Success rates for early-stage business have barely changed. Still only 30% survive beyond 3-5 years and with our collective experience we'd noticed that a lack of reliable data was causing all sorts of problems within the ecosystem processes. Ultimately growing a business has become a numbers game rather than one based on merit and potential.
The answer to us was to provide a technology solution, in a different way. Challenge the status quo and create a unique and world leading benchmark to truly measure entrepreneurial likelihood of success.
What does it do?
When we were designing the myNexus ESI our goal was simply to help aspiring, innate, and latent entrepreneurs access the tools they need to be successful.
The purpose of the ESI, and it’s component indices, is threefold:
- First, it allows you to understand why you are successful in what you do and which skills and traits hold you back or limit your entrepreneurial success.
- Second, it enables you to understand how you can develop, change, grow or just manage those parts of your personality and perhaps sense check whether you hold the right role in a business.
- Third, it facilitates better and more honest conversations about what you need for your business, or the business/role you work in, to be successful.
Although the ESI scores were developed to be used with our investment platform to match entrepreneurs and investors, they also stand alone as a development tool for anyone working in a business whether a corporate or a start up.
We know some founders have used this tool to identify a need for a co-founder with specific skills, or to better understand their team.
Scientific basis
We were adamant that any new tool needed to be backed by data and science. Our unique scoring mechanism is benchmarked to two psychometric tests which allow us to plot your skills against your potential. The recipe is of course a secret, but fundamentally we believe that you can develop both aspects.
What is has to do with investment
Investors often talk about the ‘team’ being the most important aspect of entrepreneurship however their current method for measuring this is to analyse business plans and financial information to evidence your capability. As you will see in our report, there are dozens of reasons why they might not find what they are looking for, but that doesn’t mean you are ‘uninvestible’.
This lack of innovation in the process is failing businesses and our ultimate aim is to change this process using these reports to show investors how they can back different businesses and understand entrepreneurs better.
Entrepreneurs have also told us the ESI report allows them to build their personal confidence, and prove their team strengths and capabilities. A key aspect of this is actually producing a business plan that doesn't necessarily look perfect, but evidences what they need and why in order to grow their strengths and mitigate the weaknesses.
We hope that you enjoy reading your insights and will learn something about yourself you might not have thought about before, but most of all we hope you have fun!
Different businesses need all of these entrepreneur types in different ways, so whilst your individual score is important to you it is the context of who else you work with and what you do with it that really matters.
Gaynor Matthews & James McMillan
Co-founders joinmynexus.com