Scaling is where many promising startups stall. The Scaling Readiness Run is Konsultori’s structured, blended learning program designed to provide your portfolio companies with the frameworks, expert guidance, and peer community they need to scale with confidence. The program combines online learning, hands-on assignments, peer networking, and expert feedback across five targeted sprints – each addressing a critical dimension of scaling, led by Konsultori’s senior advisors Petra Wolkenstein and Michael Kubiena.
Here’s a look inside each sprint and the thinking behind it.
Sprint 1: Strategy Operationalization – Knowing Where You’re Going
Lead trainer: Michael Kubiena
Building on the success of our workshop with TU Wien i²c at the ViennaUP Startup Festival 2024, the Scaling Readiness Run opens with strategy for a reason. Michael Kubiena shares how to effectively turn strategic priorities into action .
Why start with strategy and OKRs in the first sprint? How fundamental are OKRs to the scaling process?
While the role of strategy work is changing, we still believe in its importance: You need to know where you are going, you want to develop ambitious objectives and understand how to get there. OKRs are one approach for bringing strategy into the organization, which is the prerequisite to make it happen. Scaling successfully and sustainably is already an enormous challenge. Without such strategic building blocks and a clear sense of direction scaling becomes an even more difficult endeavor. That’s why we decided to put this sprint at the very start of the program.
What are the biggest challenges startups face when implementing strategic frameworks?
It is the sheer number of tasks together with their wide-ranging diversity and complexity which scaling organizations are dealing with. Everything seems urgent and important. Many things are being done for the very first time. This makes it really difficult to sort the important from the less important. So, categorizing and prioritizing is really key! Our frameworks help to do so; plus, they facilitate execution!
Which practical steps should startups take immediately after this sprint to ensure their strategic goals translate into action?
We encourage leaders and founders to visualize and verbalize their strategic priorities. Strategy must not remain only in the head(s) of the founder (team), it needs to be made explicit and it has to be communicated. You need to have the entire team on board to make it happen. It does not have to be perfect the very first time around. If you see strategy work and OKRs as a continuous process, then the learning curve, as a team and as an organization, can be quite steep.
Can you share specific examples of how participatory leadership has influenced successful strategy execution?
Well, they influence each other! If your leadership style is rather traditional and top down, where the leader makes strategic decisions alone and others are there to execute, then OKRs are simply not for you and you can spare yourself and others the effort. But if you expect your people to really contribute and if you believe that these contributions make a positive difference, then having your people participate in strategy work is the way to go. This can take different forms and there are various degrees of participation (OKRs are one instrument of facilitation), but the essential ingredient for making it work is mutual trust. Trust by employees in the leadership, trust by leaders in the competencies of their people.
What are your recommendations for maintaining momentum and engagement throughout the strategy operationalization process?
The key is to kick off an ongoing dialogue with several steps of check-ins and reviews. This has several reasons: The aforementioned participatory leadership style is not something which can be switched on in one go. It needs practice on both sides and iterations. In addition, internal and external realities are changing fast. Short cycles in the process allow you to respond to such changes, to adapt priorities and adjust your course.
Sprint 2: Product-Market Fit and Sales – Getting the Foundation Right
Lead trainer: Petra Wolkenstein
In Sprint 1, cohort companies discovered the impact of goal-setting frameworks such as OKRs and participative leadership tools to align strategy and execution effectively. The journey continues with Sprint 2: Product-Market Fit and Sales. Petra Wolkenstein shares insights on refining the unique value proposition, defining core customer segments, and optimizing sales strategies for strong growth.
Why is product-market fit critical for scaling startups?
Unfortunately, more than 70% of startups fail in the scaling phase because of premature scaling. This means that they scaled too early before they had a product-market fit. If you scale without PMF, you spend a lot of resources on sales and marketing and grow your organization without having a sticky product with satisfied customers. Reaching product-market fit is, therefore, a prerequisite for starting scaling. We engaged in extensive discussions and planning on how to achieve product-market fit for startups. We worked on how to measure PMF and which activities helped to improve PMF during this second sprint. We used a framework for product-market fit improvement that resonated well with participants, as well as a framework for feature request rankings and the core segment definition framework.
What are the most common challenges startups face when scaling their sales process quickly?
