The Path Forward: A framework for ecommerce and marketplace entrepreneurs

Hello everyone! I'm Matt, an investor at Forward Partners (@Forwardprt)....we're a super-early stage eCommerce and Marketplace VC in London. There's a lot of talk from VCs about being "high value add". . . but . . . unlike all the rest, we have a team of full-stack devs, front-ends, digital marketers, graphic designers, recruiters, accountants, lawyers and a Head of Product to help our idea stage investments and our wider portfolio. We've been doing this for a while and we've noticed some trends, patterns, don't do's and definitely do's. So we've put together The Path Forward (www.thepathforward.io and @path_forward): a framework that describes the steps that ecommerce and marketplace startups can take to move themselves from raw idea to valuable business in the space of 12 months. It's a practical guide for entrepreneurs that stresses the importance of acquiring a deep understanding of customers’ real needs, building emotional resonance into products from the start, quickly getting to revenues, growth and scaleable economics. We'd love you to read it, question it, share it, tell us what you think about it....even contribute to it. We've got the ball rolling but we'd love to have other operators and investors contribute to it. Happy path-finding :)