Working With Startups for Long-Term Profit

Channel Partners Evolution is working with startup company Acme Connected Apparel (ACA) to help it develop a digital business plan.

Similarly, Richardson Communications and Consulting (RCC) has been working with Enflux, a real-life startup that’s very much like ACA. RCC has learned that rather than the traditional “network up” approach, startups need a consultative approach that starts with the business plan, then aligns technology and application introductions with the company’s needs over time.

During the keynote panel discussion titled, “Working With Startups for Long-Term Profit,” RCC will present its approach to serving the needs of Enflux as it enters the market with a line of connected clothing. Panelists include RCC’s Rachel McNeese, president and founder, and Jaime Zarate, executive director of cloud services, and Mickey Ferri, Enflux’s chief growth officer.

In a Q&A with Channel Partners, McNeese and Ferri talk about the process of working together to ensure the startup’s success.

Channel Partners: How do you initiate the process of determining what a startup like Enflux needs to ensure success?

McNeese: Initiate an understanding of the business before considering technologies, understand the short-, mid- and long-term business plan, model how growth and change will impact applications, platforms and networks over time, (and) design solutions with both economic and technical scalability and elasticity in mind both from a technology perspective, as well as a contractual perspective.{ad}

Ferri: They spoke with us, asked us key questions to understand our product, customers and technology needs, and quickly identified some key areas to help drive success.

CP: What are some of the most common mistakes startups make?

McNeese: Going with least expensive versus best-value solutions, painting themselves in a “technology corner” (non-scalable, non-adaptive and financially constraining), overcommitting to technology that distracts them (from) their core business and not building the infrastructure for the future.

CP: In the case of Enflux, what have they been able to accomplish with your firm’s assistance?

McNeese: (They have) gained insight to how technology and services need to align with their business plan, obtain(ed) resources and expertise to assist in creating a technology road map and have an expert …

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… on their team to assist in making technology decisions.

CP: What is the current status of Enflux? What are your company’s growth goals over the next three years?

Ferri: Current status is that we have pre-sold hundreds of units, and we are releasing our first delivery to customers next week! The goal is to sell 1,000 total units in 2016, 5,000 in 2017 and 25,000 in 2018.

CP: What have you learned most from working with RCC?

Ferri: The thing I learned most is that you have to be planning for the long term, and build your systems and processes so that you have the ability to scale up quickly when you need to.

CP: Is it important for startups to seek guidance rather than trying to go it alone?

McNeese: Seeking guidance from an IT consultant with a proven record of “know-how” and “technical wisdom” can mitigate expensive and time consuming technology distractions or disasters.