How I Develop Services for Startup Founders by Observing My Own Actions

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When I develop services for entrepreneurs I tend to act first and only then analyze how my clients responded. Today, I want to share how I learned to observe my own “magic” (as my business coach calls it) and turn it into products.

My business coach often asks me: “Wow, that’s impressive! How did you do this or that? Look, not many people can do it, yet you take it for granted.” Over time, I adopted this method of observing myself.

Case from Practice

A founder of a business with $3M+ in annual revenue operates in a niche regional market. He has achieved a 30% market share. The situation in his niche is pushing players toward M&A. In addition, the founder’s priorities have shifted. Now he wants to build a company in the U.S. market.

How the “Magic” Showed Up

1. I recommended an analyst from my network who gathered data and insights on both the U.S. and local markets. We identified target niches in the new market.

2. We set a goal to sell the local company to a strategic buyer, defined a pool of potential acquirers, and built a strategy outlining who might buy the company and why.

3. Through networking, the founders spoke with potential buyers and identified the interests of key stakeholders. For each potential strategic buyer, we developed a negotiation plan, mapped strengths and weaknesses, and prepared fallback strategies in case of rejection. We also accounted for hidden motivations of different players.

4. We created a one-year company and product development strategy, factoring in a potential M&A scenario.

5. In parallel, we launched a U.S. market entry track with a new product and a new company. The team was accepted into a top-5 U.S. accelerator and will begin testing the new market in May 2026.

   
   

Initially, this “magic” operated within the framework of personal consulting and emerged from the founder’s question: “Given this market situation, what should I do next?” M&A, entering a new market, and splitting the company and products across different geographies all emerged organically during the process.

How I Plan to Turn These Insights into Products

1. Keep the personal consulting product (a weekly advisory board meetings) as a standalone offering. It will resemble what a family doctor does. It is a person knows the patient’s history and specifics, highlights issues at the right time, and refers them to the right specialists. Over time, I plan to scale this direction by bringing in other “family doctors” like myself.

2. Build a marketplace of vetted value-added service providers tailored to founders’ needs. Eventually, I plan to open access to external clients (I have some interesting ideas here, but I won’t share them yet).

3. Create a dedicated product to support founders on the sell-side of investment deals.

4. Develop a separate product for startups going through accelerator selection processes.

How do you leverage your own “magic,” and what insights have you gained by observing your actions? Share in the comments.

P.S. If you have interesting requests for me, feel free to DM me on LinkedIn (Denis Kalyshkin) or send me an email via dk@askvc.org. I’d be happy to work with your case.