2020 Cordial Invitation - Join an Elite Group with Human Values

A 10 year lineage of capable executives

accessing smarter growth with GVX

Private Letter from an Independent Odd Fellow (defined)

You are accessing this non-public landing page because your company is the kind of company we hope to know. And we believe you as a person might find our community worthy of consideration.

Plus industries are about to go through a buying binge as they adopt data science and SaaS to improve during COVID and Beyond. We think a cooperation amongst good companies and good people is in Order.

We Cordially invite you to join a lineage of successful companies who have spoken at our gatherings. And joined our community. This officially started at Fenwick & West in Mountain View with Soundcloud, Shazam, Blockchain, Swiftkey and Adyen before their first external funding round.

Below you’ll find a short letter. It explains the What, Why and How we do what we do.

WHAT IS THIS ABOUT

2020 is different. We all have friends or know of people suffering.
And we know cash is king for the business. For now that means cost cutting and staying close to customers. Over the next 6 to 12 months it will mean creating new revenue streams before the competition does, since everyone is in survival mode.

Our goal is to use help you:

• Be a global category leader with a quickly growing valuation. By closing strategic revenue.

• Enhance you’re personal brand, so you can be yourself but also be known for your knowledge.

• Enrich the culture of your company, so you can recruit the best and distribute the work.

The GV Exchange platform has the network and knowledge to help you grow using a remote, Digital Export approach. Something the competition is investing in as well.

WHY DO WE DO IT?

We believe smart growth should be more accessible. That is our USP. We want to see shareholders be successful with their companies and portfolios; get refreshed; then do it again. We think 2020 with COVID year Europe can finally come into its own; stop being perfect. Start being pragmatic by helping your team get up the remote selling learning curve. The benefits to founders — shareholders in general — are especially important to note.

Digital Export advantages that are developed now can bring a 10% to 50% advantage over competitors in normal cases. Landing a major client brings revenue, but also a 10x valuation boost to the company. It also helps to trigger investors and protect the cap-table during funding rounds.

Participating in the Grow with AI Summit gives your organisation a prism to define its future. And also builds a relationship with future customers by showing you know things they want to learn.

And as the US ecosystem gears for an aggressive rebirth, the same way it did in 2009 when smart devices created a ‘context' change which brought the first green shoots post-recession — there is no time to waste these precious and difficult months.

HOW DO WE DO IT?

Our GVX approach is a ‘decelerate’ to accelerate. As a company. As a person.

We use events as a marketplace — Grow with AI Summit series is your marketplace for 2020.

We qualify carefully.

We consider values and build an affinity network that believes in those core values.

Image also matters. Personal brands are important to develop. We offer direct feedback to our Executive clients so they can improve themselves on a separate track than the daily grind. 

Our team is distributed across Europe and the US. This ‘shared team’ does Rapid execution, in an Agile approach for startup:

• Individuals and targeted interactions over processes and tools

• Market traction & position adaptation over comprehensive documentation

• Market & peer collaboration over internal plan development

• Responding to change to achieve strategic outcomes over following a rigid plan

While our project goals are practical and very much about business as it relates to shareholder value, as you will see below, we also strive to support a broader community goal, and promote personal and social development. We want every person to:

• Elevate to a “higher, nobler plane”

• Extend “empathy and aid to those in need”

• Promote “good will among peoples and nations”

These are central tenants that convey what we are about. And important we feel to be vocal about especially during the COVID time.

I hope you will choose to join us for the Summit. If you decide not to partner with us, you can still attend for free. If you’d like to speak and partner, we are also open to that discussion. That’s why we selected you.

Please find more information below, along with questions we often get asked.

Respectfully

Chris

Chair & Co-founder GVX

WHAT IS GROWTH 2.o?

The knowledge of how a connected network of partners, techniques & tools can enable smarter and more resilient growth using AI, Data Science & the Cloud.

Growth 2.0 is fundamentally the ability to use remote tactics and tools to sell into major markets where you can develop strategic revenue streams. This enables valuation particularly if it is done efficiently  

There is a new normal for remote sales called digital Export.

Did you know that Digital Export can be a competitive advantage for your company?

For the last 10 years we have been doing Digital Export remotely into the US from Europe, and vice versa. The results always amazed us, and built long standing personal relationships with our former clients. Still, with big box events and many European trade delegations circulating to and from the various regions of the US we were simply too focused on our individual projects to stand out.

Until COVID, we did not realise how useful our core USP was - Digital Export capability and a knowledge sharing community around that topic.

After COVID, events were cancelled, there was less interaction with prospects and many companies refocused on existing clients. We are still at the bottom of the curve. By focusing now on building your companies Digital Export muscles you can be much more ready than your competitors for the rebound.

