CLIENT STORIES
What changed for founders who worked through their stage with Josephine Too.
TRACTION
“On go-to-market, we know the exact groups of customers we're targeting, and we've done the research to know exactly why. We've been able to align how we go to market for sales and what partnerships we have with our technical roadmap.”
Founder & CEO,
an Australian fintech with a two-sided payments platform
Before: The three co-founders felt aligned, but the business wasn't. They expected a six- to twelve-month vision, not a plan for what to do this week, next week and a month later. What changed: They now know exactly which customers they are targeting and why, and have lined up go-to-market, partnerships and the technical roadmap behind them. They agreed where they want to lead their category and what they will give up, and one co-founder says their decisions are now of a higher quality. The assets they built together are used day to day in the business.
EXECUTION
Fast growth, and knowledge no longer moved as smoothly through a business built to scale
“The daily huddles, the monthly strategics, the quarterly check-ins, half-year and yearly offsite to regroup and work better as a team made a massive difference to resolve these problems… We were able to cascade the organizational strategy to the broader business.”
Founder & CEO,
an ASX-listed online marketplace
Before: After 14 years of rapid growth, the business went from 70 to 250 employees very quickly. Knowledge was no longer being transferred as seamlessly as when the team was smaller, and things the leaders assumed people knew, they didn't. What changed: The company put a regular rhythm in place: daily huddles, monthly strategics, quarterly check-ins, and half-yearly and yearly offsites. Goals were set and people were made responsible and accountable for them, and the company learned how to cascade its strategy into execution.
Founders aligned, but the business wasn't
TRACTION
Chasing every opportunity, with no shared view of what comes now, next and later
“I realized that where we wanted to go needed both the product and the go-to-market to be aligned. Now we have alignment on both, and everyone understands where we're going and what we're doing.”
CEO & Co-founder,
a property energy platform
Before: The leadership team wasn't aligned on what came now, next and later. Product and go-to-market weren't connected, and they were “running after just about any opportunity.” What changed: The leadership team agreed its key customers, partners, region and aligned its product roadmap, go-to-market plan and company strategy. It now focuses on the Traction Sequence and has said no to three or four opportunities that could have made money but would have distracted it from its core business.
TRACTION
Six-month partner negotiations that went nowhere
“After the program, we know exactly which partners we've selected. It's not the other way around: we selected them. We know which clients to work with and how to approach them.”
Co-founder & CEO,
an enterprise industrial-AI software COMPANY
Before: It said yes to any partner who approached it, and in some cases spent six months negotiating a partner contract that produced nothing. It charged one flat price. What changed: It now chooses its partners instead of waiting to be approached, and is focusing on two. It is trying tiered pricing with different customers to strengthen its hand in negotiations, and the program work went straight into customer and investor presentations. The founder estimates it saved six months to a year.
TRACTION · ECONOMICS
Great technology, but no clue where it stood in the market
“I was trying to use the numbers from another battery technology, but it did not make sense. When we did it together, I realized, okay, this is where we are. This should be the pricing.”
Business Development Lead,
a deep-tech battery COMPANY
Before: The team was excited about its technology but had no clue where it stood in the market or which sector to go after, and no idea what its price should be. What changed: It decided to aim at a premium segment instead of fighting on price as a new entrant. It worked out its pricing from its own numbers rather than another technology's, and drew a clear year-by-year roadmap.
TRACTION
Dismissed one customer group, then found it was the best place to start
“The aha moment for me was this customer group turning out to be the best one for us right now. My hypothesis was that they wouldn't go for a solution like ours, and I was proved wrong with this approach.”
Co-founder & CEO,
a solar paint company
Before: The commercial founder assumed his market was commercial and industrial buyers. He had lists of partners and customers, and unit economics built to explain the approach to investors, but he didn't know how to decide on the first customer group. The price was a flat figure. What changed: Scoring and ranking the customer groups showed the segment he had dismissed was the best first target, as an add-on to what those buyers already had. A market map of what adds cost and what adds revenue set the role each partner plays and gave the team more footing in partnership talks. The two co-founders now agree from the same scorecard, and the commercial founder has a toolkit he can rerun when the market shifts.
