Get a team of superstar entrepreneurs in your corner to help you increase valuation, get the funding you need and accelerate your growth so you can build your dream business.
But more than just learning, you will get a team of superstar entrepreneurs behind you with their combined experience and connections to help you implement ever step of the way.
Imagine your dream company in 5 years, the money, the impact, the reach, the success. Then imagine all that becoming a reality in 1/2 that time, maybe even in a year. Too good to be true?
Not at all… we are creating that kind of results consistently and now you have the chance to learn the exact methodology that creates these exceptional results and have us by your side to help you every step of the way.
Rapid growth intensive accelerator
A masterclass in growing a world-class business.
What will you get from the Rapid Growth Accelerator?
The core objective is to create a significant increase in a business valuation through our unique and proven process, and accelerate towards a funding event to fuel further growth.
Our objective is to accelerate you to the next logical stage of your business journey. This usually results in a tangible uplift in value, and increased investor confidence, should you choose to raise funding to fuel your business.
We aim to take your idea rapidly through the pre-launch/pre-seed stage towards SEED investment. With failure rates exceeding 75% in this startup stage, our main objective is fast business feasibility. If your idea is doomed, we would rather uncover its flaws in the first few days, where you are surrounded by experts to help you pivot.
Our aim is to achieve an average valuation increase of £500K per startup and set you up to gain investment and market traction.
Select start-ups that achieve our tough milestones can win Investment from KSV and matched Angel investment that should put their business into the 1M+ range and have sufficient fuel (cash) and support to mean your chances of success are well above the average for your stage and set you on a potential path for hypergrowth if your model & market allows.
Matt Black - CEO
Maverick thinker, public speaker, successful Author and serial Entrepreneur. Matt Black is a passionate activist for global change, inspiring founders to start a business, and then helping them, against the odds, to make it a success..
Some people just have an innate ability to build businesses and Matt is one these rare people.
At seventeen he was broke and working three jobs, but with a small loan he started a business that within 2 years grew to 400 employees and sold the business, making him a millionaire at 19.
Matt went on to start & co-found a number of other businesses with mixed success until, iat 25, he founded a telecoms company that became the biggest in Australasian valued at almost half a billion in todays value, just before his 30th Birthday…
Today, having built 12 multimillion valuation companies and having advised thousands of entrepreneurs to build their dream business, Matt is a world class expert in his field.
When pushed, Matt describes his “super power” as an eye for spotting exactly what needs to be done to grow a business fast, Increase valuation many-fold. The secret he says is model innovation and a deep understanding of value exchange that drives a business.
Regularly reported from those that work with Matt is his ability to see possibilities nobody else sees. With no formal business education, just real world experience, he has created exceptional results for countless small and medium sized businesses and for some of the world’s top tech brands (some of them with a valuation in the hundreds of billions)
Sharon Wright - Go-to-market strategist
Sharon is a multiple Award-winning brand marketer, and go-to-market expert with a seventeen-year track record of consistent successes at Nike, adidas and Reebok. Her accomplishments are too many to mention here but here are just a few:
At Nike she Grew revenues by 58% in less than three years accounting for a 40% share of the Nike’s women’s business. This took the brand from fourth to number one in share of sales.
Leading the Global Go-To-Market Strategy for Reebok Studio she helped grow revenues 53% in two years.
Sharon is our expert on product launches, marketing and sales strategy. She has a deep understanding of choosing the right products and on how to position yourself in the market-place to be noticed and win over the competition.
Ray Noppe - Tech Hustler and Growth Hacker
Ray have done a lot of things that seem almost impossible. He started his first company at the age of 21. With an investment of just £10 he sold out of inventory on the very first day and within less than 6 months he had over 150 employees.
He then went on to build several trailblazing companies that became leaders in their niche.
Ray is our growth hacking and tech genius who knows how to get quick results, especially using technology to help get it done easier.
Ray has spent a more than a decade working with some of the biggest manufacturers and suppliers to high street brands including New Look, Topshop, ASDA, Primark, River Island, ASOS, Leatherock, and boutique brands like Misfit and Relish. He has helped grow Europride Ltd production from 40,000 garments a month to over 2 million.