You cannot scale your sales process too early. In the first phase, founders need to do sales themselves, to understand the concerns of potential customers and their pain points. Founders need to learn from them and listen closely. As soon as they have figured out replicable sales tactics and argumentation, it is time to move from founder-led sales to scaling of sales. Translating the founders’ sales approach into sales activities that can be managed by the team and automation involves some effort and takes time.
What strategies or methods do you recommend for strengthening a startup’s USP over time?
The Unique Selling Proposition needs refinement over time. Startups sell their products to a variety of customer segments on a trial and error base at the beginning. After some time, it is necessary to narrow down target segments into the core segment. Then it is time to finetune the Unique Selling Proposition and to sharpen it so that it exactly meets the pains and needs of this core segment. This is the work that needs to be done in the scaling preparation phase.
What role does automation play in achieving sustainable sales growth?
There are many possibilities to automate parts of the sales process, e.g. lead sourcing, qualifying or drip campaigns, to mention a few. The target here was to build a scalable sales model.
Can you share examples of resources that have had the most impact on participants’ success?
Evaluating your Product-Market Fit status, redefining your core segment, and developing a comprehensive go-to-market plan, including automation potential, were the primary resources needed in this sprint.
Sprint 3: Funding – Mapping Your Financial Future
Lead trainer: Petra Wolkenstein
In Sprint 3, cohort companies focus on their long-term funding strategy – exploring the impact of funding instruments and cap tables, crafting a battle plan for the next funding round, learning startup valuation methods, and establishing a clear KPI system to communicate effectively with investors. Petra Wolkenstein, Konsultori’s funding expert, shares what startups need to focus on during this crucial sprint.
How can we align our funding strategy with our business goals and growth plans?
During our sprint, we engaged participants in a comprehensive discussion about long-term funding strategies. We explored the crucial connection between achieving specific KPIs and qualifying for future growth financing rounds. The conversation delved into how funding strategy intertwines with cash requirements and company valuation. Through various scenarios, participants gained insight into the potential founder equity retention after multiple funding rounds. This bird’s-eye view of growth stages, KPI targets, and funding effects proved to be quite enlightening for many attendees. We have used our cap table template to simulate different scenarios.
What impact do funding instruments have on our cap table structure?
We clarified a common misconception about SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and convertible note agreements. The valuation caps in these instruments are not current valuations but potential maximum valuations for the future. We emphasized how different funding instruments — be it equity investments, SAFEs, or convertible notes — significantly influence the evolution of shareholdings for both investors and co-founders over time. Understanding these nuances is crucial for making informed decisions about funding instruments.
What’s the best way to prepare for the next funding round?
Our sprint is centred on creating a comprehensive battle plan for upcoming funding rounds. This plan encompassed several key elements: strategic alignment, necessary documentation, detailed timelines, and investor outreach strategies. By breaking down the preparation process into these components, startups can approach their next funding round with greater confidence and organization.
What are the most reliable startup valuation methods, and how can we ensure we’re choosing the best one for our stage and goals?
We emphasized that startup valuation differs significantly from that of established companies. For startups in the scaling phase, we identified multiples and Venture Capital Methods as the most reliable valuation approaches. The sprint provided an in-depth exploration of these methods and running valuation exercises. Additionally, we guided participants on how to gather relevant assumptions and benchmarks to support their valuation process, ensuring a more accurate and justifiable valuation for their specific stage and goals.
Sprint 4: People and Culture – Building a People-Centered Organization
Lead trainer: Michael Kubiena
Sprint 4 focuses on developing a fit-for-purpose people and culture framework in scaling startups. Organization design expert Michael Kubiena emphasizes the critical role of a convincing and coherent employee value proposition as the guiding concept for implementing effective HR practices.
Why is people and culture management essential for successful startup scaling, and how can founders actively shape it from the early stages?
It is fairly simple: if you want to sustainably grow your organization by attracting, selecting and developing the right people, you have to have a professional, engaging working environment. This does not evolve simply by itself, it needs not only a strong idea what your organization should look and feel like, but you also need to implement and continuously work on it. In the absence of an HR department (which usually comes at a later stage, during or after scaling), it falls to the co-founder team to develop the vision and to guide its implementation. The founder team does not need to do all by themselves; they can and should engage the team in delivering the employee value proposition. Our sprint shows how!
