Denis Oakley

I've helped over 200 technology startups grow by refining their strategy and helping them deliver it. I focus on their vision, or why, and ensure that they have a business model that delivers it. I use a hypothesis driven lean startup-based approach that allows us to make data driven decisions that reduce the risk of failure. I help businesses solves problems of survival and growth. I help them find a clear vision and a business model that can deliver exceptional value to their customer segments. I then design operational improvement plans that deliver growth. Most of my customers are technology startups or businesses, however there are also non-tech companies as well I worked with Malaysia's largest dementia age care provider which was facing bankruptcy due to high costs and poor pricing. In 6 months, we increased beds and revenue by 40%, whilst reducing staffing costs by 30% . With a food delivery startup, I introduced a kaizen approach that made 5264 changes in 8 months that allowed us to scale delivery by 500%. At the same time deliveries moved from 13% being delivered within an hour to 92% being delivered in a 20-minute target window. With a medium sized company, I led a strategic review of their business and market and led a business model innovation process that saw them starting two new ventures and a major restructuring. I've found that the ideas of Steve Blank, Eric Ries, Roman Pinchler, Marc Gruber, Seth Godin and Donald Millar play well together in building businesses that work. A typical client consulting engagement will include the following steps 1. Map out the existing business model 2. Assess the performance of the business model (not the company) against qualitative and quantitative KPIs 3. Stress test the business model. 4. Report on the ability of the business to respond to change 5. Develop multiple business models that pivot the business 6. Provide actionable roadmaps to enable clients to execute

I work with startups to help them grow and raise funding. There are four areas that we focus on

-customer discovery and problem/solution validation

-strategic focus - i.e. not running after shiny objects!

-B2B sales from POC to full commercialisation

-Fundraising for tech companies at Seed and Series - A

Global 500 Startups portfolio companies come to me with questions about their business models and how to pivot. They have frequently got some level of product-market fit but are not achieving the growth that they need. I am also a resident mentor for corporate accelerator programmes - bother intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial. The business model innovation sessions are mentee driven and are focused on addressing particular business model problems. Problems that we have worked on include:

-How to pivot from a B2C to B2B market?

-Creating new social networks in a space dominated by massive incumbents

-Disrupting existing medical device suppliers

-Building a scalable sales model in the healthcare sector

-Reworking value propositions to increase conversion rates in retail analytics