Technology veterans and entrepreneurs Will and Mike Shook have launched a new company that they believe will help accelerate the growth of startups.

It’s called Accelerence. 

The Shooks announced the formal launch of the firm Monday.

In the Triangle, the Shooks are perhaps best known for their roles in growing and later selling Cary-based Strategic Technologies, an information technology services firm that grew into data hosting.

The brothers are aiming to help companies grow to the point venture capitalists might be interested in making an investment. 

“Not every entrepreneur or early stage startup is an ideal fit for traditional venture capital,” said Will Shook, who is the managing partner of Accelerence. “Accelerence helps fill the venture financing gap and enable business growth by improving companies’ risk-return potential and delivering the hands-on entrepreneurial expertise needed – whether that is in formulating effective revenue strategies, targeting the right customers or determining the best strategic financing plan.”

Added Mike Shook, who also is a managing partner: “We have been there and learned the tough lessons, and we are committed to giving back to today’s entrepreneurs and helping them execute quickly to achieve business profitability and success.”

The Shooks have developed a proprietary methodology they call “The 7 Steps to Profitable Business Growth” to help assess startups and develop strategies for growth. 

The “7 Steps:”

  • Know Thy Customer – Deep customer intimacy provides the foundation for creating solutions that solve meaningful problems that can be economically justified. Knowledge of customer buying behaviors and barriers to buying are crucial to consummating sales.
  • Know Thy Competition – A high quality, unbiased and formal understanding of the competitive landscape provides the basis for determining market entry viability, and truly effective market positioning.
  • Develop Strong, Actionable Segments – A true understanding of market size and the segments that exist within it provides the entrepreneur with the ammunition to create focus and dominate segments.
  • Articulate a Meaningful, Defensible Value Proposition – A solid value proposition is the cornerstone of market messaging, for setting hooks with customers that inspire them to take next steps through the sales funnel, and for sales/customer dialogue.
  • Commit to Sales as a Differentiator – Successful execution of a business plan requires as much valuable differentiation as possible. Customer engagement strategies and sales execution must be part of this.
  • Build Passion and Commitment in the Team – Simply put, inspired teams created inspired results. Over time, in the heat of continuous battle and the overcoming of consistent obstacles team passion and commitment can wane.
  • Align Everything, Establish a Drumbeat – Rapidly growing, resource constrained organization must manage commitments, aligns its resources and stay focused on the critical success factors.