The most important contribution that we can make to any startup venture will be in mentoring the team on the business model, and top level recruiting.

 

The best startup CEOs are strong willed, and believe in what they are doing, but they are also open to coaching.

 

In some cases, when we made our investment, we did not know the exact business model that the company would be executing 12 months out.  In all cases, the team had some good ideas, which may have needed additional work, creativity, enhancement or market testing.

 

At Express Ventures, we hope to create an environment where these ideas & models can be tested and evaluated, and the team can quickly come to agreement on the best "go to market" strategy.

 

Most startup teams that we finance are not "complete".  In order to get series A Venture Financing, most of our portfolio companies need to add a few key people to the core team.  In some cases this can include a CEO, although we prefer to have the CEO in place.  We have helped our portfolio companies hire:

 

Business Development

VP Sales

VP Marketing

HR

VP Engineering

Engineering Team Members

...etc...