While most of the Venture Capital space are focused on the fastest way to raise capital, drive revenue and see a ROI, this strategy often leads toward sacrificing the longevity of the startup and the customer needs. True longevity requires a strategy to increase revenue, not just raise capital. Basefund co-founder and CEO, Robert White sits down with us to share how he built a foundation designed to grow long-term success with a focus on experience, deep understanding of customer pains and expectations, and a philosophy of practical evolution.

The Dream Team

Many start-up founders come from extensive backgrounds, drawing from their experiences to initialize an idea that can change the game. But more often than not, they jump the gun to find funding and how to expedite growth and scalability. Many entrepreneurs fail to build their foundation before they hit the ground running. Strategically choosing talent that is equipped with expertise and experience to understand the vision and how to execute is the first step in building a strong foundation built for longevity.

KYC: Know Your Customer

Many entrepreneurs believe that they know their customer and can overlook this step while not realizing their customer profile is ever evolving. Knowing your customer is about building relationships that are transparent where you can have continuous open and honest conversation about pains, wish lists, and even discuss pricing tolerance. Maintaining these relationships is key to understanding how to pivot, create product roadmaps, and how to speak to potential clients.

One Step at a Time

Big ambitions drive the VC industry. Disruption is the goal and everybody will bet all their chips on their big ideas. However, sometimes smaller iterations is key to longevity and sustainability. Sometimes, it’s not about disrupting but building trust by solving immediate and current practical pains that can lead to the next phase. For example, you can’t solve blockchain issues for industries that haven’t event adopted the cloud yet. Longevity is all about taking it one step at a time.

Building vs Selling

Last but not least, many entrepreneurs are so laser focused on proving themselves and their ideas that they forget to invest in selling. Many startup firms believe, “if I can just build it, they will come”, and while that is true to an extent, without exposure and good selling strategies, that big idea might end up just sitting on the shelf.

A long term strategy for start-up firms is about the ability to grow revenue, not just raise capital. Taking capital into consideration to overcome early stage challenges is the reason that the venture capital industry exists, but being exceptionally talented at raising capital is not going to bear long term fruit. Watch the full podcast to learn more about long term success for start-up wealth tech firms.