How to self-assess your AR readiness

15.11.24 12:13 PM

Startups (and investors) are often unsure of what constitutes their own (or their portfolio firms’) readiness to leverage industry analysts’ insights & buyer impact in the race to market breakthrough.


After having qualified hundreds of startups' relevance for industry analysts' research and buy-side advisory over the years, here is what it takes, starting with the basics...


1. B2B or B2G business model in tech/services;

2. MVP defined, ideally pilot customer on board;


This next point is much harder

3. Truly innovative;


Just a new feature - or a new combination of features, or even a new technology doesn't equal "innovation".

Innovation means enabling previously unreachable levels of outcomes through previously non-existing means - at least means that were not applied in this context. Such means can be technology, pricing models, process, etc.


4. Ability to explain;


Contrary to popular misconceptions, AR readiness is NOT defined by investment stage, or size, or revenue. of that.


Instead, it’s 100% defined by a startup’s ability to explain themselves in clear business logic.


Here are 5 abilities that help you gauge your startup’s AR readiness:


a) Lead with outcomes

  • if you have paying customers - use their metrics
  • if you are in MVP phase - use your best-informed research


b) Love the problem

  • so you can demonstrate direct business relevance
  • inspire with the lever of bigger trends

c) Differentiate vs. the status quo / other attempts
  • competing approaches are your best point of reference
  • never shy away from worthy rivals' differing approaches

d) Use data to build confidence
  • the general "good" isn't compelling enough
  • underpin key points in your narrative with the best data you have
  • replace it with better data as it becomes available

e) Be clear about your state of play
  • analysts don't expect perfection
  • size or speed doesn't matter
  • trust the power of your logic 

The last point is the most difficult because it's a mindset thing. As a founder you are trained to wow people, be full of energy, belief and enthusiasm. This works when chasing pilot customers, investors, partners, and key hires. But with industry analysts, you need to function in a different operating mode:

5. Balanced confidence and curiosity

While you are certainly the expert in what you're building and possibly in the tech that goes into it, analysts get unparalleled breadth and depth of insights into your ICPs' real ambitions, frustrations, priorities, timelines.  They see a lot more than your VCs, partners, and clients. A single IA has several hundreds, sometimes over 1000 interactions with vendors' and buyers' decision makers and SMEs per year. If they are cautious on certain things or pointing you to unseen potential, they have reasons that are typically grounded in what they are observing in these conversations all day, every day. Don't misinterpret critical questions or feedback as negativity but use it as highly valuable insights. Be curious.

If you can confidently tick-off the 5 points above, you are in a good position to prepare for introductory briefings.

But:


Don’t mistake the above for an introductory briefing structure. There is more to that and it’s certainly not your marketing/sales/investor pitch deck. Pitching-mode switches analysts off immediately. They need a different quality of interaction to make it worth their time.


With all the established firms pushing for innovation plus hundreds of startups  entering the race in most every category every year, industry analysts have extremely tight schedules. Which means you get one shot for a briefing.


Don't "done-is-better-than-perfect" this...

Handle it seriously.


I won’t pretend it's easy. In fact it's high quality work and highly rewarding, way beyond the analyst relations aspect. So far, I’ve never missed the target.

Let's talk