Our Exceptional Track Record: Experience and track record matters.
Before KSV Embody.me. spent £45K on MVP and got early traction but did not manage to create enough revenues or demonstrate viability for inventors.
In the First 4 months with KSV they had Intensive help and POC dev of a minor pivot generated a valuation uplift from £500K to £1.2M.
Long term, this pivot stimulated a major re-focus on a new lucrative market. They are now rebranding and looking to raise for a major V2.0 on it’s MVP.
Keystage is an investor and continues to support them, and have allocated £250K to support
them as matched investment for their next raise.
VIPP.me spent 55K and almost 2 years building & launching an app in the social/adtech space.
They had very poor results post launch, with only a few thousand subscribers, but zero rev. Low uptake and stickiness meant zero follow-on investment.
First four months with KSV:
Within the first meeting they massively pivoted the business to a new market and strategy outlined by Keystage partners and are now called Tagsley, a platform creating communities, in diverse workspaces like WeWork, and for companies with widely distributed teams like Google.
Unfortunately COVID meant this business languished for some time without any significant gains as the founder had commitments at work. But upon re-starting the program with KSV, they did an industry event upon the advice of Keystage and gained incredible traction with the top 3 companies in the world were in attendance, and actively engaged them.
Now, 3 months after the event, and despite the company still not having a minimum viable product, they have now achieved a £2.2m independent valuation, a predicted +£3M (LTV projected) revenues in the form of 3 LOI’s from respected industry players with an estimated 25K user base for our testing/pilot.
They are in discussions with Investors for a seed round, they have a promise (investment option) from Keystage for £250K to support them as they continue to grow this exciting venture.
TFCI was an idea stage business with a great founder who had built a stellar career in the Investment banking and Finance world.
But like many looking to Segway from a corporate career to starting a company she struggled, despite running a consulting business for a number of years. Starting a “massive global business eluded and frustrated her as she tried “for years” to find partners, and to “fill the gaps”.
The founder is VERY good in her niche, but understood she lacked technical and management as well as general business experience needed.
First four months – Keystage partnered with her and grew the idea over three months from £250K valuation to £2.5M independent valuation with the imminent launch of their disruptive funding platform.
Now the business has a strong corporate structure, a retail “lead gen” site, global holding company with the ability to “spin up” subsidiary companies in different parts of the world.. and essential need as they are seeking to be a global bank across many different jurisdictions.
Now in it’s 8th month, TFCI has a number of corporate partners, it continues to grow its Investor network, and is looking into the acquisition of an indirect competitor.
Finally, the business was recently invited to raise and manage 3 global funds to back ethical investment, retail finance, and a Venture capital fund, collectively estimated at over 100M opportunity. All these opportunities were generated by Keystage who are investors, and still continue to work closely with the Founder/CEO.
4. Retail & network (franchise) From £500K valuation to approximate £4.5M in 5 months
A very experienced founder partnered with KSV to build 50 retail units as a micro empire across the UK in a fast-growing market they had a good reputation in. The founder had access to reputation and excellent operational expertise but lacked the entrepreneurial and strategic confidence.
Within 3 months KSV developed the infrastructure strategy and planning to develop an efficient large network and convince the first investors, additionally negotiated a (est rev) 15M additional rev stream and JV capital expansion project with another company expanding in the same space, yet non- competitive.
KSV uplifted the company from an estimated £500K valuation (at formation) to approximate £4.5M pre POC, pre-money valuation in 5 months, predicting £350M within 4 years.
Our hyper-growth portfolio clients spend less time & money doing the wrong things, make better decisions, go faster, & with more confidence.
Rapid Growth Intensive is more than an accelerator program. From Internal fundraising support & access to Investor networks, to Strategic alliances & partners, we add extraordinary value to every stage of Your growth journey.
How does the Rapid Growth Intensive work?
You will start with a one-month Intensive training and coaching program.
You will have 2 hours training per day, 5 days a week for 4 weeks with an optional 30 minutes personal coaching every day to ensure you get all your deliverables right.
