How to find consulting clients

Key Concepts:

• Crunchbase.com: A platform for finding information about companies, including funding rounds.
• Funded Companies: Companies that have recently received investment.
• Rapid Growth Expectation: The expectation that funded companies will grow quickly.
• Problem Identification: Identifying issues within a company's operations, such as marketing, social media, or content creation.
• Solution Proposition: Offering solutions to identified problems.
• Direct Outreach: Contacting the founder and investors of the company.
• Consulting Opportunity: Turning the problem identification and solution proposition into a paid consulting engagement.

Finding Consulting Clients Through Funded Companies

The core idea is to leverage the pressure on newly funded companies to achieve rapid growth to identify consulting opportunities. The process involves several key steps:

1. Identifying Funded Companies: The first step is to use Crunchbase.com to find companies that have recently received funding. Crunchbase provides information on funding rounds, company profiles, and investor details.
2. Rationale Behind Funding: The argument is that investors invest expecting rapid growth. If the company isn't growing quickly, the investment is not yielding the desired results. This creates a pressure point.
3. Problem Identification: Next, analyze the funded company to identify areas where they are underperforming. Specific examples include:
   • Marketing: Ineffective marketing campaigns.
   • Social Media: Poor social media engagement or strategy.
   • Content Creation: Lack of engaging or effective content.
4. Solution Proposition: Once a problem is identified, develop a specific solution or set of recommendations that the company can implement to improve performance. This should be tailored to the specific problem identified.
5. Direct Outreach: Contact the founder and investors of the company directly. The email should highlight the problem and propose the solution.
6. Consulting Engagement: The expected outcome is that the founder or investors will be interested in the solution and will inquire about the cost of implementing it, leading to a consulting engagement.

Example:

Let's say a company received $5 million in funding for a new SaaS product. After reviewing their marketing strategy, you find that they have very little social media presence and their content is not engaging their target audience. You can then email the founder and investors explaining that their lack of social media engagement and ineffective content are hindering their growth potential and propose a strategy to improve their social media presence and content marketing efforts.

Notable Quotes:

• "When investors throw money into a company, they expect it to grow super super fast. If it isn't, why would they throw in money?"

Conclusion:

The presented method offers a direct approach to finding consulting clients by targeting companies with a high incentive to grow quickly due to recent funding. The approach leverages publicly available information and emphasizes targeted communication of problems and solutions directly to key decision-makers.