Step 2: Take off

Where are you now?

You have a viable product or service with real potential and have secured sufficient funding to support product development. You are focused on market research and refining your product and business model for success in the marketplace. You may have looked to external investors for your pre-seed/ seed round and they have made their decision to invest in the viability of the project based on the strength of your ideas, capabilities, skills and your past history of success. Positioning yourself for the next level of growth and cultivating your network of contacts to take your ideas to market is important.

What are your challenges?

As the business takes off you may become subject to more scrutiny from interested parties. This might be:

• Current investors - they may require a business plan, financial reporting and communication on cash flow
• Customers - how will you raise awareness and interest in your product? You need to ensure that your commercial contracts are robust and protect your interests
• Competitors - is your valuable Intellectual Property protected?
• Authorities - are you complying with all of the regulatory matters, for example, if you are in FinTech, are you managing your tax compliance obligations properly, particularly if you are selling in an unfamiliar territory?
• Suppliers - has the value chain been created and are the required suppliers willing to work with your startup and offer favourable conditions?

You might also be looking for further funding, possibly venture capital. To ensure that you are ready for this, accurate cash flow forecasting and business plans are critical.

How we can help

We can support your startup’s development, assisting you as you start to evolve from an unstructured initiative to a company with a well-defined structure with clear and effective processes. We can assist you in your search for funds and for commercial and strategic partners, in valuating your initiative and its assets and in understanding what the next required steps are.

Many companies are still below the statutory audit threshold at this stage. However, we often provide pre-emptive advice in starting to develop the financial systems and controls that will prepare them for moving into the next stage.

We also typically support on tax advice. There are many great incentives available to entrepreneurial companies, around Research and Development funding, tax reliefs for investors and incentivising staff through share option plans and we help our clients embed these into their business in a simple and effective way.