TRACTION
One big engine, one big leap, until each stage had its own customers
“Before the program, we were only thinking about a single product. Then we learned that development has to happen in stages, because you cannot hit the final product in one go. Now, with each stage, as we make progress in thrust and performance, there is a customer group we can address.”
Co-founder,
an electric jet engine COMPANY
Before: The plan was one product: a single, very powerful engine, developed in one leap. There were no steps in between and no customers named along the way. Asked what it would cost, the answer was "we just don't know." What changed: The engine is now planned as a ladder of development stages. At each stage, as thrust and performance improve, the team can name a customer group it could address. Three go-to-market roadmaps, each with its own timeline, are now shown to investors, who find them clear and like them. A customer who had been pushing for a cost now gets a high-level direction.
TRACTION
Customers came first. The plan came later.
“It's a complete transformation, and now we have a very clear outlook of where we have to go in the market. What is unique about the program is how the dots connect. If the dots aren't connecting, then you are missing something.”
Co-founder & President,
an AI company moving into energy
Before: Customers were arriving before the strategy was. The team's thinking about market and product was “quite random,” it hadn't decided which offerings to pursue, and it hadn't worked out how to measure the profit on each. What changed: Customers, offerings, partners and profit are now planned as one integrated strategy, with each decision building on the one before, so nothing is left out. The company found the white space in its market, and knows which offerings to go after and which not to.
TRACTION
Investors kept asking about spare parts. The company was something else.
“Approaching our industry as a platform business, not an automotive business, completely changed the way we thought of our business. The decisions and the way we are progressing today would have been completely different without this program.”
Co-founder & CEO, a B2B automotive aftermarket platform
Before: The founders couldn't say what the company was: a garage story, a supply-chain story, an EV story? Investors kept pulling the conversation back to spare parts and asking how it differed from a competitor. The answers were all in the founders' heads, not on paper. What changed: The founders stopped seeing a spare-parts business and saw a platform. Putting the whole business on one page showed how customers, partners and suppliers tie together, with garages as the first customer. The company now has the clear direction that was missing in its first months, and investors understand what it does.
TRACTION
A better device, until they found the market where it fits best
“We thought we had a device that gives much more energy in a smaller size, but we never went further to see where it would be more effective. Now we understand why there is no player there: our system is simplified, with far fewer parts, so we can address it more effectively.”
Founder,
a deep-tech fuel cell start-up
Before: A technical team absorbed in the product and the lab. It believed it had a more efficient, smaller device, but had never asked where it would be most effective. It hadn't thought about customers or how to approach them, and it kept two separate plans. What changed: The team found its product-market sweet spot, a segment where big manufacturers can't compete because it needs a simplified system, which is exactly how this device is built. It now knows its own role and its partners' roles in delivering to the end customer, and its two plans are linked.
ECONOMICS
They knew the theory, but hadn't applied it in an integrated way
“I wish we had done this maybe three years ago. It would have helped us tremendously, because we were doing many of these things in bits and pieces and patches, whenever we felt we really needed to focus on them, rather than from a clear plan from the beginning.”
Co-founder,
an IoT smart-factory solutions company
Before: The founder had an MBA and knew the theory, but hadn't applied it with rigor or as one integrated strategy. It happened in bits and pieces, only when a need came up. What changed: Pricing is now grouped into clear buckets, and the company is focused on one product area and aims to excel in it. Mapping its white space showed the company is truly niche, and gave the team a ready answer when anyone asks why.
Founder FAQ
1. How do I know which stage my company is at?
Sofos sorts growth into four stages: Traction, Economics, Execution and Category Advantage. To find yours, look at the evidence, not the effort.
