Business Challenge: A venture capital firm was giving serious consideration to funding a start-up technology service that would allow consumers to create their own television content packages. Due to the competitive nature of the industry, the VC firm wanted to be able to make the most informed decision.
Solution: handshake developed a prototype target definition of consumers most likely to adopt the service, quantified the market potential within the service launch markets, profiled the target across marketing behaviors, and related all findings into a "marketing and business plan risk score card." Business plan results were also reforecasted accordingly.
Results: The consumer opportunity was sizable and the brand viable, but handshake's analysis determined that forecasted revenues significantly exceeded what was realistic, relative to projected marketing budgets and adoption rates. These insights allowed the VC firm to better evaluate the opportunity.
Learning: Validating the marketing/sales hypothesis behind forecasted revenues can be critical to guiding investment decisions. The same resources that can deliver successful marketing results can be used significantly for making most types of capital investment decisions.
Testimonial: VantagePoint Venture Partners: "The end evaluation product from handshake far exceeded our expectations in terms of analysis/insights and helped to inform our investment process."