Gaining competitive advantage now is about lead generation, win rates and speeding up sales cycles. And doing it a way that leads to complex deals — and the respect of your customers for the knowledge you keep and your ability to make them get more, save more, to look good and to feel good.

All this is possible using our proven approach, Growth 2.0 & joining us at the next Grow with AI Summit.

HOW DO WE SELECT COMPANIES & PEOPLE FOR GVX?

Companies must qualify. We developed our first criteria in 2013 using Index Ventures, Crestlight and Point One Fund criteria and with the help of our Selection team including Software AG, Telefonica Ventures, eBay & Berkeley Angel Investors.

This is our 2020 GVX Selection Method (see v9).

See the next section for how we do it.

Scaleups qualify us, too. They look at our team, our mindset/values, our Growth 2.0 approach, track record, testimonials. And they decide — are we in, or we are out. 

No wasted time negotiating. No hard feelings.

HOW IS THE RELATIONSHIP CONSUMATED?

You know how decisions work on your end. We respect that.

On our side, three steps:

Step 1 - Does the company meet our criteria — here. If yes then

Step 2 - We ask the CEO two questions: 

• ‘Can you win in a distant market against a strong competitor’. If yes, in. If ‘not sure’ or ‘no’ then

• ‘Do you aspire to being a top 3 global champion in your category’. If yes, in. If not, out.

That’s it.

And it is off to the races.

WHAT DOES IT COST AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Summit Program Costs: 15k for standard service (30 accounts). 25k for premium (100 accounts).

We spend 1500 hours supporting you. You spend 8 to 16 hours + time to prepare and video your presentation. We help you decelerate to accelerate.

We also help your company re-target — and as we get to know your cracks…help you fix them. We’ll interview you for a podcast. Make a video. You’re Avatar will speak at our Summit in front of relevant Senior execs, that we brought there for you. And you’ll be the Greek Chorus during your speaker slot - helping people understand why what you know is so relevant to them.

That is deceleration. Then you accelerate.

• This is how Eye Tribe did it in 2014. Before they sold to Oculus.

• It’s how azeti did in 2016. Before they closed Cisco for a global deal.

• It’s how Synerise did it in 2018. Before a top 5 retailer asked for a proposal.

• 200 scaleups with around 25 that worked with us for a half year or more.

• Duration of the Growth 2.0 Service: Now to Nov 1 2020.

After that: You flip switch on or off anytime — elastic teams. In COVID this is useful.

The trust is built & the value is clear.

See our deck that explains the Growth 2.0 process in excruciating detail here. And what we guarantee.

CAN YOU JUST EXPLAIN AGAIN HOW SCALEUP PROGRAM WORKS, BRIEFLY?

Okay, it basically looks like this:

1) You give us a Wishlist prospects: map out 30 people like Kim (so prospects or channel partners…between 10 and 30 different companies). This can happen now. Or 6 weeks beforehand. If now, you get 4 extra months of marketing support.

2) We help build out a Wishlist influencers: add 20+ ‘influencers’ to the list, these can be insiders, analysts, journalists, connectors, experts, investors or celebrities.

3) We do a Spider Assessment: A COVID-era spider audit of the company - like ’are you and your company perceived as 1) sensitive to COVID context, 2) a solution with USPs and knowledge that matter, 3) good company/personal ‘brand’ - your prospects in COVID Era will be doing more online digging on you - and may find things that make a bad impression.

4) We help you create a ‘knowledge video’ - 3 mins, 8 mins, 12 mins - that is the 18 month sales asset, it is not a pitch — pitches are not what we do at GVX. They are too sale-sy and don’t get big, complex deals done. We’ll also ask you if you want to be interviewed by one of our Podcast partners in Europe or in US - this is another way to be yourself, build your personal brand and help people understand the culture of your company….all important in 2020.

5) You will speak as a category owner for one of the four track at the ’Grow w AI’ Summit series. Either live, or we’ll play the video. You will be there to to help the participants understand things better…not focused on anything but the relationship. In the months leading up to the event, and potentially the months after, we’ll be slow dripping into the Wishlist of companies you like and anytime someone shows interest will bring them directly to you.

6) Cross-border Marketplace. We don’t do events. We do marketplaces. When you are enabled for a GVX event, you in fact are ready to be a supplier in our marketplace. We can continue to be a supplemental team supporting your internal team…going after prospects, investors or other influencers. The video and podcast and deck etc become assets we can use for US & Europe (mainly NW Europe, like 15 countries). We are able to do targeted campaigns down the the micro -level around a single company and Executive - like we did for Synerise with Kohl’s VP of Big Data when meeting with him for 2 hours at Starbucks. Our goal is that you come out of COVID era like a slingshot.

WHAT IS THE VALUE TYPICALLY?

