenue model and you are ready to tackle [operational] financing… Epik can help build the pitch, distribution strategy, target investor and strategic partner list, and ultimately assist through due diligence. Where are you on the financing cycle?
Identifying your “secret sauce”, that translate into vectors of differentiation, allows graphical depiction of your competitive advantage. Think Gartner Quadrant but constructed to show the story you want to tell.