Traction: you can't yet win the same kind of customer again and again without being in the deal; customer requests are pulling your product in several directions; sales and product are out of step; or you're chasing several customer segments at once.
Economics: revenue grows but margins don't; your pricing doesn't match the value you deliver; or it costs more to win and serve a customer than you charge.
Execution: the team is busy but you still have to check everything with the leadership team; priorities, goals and measures of success aren't clear for the company, each team and each person; or the team can't deliver on a target without the founder micro-managing.
Category Advantage: buyers see you as one of many options; they compare you feature by feature; you're asked to bid in a category someone else leads; or what makes you different is easy to copy.
Most founders see signs of all four, and that's normal. The question is which one is the root cause for your stage, and which signs you can live with for now because they'll ease once the root cause is fixed. That judgement, and the order to fix things in, is what a Stage Review gives you in 60 minutes.
2. Our revenue is growing, but I'm still on every sales call. How do we move from founder-led sales to a sales team?
Founder-led sales that won't hand over is usually a Traction problem, not a hiring problem. The wins depend on you, not on a repeatable way of selling. Underneath it is a strategic decision most founders haven't made yet: which market segment to win first, why that one, and which one comes after it. Without that decision, every deal is a different shape, and new salespeople add cost before they add pipeline. Make the decision, win that segment predictably yourself, then write down how you do it so a salesperson can follow. Until then, you can't forecast revenue with confidence.
3. Should I hire a fractional COO, or fix our growth sequence first?
A fractional COO and Sofos do different jobs. A fractional COO runs the people and the workload day to day, using their own experience. Sofos works on the system the whole company grows by, so it holds no matter who is in the seat. The two can work together.
4. Scaling Up, Category Design or Crossing the Chasm: which framework do I need?
It depends on which stage is holding your growth back right now. Each solves part of the problem well, and none answers it all on its own. Crossing the Chasm (Geoffrey Moore) is about which customers to win first. Scaling Up (Verne Harnish) is an operating model and strategy execution system for a growing company. Category Design (Play Bigger) is about becoming the default choice in your market, by defining the problem and the category so clearly that buyers see you as the obvious answer. Used at the wrong time, a good framework creates drag. The Sofos Concept-to-Category System™ maps and adapts these frameworks, and fills the gaps between them. I compare the three in more depth in my article on Scaling Up, Crossing the Chasm and Category Design.
5. What happens in a Stage Review, and what does it cost?
A Sofos Stage Review is free and takes 60 minutes on Zoom. We work out your stage from what's actually happening in the business, name the biggest source of drag, and agree the next step — including an honest view on whether we're the right fit to help. There's no obligation to go further.
6. Who does Sofos Advisory work with?
Sofos Advisory works with founders and leadership teams of innovation-led startups and scale-ups, and the investors and accelerators who back them. The largest client groups are digital, cybersecurity, data and AI, and deep tech, IoT and robotics, alongside energy and mobility, industrial, fintech, agriculture and climate.
7. Do you hand us a report, or work with our team?
Sofos works with your team. It isn't a report, and it isn't an hour of advice. It's active work: you and your team work through the decisions with us in workshops, do the work between sessions, and learn the method through short videos, so the thinking stays in your business. What that looks like for you depends on your stage, and we agree it after the Stage Review.
Hear it from a founder: Elliot Donazzan, Founder and CEO of Payble, on working with us (video). In his words: "...practical and outcome focused. I find the process fun and effective."
8. Is category design too early for my startup?
Category design isn't too early to start, but at the Traction stage it won't be what moves you forward. Defining a category, even before revenue, has some benefit: it sharpens how you describe the problem. But at the Traction stage, what moves you forward is customers and revenue you can repeat. If you can't yet win the same kind of customer again and again without being in the deal, your price doesn't hold without discounting, your unit economics don't work yet, or the team can't execute consistently with a system, a category story promises more than the business can prove. Fix the earlier stage first; the category work lands harder when you do.