A Summit projects (15k standard) deliver an ROI in the 50x to 500x range — we can show you the math. The cost variable includes your internal costs.

A Stand alone project (45k to 90k) delivers an ROI of 30x to 250x — so lower. Longer engagements — 6 to 9 ms. The likelihood of a deal with revenue is in the 90% range.

WHAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF THESE TWO PROJECT TYPES?

For example, in 2014 we invited the corporates, investors, using lists we received from our scaleup partners. 

• Eye Tribe did a Summit project. They presented, and then met Facebook’s Global head. I still have the email in my inbox from Eye Tribe CEO asking for a re-intro to FB after the event in 2014…Oculus bought them two years later. 

• azeti did a Stand alone project. They met Cisco’s head of IoT, and it resulted (many months later) in an exclusive global OEM deal for the 160b market of remote infrastructure. azeti gained access to Cisco’s 9,000 solution engineers and on top of that we built partnerships with some of Cisco’s top IoT system integrators. I was working that deal with them for 18 months with a couple of our junior team members.

Those new two scenarios led to multi-million dollar deals. 

• In the case of Eye Tribe, all we did was put them through a basic preparation — like light tuning & and a few beers together before the event. We’ve since structured this more, obviously, and for COVID year added some bells and whistles which are explained in the deck. They went and closed the deal themselves without our involvement. Now CEO is running a big fund in the Nordics; we’re going to invite him to speak at the Summit.

• For azeti…it took us 9 months of cooperating for them to land the gorilla. And another 9 months to enable Cisco organisationally to sell our stuff as a channel partner. Meanwhile, we targeted 24 other gorillas, and after Cisco closed and was on a good path, we were able — without cannibalising — to get Intel and Dell also closed as well as close a round of funding. 

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THESE PROJECTS?

When a large deal closes:

• Valuation also goes up at 10x revenue. 

• Investors pile in with 5x funding offer (over the revenue amount) in 2 phone calls. 

• We become lifelong friends and can do it again on a future company… since we have scars and medals together.

This is mostly done remotely. It is a perfect COVID era approach. 

WHAT IS THE SUMMIT PROGRAM AND WHY WILL EXECS JOIN AN ONLINE EVENT?

The Summit is the Punchline. Like Sun Tzu said: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”.

By the time the Summit arrives, the battle must already be won.

See the Grow with AI Summit series program here.

• Each of the four tracks will emphasis AI concepts, use cases, trends

  • Track 1 - Vertical Market Resilience - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, Agriculture, etc.

  • Track 2 - Staying Close to Customers - Brand, Sales, Marketing, Care…

  • Track 3 - New Business models - AI platforms, Data Exchange, AI Services…

  • Track 4 - Business Continuity - Devops, Recruiting, Operational Analytics, Supply chain visibility…

• Split into 2 to 3 1.5 to 2 hour windows, with 30 min to 1 hour breaks

• Each Window with 4, 8, 12 and 14 minute presentation increments

• 1 to 2 minutes between sessions as cushion

• The four tracks are delivered over 1 to 3 weeks

  • Track 1 starts 28 October at 6:30am Eastern/12:30 CET (5 hours)

  • Track 2 starts 29 October at 7am Eastern/13:00 CET (4 hours)

  • Tracks 3 and 4 we will decide with our Scaleup partners in the next few weeks

• 100% COVID Era format - designed for busy Executives who still need to make new business.

HOW FLEXIBLE IS THE APPROACH & QUALITY OF THE TEAM?

We bring a 10 year approach called Growth 2.0. We can explain it — but its basically about bringing the right network, techniques and technologies for growing. Our focus on SaaS and AI means we know many tools that can help your team be more efficient at their work. In aggregate we emulate two things we learned in Holland.

1) If you are more efficient than the competition, the compounded growth of your company will rapidly outpace them and shareholders will benefit a lot.

2) What you can divide, you can multiply. In other words, if you can’t figure a way to divide functional or account responsibilities to attack your globe market — it will be hard for you to scale your business. We’ve thought a lot about that, which is why our projects work and our clients scale.

HOW CUSTOMIZABLE IS THIS?

The approach is cookie cutter - we only work using a single model. That’s because it is proven over the years to work —and when we diverge from it risk is created.

That said, selecting the targets, the messaging, the tools, the stories, the milestones. Focusing on customers, partners, influencers, and whether to include investors….that is completely custom and is meant to calibrate until it is 100% matching the market need.

We bring a shared services team that is experienced and would cost a lot to hire:

• Senior Sales/BD like me or GVX ‘friends’ like Val (Healthcare), Lynn (Finserve), Praveen (Retail), Thorsten (Manufacturing) etc are 130k to 220k base for a year

• Junior BD like Christian would cost 50k in (Europe) to 80k (US)

• Snr Digital Marketing would be 75k (Europe)

• Community Mgr is 35k 

• Podcast Evangelists in US would be 5k to 7k to sponsor

Ultimately we want you to automate as much of what we do and hire good people to take over once the patterns work and you have won some business.

