On the latest episode of How to Unf**k Your Startup, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Zan Bennett, Principal at Exactius Capital Management. With a wealth of experience in growth marketing and leadership, Zan has collaborated with world-class executives, strategic capital, and global teams to accelerate growth-stage companies into hypergrowth. His expertise spans a diverse range of sectors, including Consumer, E-commerce, two-sided marketplaces, and B2SMB SaaS. Prior to his role at Exactius, Zan owned and ran a company focused on scaling social impact ventures, which built lasting businesses from scratch across industries such as healthcare, climate, consumer, high-end design, and SaaS.
Throughout our conversation, Zan shared invaluable insights on navigating the complex landscape of venture-backed startups, offering lessons for both investors and founders. We explored the intricate dynamics and interdependencies within the startup ecosystem, emphasizing the importance of building authentic relationships, adapting to evolving market conditions, and maintaining a customer-centric approach.
Zan's unique perspective, having worked closely with investors and founders, shed light on the shared goals and challenges these players face. From the investor side, he discussed the art of seeing beyond polished pitches to identify true potential and the need for caution when evaluating startups amidst industry hype cycles. For founders, Zan stressed the criticality of staying connected with customers throughout the startup journey and aligning the entire team around focused objectives. These insights, among others, provide a roadmap for successfully navigating the startup ecosystem and driving sustainable growth.
If you're an investor looking to make smarter decisions or a founder striving to build a thriving company, this episode is packed with actionable advice you won't want to miss.
Catch the full episode with Zan here to dive deeper into these game-changing insights:
Now, let's dive into the top takeaways from my conversation with Zan:
Zan emphasizes the importance of investors looking beyond the polished pitches to uncover the real challenges and potential within a startup.
"Every startup is messier on the inside than anyone expects it to be... you always know that you're kind of seeing the world through a little bit of rose colored glasses when you're the investor because the founders are pitching you their best. They've got the shiniest suit on and they're telling you the best story. And so you have to really see through that."
By building trust and genuine connections with founders, investors can gain valuable insights into their company is actually functioning. This understanding allows them to provide more targeted support and make well-informed investment decisions.
With today's evolving marketing landscape, Zan advises startups to shift their focus from heavy reliance on cold outbound tactics to creating and distributing high-quality content through relevant channels.
"If you're leaning a lot of effort towards outbound and particularly if it's not working, then you might be doing a playbook that just is outdated. And you should instead be focusing that energy towards creating valuable content distributed through the channels that they would want to pay attention to, which tends to be the social media channels that your audience is engaging in today."
By delivering content that genuinely engages and benefits their target audience, startups can establish thought leadership, build brand awareness, and attract potential customers more effectively than through traditional outbound methods alone.
While acknowledging the massive potential of AI, Zan cautions investors to be discerning when evaluating AI startups amidst the current hype cycle.
"As an investor, my recommendation is to be very cautious about the hype cycle but also recognize that at the core level, we're seeing an emerging technology that, along with other emerging technologies, will drive fundamental change. And that represents opportunity. But you got to look at the base level of what those emerging technologies touch points look like rather than something that's interesting and compelling today, because it's going to get wiped out in a year."
He advises looking beyond surface-level appeal and examining the foundational infrastructure and unique value proposition of each company. By identifying startups with strong barriers to entry and the ability to withstand the rapid pace of AI development, investors can make more strategic decisions in a space moving at an incredible pace.
Zan stresses the importance of founders remaining deeply engaged with their customers, even as the company scales and hires a dedicated sales team.
"As a founder, there's no getting around that you have to be on the ground with the customers way at the very beginning, but also way longer than most founders think. Like you hire salespeople, you're not done. You still have to be talking to customers all the time."
The most successful founders continue to actively seek customer feedback and insights throughout the entire startup lifecycle, right up to and beyond the IPO. By staying attuned to evolving customer needs and market dynamics, founders ensure their company remains relevant and competitive.
To navigate the complexities of the venture-backed startup landscape, Zan emphasizes the critical role of alignment in driving success. He advocates for using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to unite the team around a focused set of priorities.
"I like to bring people together and have a touch point where we talk about what exactly is the most important thing that we're doing and why we are doing it and focusing a lot on the why. And then the OKRs get built out of that... List the 10 things you wanna get done and then cross out the bottom seven. And that's almost always gonna be what's more realistic towards your goals."
By ensuring that everyone, from the engineering team to sales and marketing, understands and is working towards the same North Star, startups can harness the full power of their collective efforts and make meaningful progress in a challenging environment.
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