Early Stage eCommerce Pivot
The Challenge
A founder team approached us in the middle of a multi‑pronged crisis. The core business model was taking too long to gain traction just as capital was pulling back from the category. With strategy floundering and a significant unfunded burn, I was brought in to lead a radical downsizing, a focused strategic pivot, and a path to revitalizing whatever real enterprise value remained.
Three Keys to Success
Making Hard Decisions
Making hard decisions
When early‑stage optimism collides with a funding crunch, delay just burns runway. We made the hard call to cut headcount by roughly 80%, and the remaining team agreed to shift to equity‑heavy compensation for a limited period. Non‑essential spend was eliminated so we could buy time for a real financial turnaround instead of a slow bleed.
Narrowing Focus for Revenue
Rather than chase the full original vision, we narrowed the offering to reach the fastest path to revenue and validation. That meant rethinking product and ideal customer profile to win higher‑value customers quickly. Once that engine started working, we expanded stepwise back toward the founders’ broader vision.
Bringing in Capital in a Down Market
With a leaner, reality‑based plan in hand, we asked investors to fund the turnaround itself, not a already‑fixed business. We pulled together a small group willing to back a sharper, more disciplined strategy at a materially lower valuation than the prior angel round. That capital gave us just enough runway to execute the hard reset and drive toward cash‑flow breakeven, instead of drifting into dissolution.
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