Marius Joubert, CEO of Nxt Lvl Growth spent most of his working life helping companies with management and leadership development before setting up his own business as an alternative to Venture Capital to invest in and assist inventors and entrepreneurs to take their business idea from concept to implementation, so they become attractive to investment capital.
As Joubert says: “There are masses of innovative inventors in emerging markets who come up with ideas that could change those areas for the better, but no one wants to invest in them, so their projects never get up and do any good. Investors are generally not interested in early stage companies and will only engage in later stages where there is a track record, business value and management experience and even then, they will back the jockey and not the horse. There is a huge need to provide assistance to this market so these ideas and concepts can be successfully commercialized.”
Ask any Venture Capitalist or Private Equity fund what the top reason is for non-performance in their investment portfolio and most of them will say: “management capability.” A recent article in Fast Company confirms the value of capable management in raising capital: “ Money doesn’t guarantee success; only effective management and execution can deliver that goal. Improving the odds for venture-backed companies requires better execution. Creating value from any venture is hard work and much has been written to document the challenges of entrepreneurial journeys for those preparing to set out on their own passage. New ideas, strategies, and management tools are essential. It requires new organizational structures, creating and sharing new kinds of business knowledge, understanding emerging global socio-economic models, and developing repeatable transformational processes. Such an approach within venture-backed companies will allow those companies to reach their full potential.”
One of the big challenges facing aspiring entrepreneurs with great ideas is that most of them have little-to-no management and organizational experience. They are inventors, and innovators. They lack the skill set required to take a concept from idea to bankable business entity with repeatable revenue. The world is inundated with great ideas – the problem is to get them implemented, fully operational, sustainable and trading the way they were planned. It is a huge challenge to get these pieces into a new entity and few people seem prepared to invest the time, energy and money in helping to develop this emerging market.
As Joubert says: “We expect a start-up to put something together where everything is conceptual, no structure, no system and you ask someone without the level of capability to do it successfully, it’s just not going to happen. Someone has to get in there and get it done. Failure rates are high. What we set out to do is de-risk the model in the front end so we can provide a good investment story. We take control of the implementation. We don’t leave it to the entrepreneur as they just don’t have the skills.”
The majority of inventors and entrepreneurs these days don’t qualify for traditional bank financing so they need to seek alternative sources of capital. However, most savvy Investors invest in people, not the idea. Investors see thousands of entrepreneurs looking for funding each year and with so many opportunities, most investors simply focus on finding reasons to say no. It’s a tough investment climate, but good ideas backed by good teams, with good enablement and implementation plans stand a much better chance of getting funded and implemented.
Joubert’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is: ”Maintain focus. Be tenacious and flexible – what you think is a great idea initially tends to evolve. Listen to feedback – it helps with evolution of the business concept until it becomes viable. Many people get so stuck on the initial idea that they don’t see the opportunities that arise from the evolution. It’s critical to select good business partners at the front end before things get complicated with legal issues. Develop your vision and stick to the dream and get help. You can’t do it alone.”
To find out more about the Nxt Lvl business growth model for emerging entrepreneurs, visit: http://www.nxtlvl-growth.com.