Getting Famous For How You Make Money: Business Model Discoverability & The Real Value of IR for Private and Public Companies
We spend a lot of time working with clients to make their business models well-enough understood that - no matter a given quarter’s results - investors still believe in future performance. You could call this “investor relations.” Or you could call it what it really is: building a more resilient multiple by becoming famous for how you make money.
We find this work equally relevant for both private and public companies. “IR” and “private company” don’t usually appear in the same sentence. But our non-public clients actually spend a lot of time, energy and resources on IR. They just don’t call it “IR.” They call it fundraising.
We know this because we also help companies create or refine business plans, business models and investor pitches. It turns out this work drives the same outcomes as the best public-company investor marketing, i.e, it builds consensus around the inevitability of a value proposition.
That is, becoming famous with key audiences for how you make money.
Economic Fame is An Asset
Consensus inside and outside a company about business value equates to economic fame. And like branded visibility of other kinds, economic fame can be defined, engineered, messaged and built over time. The smartest companies realize this is an asset, and cultivate it.
They do so knowing that in good times, such fame can amplify valuations. And they are that even if performance or product development lags, value-proposition consensus can be used to reinforce confidence across both investor and other audiences that directionally, a business remains solid.
Economic Fame - Like All Fame - Rests on Stories
Especially at their earliest stages, many private companies become the best at IR that they ever will be. Consider: seed- and even series A-C-stage startups often have underevolved products and limited-to-no financial performance.
What they DO have:
An idea for a business that could scale and grow;
A market (just a story about probable economic opportunity based on likely buyers for a differentiated product/service)
Financial projections (just another story, but in spreadsheets) for how it all might come together in the future; and
Skills and/or experience that might let them turn an idea and a two-layered story into a system for generating money.
For the right company and team, this combination of rizz, stories and data forms an explanation of value-proposition ROI that makes sense to investors. AKA, a pitch that gets funding.
Especially if multiple sponsors join multiple funding rounds, this equates to a consensus. Build enough consensus and momentum and you have visibility. Boom, you’re famous, at least to some, maybe before you’ve even really built a business.
Where Most Private Companies Lose the Thread
Unfortunately, this focus on value-proposition fame often fades as private companies grow.
Once funds are raised, and especially if they are raised repeatedly at higher valuations, founders, Boards and management teams increasingly assume that the consensus about value is locked in. Financial performance and, of course, product development take priority.
And even at an early stage, the many benefits of value proposition visibility seldom become part of formal, external company positioning.
Yes, companies usually put out funding round releases. But such releases seldom, anymore, engineer consensus, as we’ll discuss in another post.
Most look something like this - e.g., they focus entirely on a static number/amount raised. They add celebratory quotes, which don’t sound anything like the way people really talk. They mention a product or services and maybe advisors.
Basically, the average private company funding release touts a big number and makes big claims (kind of like the average public company quarterly earnings release).
Such efforts don’t explain in compelling terms why the money was raised in the first place, or extend that behind-the-scenes consensus outward. This isn’t IR, and it won’t make you famous.
The Key To Private Company IR Success: Business Model Discoverability
Ideally, such news should read more like this - and live not just in a release, but also as a fuller, more compelling public explanation for the overall value the business could bring to markets, customers and employees, as well as to investors.
This is what Sinter calls “business model discoverability,” or the practical basis for becoming famous for how you make money. Every for-profit business can achieve this kind of visibility with key stakeholders.
How? Make sure that people and algorithms can find - easily - information about:
A unique market definition that isn’t just a ridiculously large TAM number and CAGR, but a thoughtful, cogent description of publicly-sourced economic opportunity tailored to the company.
Simple yet flexible goals for scaling, i.e., a compelling explanation of your likliest growth path that doesn’t over-commit the company or overshare competitive data, but does give stakeholders some details for why you expect to compete and win in your area.
Ongoing explanations, evidence and/or anecdotes for why your company will be a reliable partner and credible business over the long term - which is often a consideration for customers alongside your product features and benefits. You can do this by referencing management team expertise or track records; hiring trends; and emphasizing customer testimonials that cite not just product or technical skill, but quality of partnership over time.
Ongoing explanations and illustrations of unit economics and customer segmentation. This is NOT the same as financial performance, and does not require revealing specific P&L details. It doesn’t require profitability. It simply means building a story from whatever basic economic logic underpins your business.
Ongoing explanations and repetition of what makes your business different/your winning approach to iterative success, in your markets, that drives growth, builds for the long term and aligns with stated unit economics.
These five types of information are missing from most private company and even most public company websites, social channels, search results, press releases and media coverage.
Yet, especially but not only if a company has ever raised money, a business can and should integrate these fact patterns into ongoing corporate-level marketing, PR, digital and social.
The absence of this information undercuts understanding and positive perceptions of performance, sales, competitive strength and reputation.
Making this information more visible, in contrast, complements product marketing and press relations. It anchors sales funnels. It promotes executive expertise vs. just personality traits. In short, it creates a framework for economic consensus that, over time, builds fame into an asset.
At the extreme end of decades of intentional investment in business-model marketing, a few companies like Apple, Amazon and Netflix all are in various ways as famous for how they make money as for the large amounts of money they make. A small number of newer, still-private companies like Stripe are well on their way to similar status - as shown by a story like this, which even as it reported on Stripe’s then-challenges, reinforces its underlying strength.
In reality, most decent businesses can achieve this kind of visibility to a much greater degree than they typically do. All it takes is awareness of the opportunity and benefits, as well as the right kind of marketing skills and expertise.
If you recognize the value and benefits of getting famous for how you make money? Then you’ll make your business model as discoverable, understandable and compelling as possible.
You’ll also do this not just when you are raising money as a startup, but for as long as you are in business - regardless of whether you are private or public.
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