At Force Management, our sales methodology had reached over 200,000 trained professionals, and hundreds of early-stage companies wanted access to the same frameworks but couldn't afford our standard $250K+ engagements. Many of our program alumni were also moving into roles at early-stage companies, and several of our venture capital partners asked us to bring our methodology to their portfolio companies. I saw the gap and took it on as General Manager of a new offering built specifically for that segment.
I built the business model and business case from scratch, then hired a team of marketing, community, and platform leads to bring it to life. Instead of copying our high-touch consulting model, we built a self-serve content platform paired with live virtual events, giving early-stage companies access to our frameworks at a fraction of the cost. We named it Ascender by Force Management. I managed the $1.5M budget for the launch and took the product to market.
In its first year, Ascender drove 15% growth in MRR.