The Operating Table: Are your Objectives objective enough? Plus how to improve the entire fundraising ecosystem...
Milly Barker
Fractional COO at Pay As You Go COO. I can help your growing company get more sh!t done. Serial startup COO. MBA. ex-Amazon.
Hi, I'm Milly and I help startups win.
2025 goal planning is in full swing across all of my clients’ companies and I’m in my absolute element. Not only am I only just one weekend away from being able to put up my Christmas tree without people wondering if it’s been up since last year, I’m also getting to talk about Strategy all. day. long.
Key to any good Strategy are quantitative measures of success - e.g. Objectives and Key Results that set a clear number target - and I’ve been spending a lot of time helping people clarify for their teams exactly what good looks like. It can be quite tricky to draw a specific line in the sand when everything is changing and growing.
I do this so often that I wrote a whole book about it last year called How To Write Your Strategy (technically I wrote 4 books last year because I evidently really, really didn’t want to leave the house).
I’ve shared a link below to an article on my website that summarises a key part of the strategic framework that’s at the heart of the book - specifically, how to write good Objectives.
To help you write your next Strategy, I’ll be serialising some other content from the book over the next few issues of this newsletter.
If you want to get ahead of the crowds and learn about the entire framework now, get the book for only ￡9.99 here.
In the meantime, in this issue of the Operating Table we’re not just thinking about Objectives but also three key tips to make the entire fundraising process better (including how to be a better VC if you’re heading down that path).
Are your Objectives objective enough?
I talk to lots of companies with OKRs that are really subjective - i.e. they have an Objective that doesn’t have a clear numerical value against it (e.g. “Expand Market Presence” versus "Grow revenue from ￡100k to ￡500k").
Installing a subjective measure of success is a great way to miss your goals. The clue here is in the name - your Objectives should be objective.
Here’s why.
Successful businesses are built on clear communication and quantitatives are the building blocks of clear business communication. A quantitative and objective measure of success is one that has only one clear definition, there’s no ambiguity, which means there's no room for misunderstanding.
I also believe, from my years and years of experience implementing business Strategies, that there should only be two Objectives in your Strategy. And this is especially true at the earlier stages of your business’s journey.
Here’s why.
You can only do one thing at once; by setting yourself fewer Objectives and having all of your work point towards them, you’re forcing yourself to focus only on the most important things that you can be doing right now. A whole company's worth of work can go into powering those two most important numbers - you won't be growing less by focussing, you'll just be stopping yourself getting distracted by shiny new things on the way there.
Those two Objectives should take a set form.
One is your revenue or profit goal - the amount of money that you’ve calculated in your Financial Plan that you need to bring in to cover the operational costs and generate the required profits.
The other is where your Mission Statement really comes into play. It’s a measure against that revenue that’s ensures that you're driving growth in a way that delivers your Mission.
It’s really, really hard to pin your entire business down into two key numbers that you want to hit. But, I promise you, it’s even harder to try to run a business that has a million different priorities.
If you want to learn more about how to write good Objectives for your 2025 plans, check out the full article in the link below.
Free Resources
I’m the ultimate cheerleader for early-stage companies and I’ve got the knowledge you need to?take your brilliant ideas from the drawing board to the board room.?Did you know you can get a lot of this knowledge for free on my website?
Find investors, accelerators, tips, tricks, tools, and more to help you beat the odds and build for success on my?free resources page. Here are some highlights:
Sifted has gathered 6 key pieces of advice for founders looking for funders this side of 2025. Check out the full info in the article below for great tips, like:
1. Optimise for commercial momentum: kick off your raise at a time when your company is going to be showcasing its best numbers.
2. “Where’s the AI?”: whether it's a key part of your product or not, questions about where AI fits into the business plan are going to come up. Be prepared to answer them.
3. Know what metrics VCs expect: Are you growing efficiently? Do you have good unit economics? Are you hiding both of those things by not expressing them through the right metrics?
Fundraising experts Robot Mascot have put together a series of 5 videos to take you, step-by-step, though their simple process for raising a round.
Sign up to get access to all five videos, featuring practical tips in key areas like:
1. How to position yourself as 'investable'
2. How to draw up the perfect plan
3. How to calculate the perfect projections
4. How to craft the perfect pitch
5. How to get in touch with the right investors
Mountside are Europe's leading accelerator & advisory firm. They provide interim CFO and fundraising advice for Series A and Series B companies, and run the leading fundraising accelerator for pre-seed & seed founders.
Their inaugural 'Emerging VC Manager Programme' will provide new VCs with:
? Warm introductions to a relevant LP base
? Mentoring from world-class VCs
? Significantly reduced barriers for under-represented managers
? 6 days of fundraising workshops from experts
? Curated LP & FO directory
? Latest fundraising templatesI’m Milly, Founder of Pay As You Go COO.
There are about 800,000 new businesses started in the UK each year and 62% of those will fail really quickly. I’m on a mission to stop yours being one of them.
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If you’re dreaming of getting more sh!t done in your growing company, why not book a free call to see how I can help?