Every week-end for this first month you will also get a Full day intensive session with multiple experts. You will be able to invite your team to these session.
This first intensive month will be Followed by three months personal 1-2-1 support, uniquely tailored to your needs. We are here with you every step of the way for whatever support you need to be ready to get your funding, grow scale and build the business of your dreams.
We compress a lot of progress into a very short time to take your business on a fast growth track that will excite your shareholders and potential investors.
It will cover all aspects of business set up and launch, from funding, branding, value proposition, competitor analysis, messaging, social media, messaging and content.
But unlike any program that is in the market, ours is created by, and delivered by seasoned professionals, and our track record is one of the best in the world.
This is truly a masterclass in growing a world-class business.
EVERY one of our past participants that completed our program has (min) doubled their business since 2020. Our ROI is est. 4400%
What’s included?
Full support throughout the program including:
- Weekend Intensives (invite your team to our live, interactive workshops)
- A fully bespoke training program with 121, Group & Private Workshop sessions
- Work directly with KSV senior partners on a critical areas of your business
- Where possible you will also get regular support from an industry specialist Associate Partner, recruited for your specific sector, to provide more penetrative advisory support
Development works including:
- Online Presence, POC (if possible MVP) design & Development**
- Nurture/Sales funnel design and project management
MONTH 1 – RAPID BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
WEEK 1: IDEATION & MODELLING
Goal: Test problem and product hypotheses
Week 1 Coaching sessions objectives:
Business + innovation expert: How to organize teamwork to achieve your goals?
Design expert: How to get the shortcuts?
Technical expert: How to develop and deliver our MVP by next friday. Get prototype ready and validate with customers?
Day 1: Problem solution fit 1
GOALS: Ideation and team profiling
Discuss all the potential problems on the table and their possible solutions. This helps you see and
decide who you would best fit together with.
Workshops/ tasks:
TOOLS:
- Idea card
- Lean business model canvas
Day 2: Problem solution fit 2
GOALS: finding a truly unique problem that nobody has tried to solve yet to grow 10 X instead of 10% per year.
Problem-solution fit means that you have evidence that customers care about certain problems (pains/gains) and that you have designed a solution that addresses those problems.
Customer problems (pains) are anything that prevent customers from getting a job done smoothly.
“Good” customer problems are:
- problems/pains/passions that many others have
- problems that occur often enough
- problems that are serious enough so that customers are ready to pay to get (rid of) them
TASKS:
Online evidence search
Idea development
- Team roles planning
TOOLS:
- Problem redefinition instructions
- Team Roles template
Day 3: Product Market fit ( CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT)
GOALS: Solution-Customer-Market fit identified
Product-market fit takes place when
- you have evidence (data) that your solution (product, service) is actually creating customer value
- your product scales in the market.
Basically, it means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market. In a great market. A market with lots of real potential customers. Lack of market is the #1 startup-killer and neither a stellar team nor a fantastic product will redeem a bad market.
TASKS:
- Customer description
- Target market selection
TOOLS:
- Customer Persona Template
- Markets Template
Day 4: MVP:Minimum Viable Product ( CUSTOMER AND PROBLEM VALIDATION)
GOALS: Get your prototype is ready for product development
Prototyping is used to design user interfaces, make customer journeys, visualize ideas or just to have
some fun. A picture is worth a thousand words and a prototype is worth a thousand pictures.
Prototyping is cheap, allows rapid iteration, increased creativity and engages all team members in
making their idea tangible.
TASKS:
- Sketch a storyboard Build a paper and logos prototype
- Prepare for customer validation
TOOLS:
- MVP Checklist
- Storyboard
- Test and learning card
Day 5: Customer Solution validation
GOALS: Problem, solution & customer validated
Before starting product development, you have to validate the problem and the solution with your
customers. you’re making many assumptions and you need to validate these as early as possible to
avoid spending time and money on building something nobody wants.
Customer validation will help you figure out if people will buy your product before you build it.