What are the key components of a compelling Employee Value Proposition (EVP), and how can startups stand out in competitive talent markets?
Our EVP framework consists of 5 elements: Roles and Jobs, the Material Offer, Growth and Development, Meaning and Purpose, Connection and Community. Neither do you need to excel in all 5 elements, nor can you just disregard one single element entirely. Key is to be coherent in what you present to the external labor market, to external talent and in what you deliver in the everyday life of your organization, as the employee experience. You don’t need to pour money into your EVP, clarity, transparency and a good dash of creativity can achieve a lot!
As roles and responsibilities evolve during scaling, what strategies can founders use to maintain job clarity and organizational alignment?
Emerging organizations are in flux. Organization charts do relatively little to create or maintain clarity, since they are only a static snapshot. But role clarity is something both the employees and the organization require. Working together on job (or role) descriptions — by co-creating them, by peer-reviewing them, by regular discussions on aligning individual and shared responsibilities — can become a useful organizational practice. And AI can help in the (sometimes cumbersome) process of drafting job descriptions.
In hybrid or remote work environments, how can founders foster a strong sense of connection and community among employees?
What holds all organizations together is communication — whether people work remotely or share an office space. This is not about meetings just for the sake of meetings. But clarity and consistency with regards to which meetings serve which purpose. Speaking of purpose: Shared Meaning & Purpose, one of the constituting elements of the Employee Value Proposition, is key in creating and cultivating connections.
Sprint 5: Operations and Execution – Building a Future-Proof Operating Model
Lead trainer: Michael Kubiena
In the final sprint, participants dive into the critical steps towards designing an effective operating model. Key topics include the foundational structural elements of an operating model, best practices for process design, and how to integrate both for maximum efficiency. Michael Kubiena shares his insights on the key questions to consider.
What is “operations and execution” in the context of scaling, and why is it so important for business growth?
Operations means rather different things to different industries and business models: Having a physical product versus offering a (software as a) service? Requiring and maintaining large-scale technical or laboratory infrastructure? Running your own retail and/or logistics operations? These questions significantly impact the role Operations play in your organization. Still, what all companies must do is “to get things done and deliver your value proposition to your customers. And ideally, getting better (learning) at it while doing so.” This is our working definition of Operations and Execution. While startups often rely on their capacity to improvise (an admirable quality!), improvisation alone is not a sustainable way of getting things done.
What are scaling operations, and how do they differ from regular business operations?
Key here is to manage the balance between and the transition from effectively building your business to efficiently running it. Scaling businesses have to have a dual focus, which is sometimes called ‘ambidexterity’, i.e. the ability to use multiple approaches to strategy & business overall, either concurrently or successively.
What are the three key operational challenges that startups face when scaling, and how can they be overcome?
Like with scaling overall, the key is to get your priorities right. When scaling, everything may seem equally important and equally urgent. While our Scaling Readiness Run emphasizes that there are multiple dimensions to scaling your organization successfully and sustainably, this does not mean that one cannot set priorities. Secondly, it is about not re-inventing the wheel over and over again. Reliable, repeatable routines (often in the form of processes) hold the key to that. But don’t be tempted to overthink and overdesign everything, too much of an inward focus can also be harmful and counterproductive. Thirdly, once you are in the position to hire additional resources (and specialized expertise and capabilities), it is important to make the best use of those. Proper onboarding is just one step of making such resources operational as quickly as possible. Furthermore, trusting and delegating end-to-end responsibilities to the team is another essential step. And equipping them with the necessary tools and insights.
How can founders scale effectively, especially when they don’t have a dedicated operations team?
While startups often rely on their capacity to improvise, improvisation alone is not a sustainable way of getting things done. The Scaling Readiness Run emphasizes building reliable, repeatable routines and processes, delegating end-to-end responsibilities, and equipping teams with the necessary tools and insights to contribute quickly and effectively.
A Complete Scaling Curriculum for Your Cohort
The Scaling Readiness Run gives your portfolio companies the tools, frameworks, and expert guidance they need across five of the most critical dimensions of scaling – strategy, sales, funding, people, and operations. The program closes with a demo day where startup teams present their progress and next steps.