James Edwards

Great Social Media is about authentic storytelling. The same is true in building great culture at your company. You have to create a story that makes your team, including the social media team, feel connected to your mission & broader story. Frequently, social media teams feel like an appendage to the company as opposed to an integrated part of it. Companies feel compelled to do social media, but unfortunately treat it as a necessary evil instead of competitive differentiator. My advice? Bring on a social media team that believes in your mission & can authentically tell your story. Treat them as a integral part of your corporate strategy, not just your marketing strategy. Incentivize them with corporate goals, not just marketing goals.

It's easy to be a great company when everything is going well: the company is growing & your product is working perfectly. For most of us though, the reality is we are spread too thin, financially strapped and our product has challenges. Be prepared. Negative feedback is going to happen. Know that great companies are defined by how they react to challenges. Sometimes when a client is unhappy, its an opportunity to prove the lengths you will go through to right the situation which frequently leads to an even better relationship. Companies shouldn't plan for perfection, but rather for falling short (its inevitable) & be totally prepared to be humble, learn from the feedback & wow their client with their ownership, agency and response.

Most founders are inherently mission driven people, and the best usually have lived experience in the problem they are attempting to solve. At StartUp Health, we referred to that as problem founder fit. When it comes to relating to mission driven founders, it helps if the investor shares that mission too, either personally or through their fund's investment thesis. As fund's are typically focused on their fund performance (MOIC, IRR, etc...) it is refreshing when a fund seeks alternative measures of performance as well (lives impacted, patients saved, diseases cured, etc...). Being mission aligned is a recipe for success and will result in an overall better relationship between investor and founder.

When we coach founders, we also advise that vulnerability is a strength. The same is true if you are an investor and trying to negotiate with a founder. The best investors highlight their failures and mistakes, outlining what they learned from them and how it impacts their current thesis. A founder should do the same. We are so focused in life on putting our best foot forward and focusing on our successes instead of relating to each other on where we have failed. Doing so builds trust and allows for a deeper connection where both parties can more broadly explore multiple dimensions of their relationship. It also allows you to surface more issues in advance and align around how you will work together during the businesses challenges.

There is a saying that "the root of all unhappiness is uncommunicated expectations." By coming to an agreement in the beginning, being open and transparent, a better process will be the natural result. The act of engaging in this way, also leads to better ability to be flexible down the road and sets a proper tenor for a long-term relationship. This is true for founders, and non-founders alike and lays the groundwork for a trust driven and productive relationship regardless of of the stakes involved.

Social enterprise tend to be very mission driven and as a result can access different forms of mission aligned capital. Given the challenges of the current market with declining valuations, investor’s deploying capital to their existing portfolio instead of funding new companies and the lack of good exit opportunities, many companies are finding it hard to raise. Definitely advising startups to seek alternatives to a standard VC raise and look to the non-dilutive and family office markets. In both, you can find mission aligned supporters who will care more deeply about the problem you are solving and less about solely the financial returns. Seeking grants (non-dilutive) can be time consuming and a longer more drawn out process.