With decades of experience building B2B SaaS companies behind us, we offer our Golden Section portfolio companies much more than just early-stage funding. Our insider knowledge as seasoned founders means we have long been acquainted with the entire arc of the founder experience, from the struggles and lessons to the hard-won victories and bliss of finding a winning formula for success.
We provide ongoing support and services post-investment that extend far beyond a typical venture capital platform. We want to journey with our portfolio company founders on their path to a meaningful exit, while offering you the benefits of our collective wisdom and connections.
We are eager to help you avoid the many mistakes we have seen made along the startup journey, and that we’ve made ourselves. Instead, we want to focus on critical aims such as maximizing capital efficiency, valuing customer success, and building balance in all areas of your company. With these goals in mind, we created Guide Services.
Today, we are proud that our Guide Services clients receive everything they need, from high-level strategy to product development. We work hand-in-hand with you, offering our wisdom, introductions to industry leaders, and team building services, among many other forms of support. In recent case studies, our partnership drove five-times the value in one-half the time. By listening to your feedback, we have come to understand what you need and appreciate.
What does Guide Services help founders do?
Our services are personalized, fluid, and never one-size-fits-all. For some investments, we offer product development support and resources, so that founders can focus on generating revenue. For others, we help founders understand the high value of the venture capital raised and how to use it efficiently and effectively.
For still others, Guide Services provides the roadmap for executing on a big-picture vision that can help you assess your progress, stay motivated, and plan for the future.
Save Money through Capital Efficiency:
Guide Services can help founders turn $1 of invested capital into $8 of ARR (15X the industry average) through our expertise, guidance, and business philosophy. Just $100K wasted at the early stage can cost as much as 10% of your company. The dollars needed to backfill the mistake cost you equity and can go on costing thousands of dollars each year after that. In our experience in the arena of VC management and product development, we witness many founders being faced with decisions that lead to mistakes in the areas of product development, hiring, marketing and sales management, and others dealing with the results of mistakes related to overspending.
There is a temptation for founders to continually focus on raising funds instead of generating revenue, but that is not always a solid strategy. A recent study we did compared two founders, one who spent $6 million to build a company that only generated $500 thousand in ARR, and another who raised $7 million to build their company and made $350 thousand in ARR. We prefer to help you along the path of less capital and more revenue to create an efficient company you can sell, and will enable you to take home a tidy buyout sum on your journey to a meaningful exit.
When we model out a meaningful exit that usually entails some or all of these criteria:
- Founders own a significant percent of their company (at least 60%).
- Company has at least $5,000,000 in annual recurring revenue.
- Exit happens within 5 years of our investment in a company.
- Sale price is on average 10 times the annual recurring revenue.
- Founders are excited to give back to the flourishing community at Golden Section.
Maximize Time for Revenue-Driving Functions:
Guide Services directs and supports founders in the process of filling team roles with the right people, so that they can best accelerate an efficient company building process. We do this by providing portfolio companies access to our playbooks, venture partners, and a diverse internal team, to help you find the time to focus on day-to-day operations. This, in turn, allows you to find balance both in your business and personal efforts.
Receive the Benefits of a Supportive Strategic Partner:
We aim to be the partner we wish we had when we were building our companies. To that end, we work to create equitable partnerships – doing good along with doing well. In addition to a dedicated partnership, it takes ‘a village’ – an ecosystem of other entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers – to succeed. We provide you with access to a large community of B2B SaaS founders, including vested equity into a Founder Pool of all Golden Section investments.
Perhaps, most of all, we are committed to taking the journey together with our portfolio companies, to sticking together from the early stages through each growth milestone, so they accelerate growth. Every journey has its sunny peaks as well as its dark valleys. We want you to know you can rely on the support of Guide Services and the Golden Section community along your journey together with us.
