A business builder is a business model to promote self-sustaining revenue growth of early stage tech startups, involving sales and marketing, strategic and operational support, as well as admin and legal. The model aims to fill a gap in the market between accelerators, business incubators and traditional funding models, such as Venture Capital or Angel Investment.
The focus of the business builder is to develop a go-to-market strategy to drive sales and marketing, allowing the startup to generate revenue earlier on, letting the technical founders concentrate on product development.
The main differences between business builders and accelerators are:
For the business builder model to be successful and become a self-sustaining infrastructure, the startup must have a product or service capable of generating revenues on a consistent monthly basis. For this reason, the model has proven to be more appropriate for B2B technologies.
History
The business builder model was pioneered by The Sandpit, headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The model was devised by Simon Campbell, a British serial entrepreneur, who founded The Sandpit in 2010. The Sandpit focuses on tech startups in the B2B digital marketing vertical.