Flywheel

How can you build a resilient portfolio company?

Are you aware of the biggest pitfalls of how portco's doomed to fail start spiraling? We've seen hundreds of new funds fail with their first few acquisitions due to specific types of neglect and lack of intention around a few key areas

Building a Resilient Company: Strategies for Navigating Uncertain Times - Flywheel You can't simply "fall into" a resilient company. It requires a combination of strategies, including working with venture capital and private equity firms, huma

Culture is the most important aspect when building long term value. Do not underestimate its importance

Even the best operators can only 'value create' so much.

"Old school" private equity means going back to the basics, cutting headcount and aggressive financial engineering

Is an investor still an investor without a pipeline?

"During long periods of heavy transformation, high-impact roles can expect to travel week after week, whether that be for bolt-on acquisition due diligence, negotiating new contracts / vendors, or one of the many other job functions of an agile Operator.

Across all middle and lower middle market firms we work with, Operators expect to be on the road less than one-third of any given month. The majority of long-time Operators will be shocked and (expectedly) pleased to hear how this number has come down from 5-10 years ago, when executing a full growth transformation could leave you near-permanent on the road during stints of heavy expansion."

What are operators within Venture Capital?

What are Operators for Venture Capital? Being around startups and portfolio companies of private equity firms so often, it is easy for the team to become sucked into our own world, using colloquialisms that may make the average person's head spin. But, if we had to start from scratch with teaching the lingo, ‘operator’ would be the fi...

Is Private Equity Doomed for a Recession?

"With the changing tides economically and shifting strategies, the portfolio company level has seen management style changes, with an increased focus on free cash flow management to gain an advantage ahead of the recessionary writing on the wall. Never is it more important to have specialized Operating Executives that can step in, execute on a playbook they’ve done a thousand times, and prepare the portfolio company for macroeconomic factors that could affect the business itself, but also build the company in a way that an acquisition is not only streamlined but maximizing the value and return potential of it."

https://buff.ly/3xFmRHQ

Is Private Equity Doomed for this Recession? As the private equity industry rounds out a year that makes most want to time travel back to 2021, sponsors are changing directions within the lower and middle markets.

What is the difference between an Incubator and an Accelerator? Is one better than the other for startups?

"Regardless of the market cycle, there is still an intense amount of dry powder, fundamentally strong companies, and an astounding number of truly excellent individuals in their respective crafts. If you can connect these three points (or are one of these points), there is a large amount of success to be had and capital to be returned, but it all starts with the first."

Using Operating Groups to Pursue Alpha in a Beta Environment The use of operating executives is not a new practice, but as private investment firms (venture capital, private equity, growth equity, family offices, search funds) look to continually boost returns on invested capital, they are getting more creative and building out more advanced methodologies as....

How is the use of operating executives shifting as we head into a changing market cycle?

Ever heard of a 'mercenary operator'?

Hiring with Flywheel is simple:

- Functional Experts vetted by former and current PE investors
- Talent that knows the value creation and IRR-maximizing playbook
- Specialties directly associated with LMM roles

We thought personally guaranteeing every Flywheel member wasn't enough, so we guaranteed their impact as well.

No matter the state of the economy, state of inflation, or rate increases

Key decision makers will always be needed

Having a premium product with a lot of 'behind the scenes' work means skipping the 'free' offerings

Attracts those not in your target audience

Dilutes the experience for the paid users

Less is not always more

SaaS opinion: Too much time is spent tracking and analyzing why your customers cancel.

(If reducing churn is the goal, learn more about the customers who *don't*)

Operational expertise is the limiting factor in SMB acquisitions, not capital itself.

Those who can reliably source, integrate and retain talent will far outperform the savviest investors in the space

Differentiation kicks in from the core of your brand. What you do for your customer. Not what you produce

For our VC audience, we see them talk about startups scaling & not enough about founders scaling

Founders need to scale as individuals to scale their businesses (with the right support). They also need rapid growth in a short period, and that can be near impossible depending on the sector

What works with a

Imagine a time when investors took a 360 degree view of industry operations

Niching Down has given us an extreme leg up in our industry

Almost every direct competitor focuses on 'talent'

Where they fall short is:

For who?
What will it do?
How does it affect their role/perception/IRR/personal bank account?

This has been so crucial in not only attracting strong clients, but also a strong user base.

None of our talent wants to be in a nameless pool of other job seekers like the DMV

Venture Capital can't always save a company

Dialing in the product and distribution is mission critical *before* VC attention

In early-stage investor-backed startups, you hire builders and believers. Not audiences or employees

Flywheel - Operators on Demand Hire vetted, functional experts with ease to start scaling your Portfolio Companies quicker