TASKS:
- Customer feedback collection (GO OUT OF THE OFFICE TO MEET YOUR CUSTOMER/ MARKET)
- Customer feedback analysis (and pivoting)
- Plan next week
TOOLS:
● Test & Learning templates
● Customer Validation Questionnaire
● Market template
Week 2: PROOF OF CONCEPT and DESIGN
Goal: Build a product
Week 2 Coaching sessions objectives:
- Technical expert: How to get your MVP ready by Friday?
- Design + innovation expert: How to design a unique UI/UX?
Day 1: MVP 1.1
GOALS: concept and road map ready
When building your solution use as many existing components as possible from the web (templates, libraries from github, etc.)
TASKS: According to your track
TOOLS: According to your track
Day 2: MVP in progress
GOALS: 30% of functionalities completed according to the team plan
Today is your last chance to pivot. The fastest way to get back on track after pivoting is using existing
components from the web as open source ressources. Don’t spend time on building something that exists already!
TASKS: According to your track
TOOLS: According to your track
Day 3: MVP in progress
GOALS: 60% of functionality completed – Landing page up
Landing page is important for gathering leads for the launch. Most of your solution should be ready
by that time.
TASKS: According to your track
TOOLS: According to your track
Day 4: MVP in progress
GOALS: Solution ready for uploading by the evening – Bug testing TASKS: According to your track
TOOLS: According to your track
Day 5: MVP ready
GOALS: Product launched and live! – Prototype finalised!
Your solution and campaign launch feels like the Super Final but it’s really only the start of the season of building a successful business. Your first MVP is highly unlikely to be the final version and there’s a lot of build-measure-learn iteration
TASKS:
- Review and validation with expert
- Prepare for solution demo
TOOLS: (demo tool)
Week 3: Get ready to launch
Goal: Test your prototype with users & find patterns
Week 3 Coaching sessions objectives:
- Business + innovation expert: How to innovate & validate your business model.
- Marketing + innovation expert: How to get your first 1000 customers.
- Technical expert: How to launch your minimum viable product (MVP) by Friday
Day 1:Revenue model design
GOALS: Revenue model that describes how you make money.
A strong revenue models is particularly important for early stage startups as their potential investors
are usually very conscious of monetisation. They look for the frequency of the revenue stream, and
whether or not it is recurring and easily predictable.
TASKS:
- Design revenue model
- Prepare marketing strategy draft
TOOLS: Marketing Strategy Template
Day 2: Business model fit
GOALS:Business model completed & scalable for growth
Business model fit takes place when a value proposition is embedded in a profitable and scalable business. Some business models are better than others by design and produce better financial results. They are more difficult to copy and more likely to support growth.
TASKS: Complete your business model
TOOLS: Business Model Testing Template
Day 3: Marketing strategy and Market plan
GOALS: Marketing strategy and Marketing campaign designed
Your Market strategy and market plan must address four crucial aspects:
- What will you sell? (solution & unique value proposition)
- Who will you sell to? (customer segment)
- How will you reach your target market? (distribution channels, partners, etc)
Where will you promote your product? (marketing channels)
TASKS:
- Define marketing strategy
- Design marketing campaign
TOOLS: Marketing strategy template
Day 4: Marketing campaign launch
GOALS: Marketing campaign preparation at full speed. Achieve measurable results with your marketing, you need to treat every single one of your marketing activities as a marketing campaign. It means that for every single project you’ve got to set clearly defined goals, a finite start and end date, and a means of tracking success (and failure).
TASKS:
- Configure Google Analytics
- Create marketing campaign according to your marketing campaign plan
TOOLS: Google Analytics
Day 5: Acquiring users and first customers
GOALS: Launch marketing campaign
TASKS: Launch marketing campaign – Request influencer feedbacks and recommendations
TOOLS: Product Launch Checklist
Week 4: Go to market
Goal: All focus on finding customers
Week 4 Coaching sessions objectives:
- How to pitch your business?
- Marketing expert and innovation: How to get 1000 customers?
- IP Lawyer: How to protect our solution &business from competitors?
- Investment/finance expert: How to get funding?
Day 1: Marketing campaign improved
GOALS: Generating money.
Traction that is quantitative evidence of market demand and it shows momentum in market adoption.
