Don't Bother To get Dressed Until You Know Where Your Going! By Deb Tillett, Marketing Strategy Partner at TCV Growth Partners In other words, don’t wear flip-flops and jeans if you are going to a black-tie affair. Your company needs to present the “right look” before you spend money. Know Your Customer Before You Set a Marketing Budget A company’s ability to grow and succeed depends on the public holding the correct perception of what it represents and what it is selling. E

By Dave Costello, MBA/CPA, TCV Financial Leadership Partner As I write this article, we are approaching the mid-way point of 2026. Even if you are reading it in Q3 that is OK. There’s still time to take action to benefit your organization's performance for 2026. Just don’t wait too long! I get pretty excited about this time of year. Why, you ask? Not because summer is approaching. But because it is the perfect time for companies to pause, reflect, and re-calibrate. It’

By Rob Meissner, TCV Growth Partner- Most companies don't lose customers because their product is "bad." They lose them because the story, the promise, and the buying experience don't match what the customer needs. That mismatch is almost always a go-to-market (GTM) problem—not a feature problem. When your GTM strategy is built on assumptions, silos, or outdated positioning, you attract the wrong buyers, set the wrong expectations, and create friction that pushes good-fit cus

By J. Gary McDaniel, TCV Growth Partners: I have raised tens of millions in capital for over a half dozen companies in my career. In doing so, I learned a lot of hard lessons. Everyone is familiar with the term “runway” – it is the metric that keeps business owners up at night. When the bank account starts looking thin, the natural instinct is to grab the first lifeline thrown your way. But don’t. Expensive capital isn't just about high interest rates; it’s about the structur

A Practical Guide for Business Owners By Doug Zeisel, TCV Growth Partner- Uncertainty is nothing new in business—but today’s environment feels different. Between geopolitical tensions, economic unpredictability, and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, business owners are being asked to make critical decisions without a clear roadmap. So what should you be doing right now? The answer isn’t to panic or reinvent everything overnight. It’s to focus on fundamentals—executed

By Dave Costello, TCV Financial Leadership Partner: It’s now mid-April. Q1 is behind us. The books are closed. Reports have been distributed. Variances have been noted. But for finance and accounting teams, this is not the finish line; it’s the starting point for the most valuable work of the year. Companies that outperform don’t treat Q1 quarter-end as the time to take a break. They use it as a time to reassess assumptions, sharpen forecasts, and influence decision-making

By Rick Vohrer, TCV's Sales Quarterback: Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today, the world is awash in green , shamrocks, and the age-old pursuit of "the luck of the Irish." For business owners, it’s a fun day to celebrate, but it also brings a familiar myth to the surface: the idea that success is something you "stumble upon," like a rare four-leaf clover in a field of three-leaf ones. While a bit of good timing can feel like magic, any seasoned entrepreneur knows that sustainabl