As an investor, founder, CEO and business book author, I write about startups, design, how to build a good business, and I like to muse about culture in any form.

Catapulting young companies to soar high (and avoid splatting)

Three plus years into it, Daily Grommet has become the leading place to launch a product (and often a company) in the USA.

Delivering numbers (which boils down to customers) matters a lot.  Every company hits the same wall when it comes to taking their better mousetrap to a larger stage:  it is really, really hard to find the thousands of customers these products need to survive.  The number one reason new products fail is not the product at all–it is failure to reach a big enough market before the cash runs out.

After working with over 800 enterprises we can help so many of our partners avoid pitfalls and attain success much faster than they would by working in isolation.  In the process, we can help them avoid a terrible “splat” they may not see coming (capital crunches, beating back knock-offs, negotiating with the big guns of retail, creating profitable margin structures, avoiding supply chain issues).

Daily Grommet stands out because we really do it with heart.  This recent note from one of our partners pretty much says it all:

Check out Monica Burke’s awesome lamps here.  (I gave five as Christmas gifts last month.) Monica’s enthusiasm about Grommet is partly a reaction to our advising her very concretely on how to structure her company for meaningful scale and profitability.

But back to the numbers, here they are, as told by our study of our Grommet partners:

Here is some other new data about our email list, that contributes directly to the success above.

Obviously getting to this position of reach and influence took time and hard work.  It’s paying off for our Grommet partners every day.  And we’re achieving the deeper goals of Citizen Commerce ™  by giving people a direct way to shape our economy around the people, companies, and products that reflect their own values and goals for how businesses operate.

3 Responses to “Catapulting young companies to soar high (and avoid splatting)”

  1. Shay M

    I’m in the process of starting up a business. Though it is in it’s infancy, I have big plans. Anyways, I enjoy the site and will check back soon.

    Reply
  2. True tales from our 2012 tour of duty « Jules Pieri

    […] We analyze the “Grommet effect” for our past partners and quantify the results.  Then we use that data to do some hard thinking. One of our team members, Julia Kemp, completely reworks our commercial terms, and she single-handedly strengthens our business model and partnerships. Me, with the results of testing the Cookina Grommet: a brilliant mat for your BBQ […]

    Reply

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