This is usually the first and the most important indicator that the investors want to see.
You need to prove that somebody really wants your product. If your marketing isn’t generating enough leads it means that it’s not working.
You will learn:
The keys to positioning your business and products to be noticed and taken seriously in the market.
Understanding the customers on a deep psychological level.
How to develop the trust needed for your prospects to make the buying decision.
And much more.
TASKS:
- Improve your marketing campaign to get more customers/users
- Start creating IP Protection Plan
- Plan your week TOOLS: Google Analytics, FB and other tracking tools
- Other campaign tools
- IP Protection Plan Template
TOOLS:
- Content Plan Template
- Marketing Campaign Template
- Sales Message sheet
Day 2: Intellectual property
GOALS: Protect your business from being copied.
Learn how to protect the critical aspects of your IP in the early stages of company development. This is critically important for 2 reasons:
First of all, copying is common today and you could lose your edge unless you protect your ip
You also need to integrate your IP strategy into your pitch to secure funding.
Investors tend to be nervous when there is no IP protection so this is absolutely necessary
TASKS:
- Finalise IP Protection Plan
- Improve marketing campaign to get more customers/users – Start preparing pitch deck
TOOLS: IP Protection Plan Template – Google Analytics, FB and other tracking tools – Pitch Deck Template
Day 3: Financial KPIs calculated
GOALS: Traditional finance focuses on planning and budgeting, startup finance is focused on
monitoring and validating. Therefore, you as a startup need metrics to evaluate whether the business model you designed is worth scaling into a company. In this very early stage you need to monitor five
areas of key performance indicators (KPIs), in addition to standard monthly financial reports:
- Cash: Burn/ Runway
- Product: Customer Satisfaction
- Marketing: Efficiency/ Cost per lead down to a minimum an ROI up to a maximum
- Sales: Productivity/ Conversion rate/ Sales cycle
- Customer: CAC/ Profitability/ Growth rate of customer base/ Churn.
TASKS:
- Calculate financial KPIs
- Continue preparing pitch deck TOOLS: Pitch Deck Template
- Project One-Pager
TOOLS:
- IP Protection Plan Template
- Project One-pager template
Day 4: Define funding strategy
GOALS: Get Ready for the Pitching Day!
Every startup needs capital, whether for funding product development, for initial launch efforts,
acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones
who think creatively not only about their offering but also about how to acquire cash.
TASKS:
- Create funding strategy.
- Finalise pitch deck and rehearse your pitch.
TOOLS:
- Funding Strategy Template
- Pitch Deck Template
Day 5: Funding acquired!
Making an impression to the investors within the first seconds of your appearance and pitch
is crucial and mean everything for your future business success or failure!
Be able to pitch like a boss, and sell your ideas confidently and with impact to anyone anytime,
and anywhere. Our pitching methods have been proven to work 1000 pitches in any industry
Month 2 – RAPID BUSINESS VALIDATION
Supported by weekly 121 sessions our RAPID GROWTH Cohort will work with specialists in
our growth team to prove their model, generate user traction and build the case for
Investment into their company.
Month 3 – INVESTMENT READINESS & OPEN INVESTMENT ROUND
Supported by weekly 121 sessions continue to work with specialists in our growth team to grow the case for Investment into their company.
The program is stage agnostic but tends to be focused post-SEED businesses that have a demonstrated POC/MVP and wanting a fast growth track for their business.
* This program is a condensed and abridged version of the successful Hypergrowth program developed and executed by the KSV team over the past year that has seen 2x-30X CAGR during 2020 pandemic across our portfolio of clients.
** To keep the program affordable, and compress the timeframe, development work must be provided within a no-code framework. Additional charges will apply to extend into a coded solution, but again this would be subject to time availability. Advanced coded solutions are not the objective of this program, instead we seek only to advance the business sufficiently to demonstrate viability to gain further investment. If you already have any development completed, spare time/resources will be diverted to advancing its progress and advanced analysis and planning.
Further, not all company solutions can be fully scoped or built to Prototype and/or MVP during the program. However, we will produce a viable POC solution to meet the core objectives of the program.