Early Stage Venture Strategy and how to survive and move to the growth stage: A simulator for big decisions at the early stage

Abstract

Early stage companies frequently deal with complicated decisions on where and how to prioritize their efforts, to maximize their results and accelerate to the growth stage. In this research, we show that companies in the early stage phase need to focus on those decisions that prioritize survival and maximize the contribution of value to their customers, avoiding other needs of the company that in the short term will not provide Value for the survival of the company or its immediate growth. Using data from a panel of startups and other readings, we find that each company needs its specific strategy for its early stage phase. Unifying the internal factors of the company (financial, human resources, proposal of value for the client ...) with the external factors (competition, economic situation, maturity of the market ...) we can define a unique model for each startup to maximize their survival and subsequent jump to the growth phase. To do this we propose a simulator that fed with the collected data and should allow decision-making by companies in the early stage stage. The research concludes with implications for practitioners and future research in order to improve the model and simulator.