Testimonial from Scott Tibbitts - CEO of Katasi

Project Scope: Corporate Development, Capital Markets Strategy, Investment Positioning and Narrative, Investor Relations

Project Time Period: 6 Months

Over the past five years I’ve engaged a half dozen strategic advisors to support our company in developing our investment strategy and story. All have been helpful in their own ways with respect to structuring our investment story and providing a cleaner and professional opportunity. 

When we were preparing for our latest investment, I was looking for a fresh perspective. Marc was recommended as “the best out there”. When we met, it quickly became apparent that there was much more he would bringing to the process. What I particularly appreciated was counterintuitive advice that rang true. He was not parroting conventional wisdom, but was providing advice from extensive professional experience.

It was clear that his primary areas of experience were engagement with the venture, private equity, institutional, family office, and strategic investment communities.  Within 20 minutes of meeting I decided to partner with him in developing the investment round.

However, I was unprepared for the depth and breadth of counsel and support he provided through the process. He became a key strategic partner for me and the company, not only for investment, but other growth challenges we were in the midst of including organizational structure, leadership and management challenges. He quickly became a sounding board and advisor in more areas than I had expected.

As a first step, he suggested that he collocate with us to get a full sense of the company. To listen and observe what Katasi was to augment what we said it was. In ‘seven habits’ lexicon he was seeking first to understand. His frequent presence in the company provided ground truth on our business, personalities, strategy and value proposition, and helped him see our company in ways that we had not. Within a couple of weeks, he began to reframe our view of our business and growth strategy to a form that was more easily and powerfully communicated internally and externally. The reframing also helped us refine our operational focus. Only after that time spent did he begin to develop our business case and investment story.

A key part of his support was his helping us drive to ground key supporting elements of our investment story, in particular the to-market and hiring strategies. He helped us flesh these out to a high level of granularity and ground truth, something we had overlooked in previous investment stories. The feedback we received from investors and Board members was that it was one of the best investment stories they had seen.

Mark’s support continued throughout the investment process, including introductions throughout his investment network, as well as helping craft and manage a curated investment lead process so as to focus effort in areas that had the best chance of success. Throughout he helped adjust, iterate and continue to improve the process.

Marc clearly gets deep satisfaction from helping growing companies succeed. He is a reflective practitioner that has the professional experience and resulting wisdom to do so.

He comes highly recommended by me as an advisor and catalyst for investment, growth and company success.

I would be pleased to provide additional feedback if needed.

Scott Tibbitts - CEO of Katasi