Why Cheaters ALWAYS Win: Your Business's "Unfair" Advantage
You can ask my friends and family, I’m super competitive, I love board games and I would NEVER cheat in a game, like EVER… It kills the fun and challenge, and that’s the whole point (at least in games)
But in business… that’s another story. Cheating is the name of the game.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t want to build another boring bread company and compete with every baker in the world. You’ll NEVER win, and you will certainly never reach venture scale - not unless you have net negative carb bread :)
The problem is, you have NO unfair advantage.
There’s no reason for folks to buy your bread vs someone else’s.
It’s a fight to win EVERY single customer EVERY single time - it comes down to taste, price and availability… (hence why food is such a low margin business).
But if you’ve got access to cheaper flour or zero-carb flour or have connections to every supermarket in your state, maybe there’s something there… because you can cheat and use your unfair advantages to build a real business.
But without an unfair advantage, you’re just an SME…
And SMEs don’t raise from VCs - they can’t reach massive, world-altering scale.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing bad about that. But if you want to build a category-leading, climate-altering company, you NEED unfair advantages - you NEED to hit scale.
That means finding YOUR unfair advantage.
For us with 4WARD.VC, it’s our network - we “cheat” by investing in incredible companies in 4WARD.VC's Partner in Crime Climate Accelerator and introducing them to 30-100+ super relevant corporates, partners and clients, all with the goal of landing them 2-5+ MAJOR new customers or pilots within our short 12 week program.
We use our network and that of our 100+ super-connected mentors to open dozens of warm doors so our companies instantly become worth 2-5x.
And if you know anything about VC, you know funds that return 5x are in the upper upper echelon - yet that is our goal for every single companie within 2-3 months of exiting the accelerator.
How cool is that? Helping companies move not 1 or 2, but 10 or 20 steps forward - that is “cheating,” that’s an “unfair” advantage. And it is why incredible climate companies apply for our ultra hands-on, networked growth hacking accelerator
Because climate innovators need a “Partner in Crime” :), they need someone 100% focused on them and their success (not busy with a cohort of 50+ companies…)
That’s our unfair advantage - the 10k+ VCs & CVCs, accelerators & incubators, corporates, angels and ecosystem players we’ve con
nected with within the past 12 months. Add to that our Slack communities, exploding email newsletter and The Startup Tank show and community and we’ve built a pretty unique unfair advantage for climate companies.
And the only thing better than “cheating” to boost your own business is when someone else “cheats” for you, a “Partner in Crime,” so to speak!
So, if you’re a CRAZY ASS climate founder tackling a MASSIVE real world problem and want to unlock your “unfair” advantage for growth, sales and funding, be sure to apply for 4WARD.VC's Partner in Crime Climate Accelerator.
And be sure to let us know what your "unfair" advantage is... :)
PS. There are no cohort deadlines - we take 1-2 new companies per month, because why leave great companies hanging?
Don’t Miss Next Monday (1/23)’s Startup Tank Lineup with Elemental Excelerator, SET Ventures and Social Wealth Partners @ 5-7pm CET
1/23 @ 5-7pm CET (8-10am PST) live here on Linkedin
Today's Investor Panelists Include:
Gabriel Scheer @ Elemental Excelerator David Galaviz @ Social Wealth Partners - Armin Greinocker @ SET Ventures
Presenting Companies:
Nextract: Laser-based production of sustainable catalysts to power global hydrogen economy
GKinetic: A flow accelerating hydrokinetic turbine for streams, rivers and tidal power generation
Reviv Energy: Turning plastic waste into sustainable biofuels
Locoal: Mobile, modular clean energy generation and carbon capture
Ethosa: Waterless, refillable plant-based personal care products
Apply to pitch at https://thestartuptank.com/apply
The Startup of the Night Award - Presented by Yugen - The Design Agency for Climate Tech Startups
As a startup, nothing's more important than appearing professional and getting prospects in your pipeline. That's why we're thrilled to be partnering with the Yugen Design Agency on an AWESOME prize for the winner of tonight's program.
1st Prize: The winner will receive £5k of design services that could include a custom built landing page, Investor ready Pitch Deck, Product Design MVP Prototypes or brand identity design. - A complimentary service to be determined to help you move the needle.
Consolation Prize: Free 1-1 Discovery Workshop on how to position your brand for the best chance of investment success
For more details, visit https://4ward.vc/design and tell them The Startup Tank sent you :)
Have you subscribed?
If not, pick your podcast platform of choice :)
Substack | Spotify | Youtube | Apple | Google | Other Platforms
BTW, the biggest thank you you can give us is by recommending The Startup Tank to friend or leaving a review on your podcast player of choice to help more folks find our awesome climate tech companies :)
Presented by Vauban from Carta - 4WARD.VC's Preferred SPV Provider
At 4WARD.VC, we use and love Vauban's simple, investor-friendly SPV platform for managing our group investments. The hands-on, high-touch service helps us guide our syndicate members through the legal and tax hurdles of startup investing while offering us the most robust platform for flexible global investments.
But Carta offers so much more like managed fund administration (which we may need soon :), cap table and employee perks/HR management, legal and finance consulting and more...
To find out why 4WARD.VC uses Vauban from Carta and set up your first SPV or manage your cap table and shareholder comms, please visit: https://4ward.vc/carta
Be sure to tell them The Startup Tank sent you so they keep supporting us :)
Upcoming Startup Tank Pitch Sessions!
And don’t worry, there’s lots more Startup Tank planned in the coming months, with sessions Feb 6th & 20th and Mar 6th & 20th planned in partnership with great investors like Cleantech Business Angels, Resolve Partners and E2DJ and many others, so be sure to stay tuned, subscribe on Youtube | Apple | Spotify etc… and apply to pitch here.
That’s it for now. I’ll see you all at 5pm CET (11am EST)!
Matt
PS. Have you joined our Climate Tech Startup Crew Slack? If not, it's a great place to network and collaborate with 800+ other climate techies focused on solving major real world problems. https://4ward.vc/startupslack