The Bonfire Way
We will not push you to spend all your money as fast as you can in the name of growth.
Instead, we follow what we call, 'The Bonfire Way,' collaborating with you to craft an intentional strategy for building a well-balanced company, one step and one stage at a time.
Getting to a Joint Yes
The not so awkward dance
Find a champion on the Bonfire team. Discuss with us why you are doing this and noodle together on what it will take for you to win. Review your traction to date and your high-level forward operating plan & product roadmap. Introduce us to 3 customers who love you and chat with 3 of our founders who love us. Close the round and celebrate! Receive our sweet swag, get intros to peer founders, and unlock your Bonfire network benefits.
Motions & Outcomes
Launch with intentionality
Throw the seed pitch deck out. Workshop with us to further define your “why”, “who”, and “how.” Together, create an operating plan for the next 15+ months. Agree on the key outcomes & the path required to get there – your top priorities, your metrics to measure against, and the hiring plan needed. Announce your seed round with a website you don’t hate, a demand gen funnel that isn’t too leaky, and press coverage that supercharges the team.
Hire, Execute, Learn
Expand team and output
Focus your GTM with one approach to one ICP as you start hiring ICs across marketing, sales & success. Embrace "your suck" and learn/ iterate quickly on what does and doesn’t work with regard to ARR (attracting & closing buyers) and People (which profiles excel). Expand product throughput by hiring your 1st PMs and Dev leads to scale delivery and become intentional around your product roadmap and deliverables.
Repeatable Traction
Scale and feel team success
Stop micromanaging the scrum and start leading & managing small teams with a healthy management cadence. Use the board meeting for quarterly reflections for you & your teams. Recruit great GTM leads so you can personally scale as a leader and your company can absorb more ICs. Tighten up your narrative and achieve your desired core outcomes. Gain confidence that you now have the story, motion, and balanced team needed to support rapid expansion.
Raise for “Go Time”
Gear up and fund expansion
Run through our Series A pitch gauntlet - make multiple revs, fight over fonts, and nail your narrative and energy. Manage a tight financing process with the right investors who love Bonfire companies. Receive terms sheets, pick your lead, and close out the round. Announce fund-raise and realize, yikes, “here we go." Relax as you have built a balanced & focused business and just as your work is not done, nor is ours.