The only focus is on shareholder value.

WHAT DOES IT COST?

• 15k for a Summit project - the sort used by Eye Tribe.

• 90k for a Stand alone project - the sort used by azeti.

• Plus 5 to 10% success on deals with a 12 to 18 m long tail

There are ways to dial those up and down a bit, based on the situation.

How did this start?

In 2007 - before I moved to Europe and while still running products at my own SaaS company (aravo.com) - I happened to be volunteer as President of the NorCal Chapter of a Dutch NGO called NAF. They had a good mission (see the Mission). And the NY-based Head Chapter was very supportive of us ‘innovating’ out of California with our counterparts in Holland. This became my first cross-border web conference — on the topic of great interest to the Dutch given the great country lies 50% below sea level — ‘Water Technology Innovation’.

I’d known that moving to Holland was in the cards…and the next year we moved with 3 little ones 1, 2 and 4 to Utrecht in what is known at the Randstad. When I started GVX in 2013 this virtual event, distributed Europe-US DNA was baked in from the start. We organised more micro-gatherings to bring European companies in contact with US & vice versa.

We invited inventors of a wide range of ‘data-heavy’ tools from CRM using Machine Learning, AI branding, Marketing AI, social media influencer platforms. But we mashed that up with old stuff, like snail mail and postal services, mobile phones, email, Linkedin and roughly different 180 airplanes.

And we perfected the idea of relationship-driven virtual events. And the Scaleup selection method was used by the Dutch during their EU Presidency to bring 100 VCs from across Europe, including Atomico, Northzone, DN Capital, Prime to meet 50 European startups. So I guess we created something useful within Europe, too.

Every year for 10 years our distributed team - Peter, Val, Christian, Lynn, Vinnie, David, Mitch, Henry, Kevin and more than two dozen interns - has perfected this approach to smarter growth.

But that is the past. I just mention those things to convey that we’re not spring chickens anymore.

VIRTUOUS LOOPS & VIP PARTIES?

The good thing — the focus on quality and people means a virtuos loop for everyone - both company and Execs.

Thanks for considering. Call me on my cell any hour of the day — from now until eternity + 31 6 24 988 103. We’ll do what we can to help. We also like to socialise. We’ve hosted 6 after parties — attended by CEOs, Royal Family and Family Offices, Americans, Dutch, Poles, Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Estonians, Czechs, Hungarians, Canadians, Belgians — where we rented houses for a weekend, or top floors of hotels, or wineries with ski lifts…. and brought 50 to 300 people to enjoy getting to know each other. 

We’ll do another physical world party on a Beach somewhere once COVID is done.

You can be one of those Odd Fellows/Ladies the VIP invitation list.

We hope you’ll swipe right and we go create some value, get returns.

Best

Chris

Past GROWTH 2.0 Projects 2013 to 2019:

We strive to work with category leading companies sharing knowledge and ‘expanding to new markets’ using networks, techniques and technologies for growth.

AI Convoys 2019
Amsterdam with IBM Ventures | September 2019
Tallinn with Autodesk Data Science & Winmax| January 2019
Bay Area with several AI B2B CXOs from Japan - Cognitee (AI), AI Sing (IoT), Cinnamon (AI), Sitataru (SaaS marketplace), Eagles (Data encryption) | January 2019

Blockchain Convoy May 2018
Bay Area with 10 Blockchain CXOs, Billon Group & Synerise (AI), XTPL (advanced manufacturing), Travvil (SaaS) in partnership with IBM & Bee Ventures (UC Berkeley)

Venture Capital Convoy 2017 | Sept 2017| Privacycheq (GDPR SaaS), GE, Intel Capital in partnership with The Heart, Dentons Warsaw, Giza Ventures

Cybersecurity Convoy 2017
Bay Area with 10 B2B CXOs in partnership with Privacycheq, Cybersec Hub & The Kosciuszko Institute in Krakow Poland

Venture Capital Convoy 2016
Hungary & Poland with UC Berkeley and World Bank for 25 VCs.
100 VCs with Uber, AirBnB & Industrial in China Hopeful Grain & Oil (China)
Visegrad 4 with Czech ICT Alliance & Corpin (Prague)

B2B Convoy 2015
The Bay Area with azeti & Tresorit.

Mobile, AI & IoT Convoy 2014

Swiftkey, Eye Tribe, GetApp, Plat.One.

AI & SaaS Convoy 2013

Shazam, Adyen, Soundcloud.

Faces seen at past GVX Gatherings