January Update from Hedgehog Growth Partners 🎇

Happy January to my friends and partners!

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of managing “focus” or mindshare as a strategic resource in a company. We often treat focus as unlimited, letting instead the span of our attention be governed by “resources.”

When resources are spread across many initiatives, companies of any size that try to do too many things well are doomed to fail. The good news: your chances of success are governed by making meaningful progress on the 1-2 things that matter 10x more than everything else. The challenge is gaining clarity on what those are. 

I’ve been writing on Substack about the importance of storytelling (and vision setting) as part of every organization’s operating system. Your story and vision are the strongest alignment forces to pull your whole company forward by creating catalytic alignment on your company’s purpose for existence. Through that clarity, your team can gain perspective on what’s existential to success vs what’s important, but not essential. 

I’ve been working with a Series A startup on better telling their story in the form of a strategic narrative. This exercise has allowed them to thoughtfully and strongly counterposition their company against other tools, anchored in their unique proposition and their existential 'why,' while also differentiating from a stale category they’ve historically struggled with comparison against. I’ll share more stories and results from this work as we get the new narrative into the hands of customers, prospects, and investors.

Recently, an incredibly considerate potential partner asked: "I want to make sure this engagement is a big win for you, too! What are your goals for Hedgehog Growth Partners?".

Here’s where I landed:

1. Deliver 20x ROI in an Engagement (and prove it) demonstrating financial outcomes, not just theory and advice.

2. Show Quick Wins shipping value on immediately

3. Drive Impact and Hands-On Execution counter-positioning against traditional consultants. My goals is to be on the front lines.

4. Co-Author 3x Case Studies with Clients. If I do the above, well, I should be able to do this in Q1.

5. Gain a Reference Customer. Essential social proof of ability to drive practical, outcome-focused engagement.

6. Grow Exposure to More GTM + Product Teams I love learning about new markets and how teams find unique ways to work.

I’ll report back on April on performance against this plan.

🦔 Earlier this month I traveled to Raleigh, NC to help Clarke Bynum raise money for Jelawai Productions, a streaming platform and content production company focused on bringing the art back to the media industry through more equitable compensation of media industry pros (specifically writers). If you have any media industry experience, or know media folks, I’d love to talk to anyone who’s been involved in content production or streaming platforms. 

🦔 I’m looking for warm introductions to the Barn2Door team. I’m very excited about the work they’re doing to support local agriculture and direct-to-consumer produce. 

🦔 While in Charlotte, I finally met Yash Mehta from CEDNC in person, along with my first conversations with JP Maloney and Preet Mankad. Excellent folks building the ecosystem of startups, investors and community partners across North Carolina. You should absolutely connect with them if you’re doing innovation work in the Southeast. Reach out for a warm intro if interested. 

🦔 I’ve been learning about the Forecastr platform for financial scenario modeling. I wish I’d had access in previous companies; it’s a quantum leap forward from spreadsheets. I’m working with the Forecastr team to co-create helpful long-form content for Seed to Series B companies on getting maximum value from their financial and strategic planning processes. If you’re not feeling confident about your budget, forecast, P&L and cashflow statements, let’s chat.

🦔 David Stroud is building a platform for property owners to maximize the return on investment by modeling the many variables associated with the purchase of a primary residence or investment property; from interest rates and one-time costs down to regional incentives and tax schemes. He’s partnering with wealth advisors to get this in the hands of property owners. He’s looking to network with any angel investors who may be interested in the wealth management of investment property space. 

🦔 Growth via New Markets: I’m working with 2 different companies targeting growth by expanding their products into adjacent markets. One is adapting their mid-market focused product to SMB customers and experimenting with layering in a Product-Led Growth strategy. The other is taking their existing SMB-focused product and adapting it to the needs of mid-market customers. If you’re considering the same, I’m happy to share lessons learned along the way. 

🦔 After hearing his masterful description of the challenges that founders face in the evolution from creator to CEO, I reached out to Jonathan. His SV-based firm Enjoy the Work connects founders with accomplished operators and investors to help avoid the errors that have doomed so many others. He’s graciously agreed to meet with me and discuss the overlap in our work. If that’s interesting to you, please let me know ASAP.

I’ve now been gifted 2 physical hedgehogs, bringing my grand-total of inanimate hedgehogs to 3. 🦔🦔🦔 Thanks to my grandmother, Jinx and Jeff Thornhill (Sytewise) for their thoughtful consideration. I’m now threatening to bring a tiny hedgehogs to all in-person meetings. Now there’s a conversation starter. 

I’m looking for introductions to Nashville (or southeast) based SaaS founders and CEOs who are running into challenges with revenue growth, velocity, or strong alignment across Product, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success functions.

Wishing everyone the best, until next month.

Warm regards,

Michael 🦔