In this video Argona Partner's CEO, Jeremy Imlach, breaks down why having a lack of funding when starting out with a small business, isn't your problem.
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A lot of the time I talked to founders and entrepreneurs who tell me that the biggest problem that they're having is that they just can't raise funds. They might be gathering, you know, interest from investors, but in capable of really landing the deals. So really what's the issue here? A lot of the time investors are going to tell you that it's a lack of traction that leads to the inability to close these deals. What does that mean? What is traction? Where does it come from? How do you get it?
So traction really can be broken down into two different data sets. The first data set that you'll be able to create as an early stage business is intentional data or intent data. This intent data is going to be able to showcase that there is an interest from the market to use your products, technology, service, whatever it might be. This intentional or intent data is at a very early stage to where you're gathering a lot of market validation and concept feasibility. Now with the later traction where you're going to be able to develop is a stronger relationship and that's transactional data. Transactional data is going to be where the money follows. If you're already gathering transactional data, this is where investors are going to show more interest. Transactional data is just as it sounds. It's where people are spending the money. Are they spending money on your products? Technology, service, XYZ. If that's the case, it becomes a matter of how you're showcasing these two types of data. So, first and foremost, you have to go gather these. Then you have to go and showcase them in a way that's going to present a financial model as valid, right? There's a reason why these projections continue to just get bigger and bigger and bigger. And that's because there's data to back this. It's not just everyone going and saying, oh, I'm worth this much. Oh, I'm worth that much. Right. There might be a little bit of that going on. Don't get me wrong. But what we're talking about here really is how you're going to be able to showcase to investors, the confidence behind that financial model specifically. So remember, first understanding how to go to. Intent data. And then second, how to convert that into transactional data. Once you're capable of developing this type of traction, money will follow. You'll have investors that are more interested and capable of actually landing those deals.
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