Alex Ambroz

What were the challenges you faced as a founder before joining Connectd?

Alex Ambrose, Founder, Allocator Training Institute: My background in the investment industry spans from being an intern many decades ago all the way up to being a chief investment officer, working at endowments, healthcare foundations, and on Wall Street at JP Morgan. Many of our team have long backgrounds at all levels in the institutional investment landscape.

But when we started the Allocator Training Institute, we didn't have a background in building and marketing businesses. One of the largest challenges we faced was how to market ourselves appropriately, tell our story correctly, and reach people on the right channels. There were also lots of smaller things: when people become customers, how do we welcome them properly? When people decide to leave, how do we ensure we say goodbye on good terms and leave the door open for them to return? All of that aspect of running and starting a business, the go-to-market strategy, the sales process, was something that I and many of our team and advisory board members were simply not familiar with.

What made you feel like Connectd was the right place to look for advisory support?

Alex Ambrose: Connectd is just a fantastic institution, honestly. After a few introductory calls where they learned about what we do and what we were looking for, we talked through the profiles of professionals they have available, and quickly realised one of the key gaps in our business was marketing.

As part of that gap analysis, Connectd introduced us to someone who could be really helpful from a marketing perspective. And they were. What we discovered is that the talent Connectd has on tap is really unique, and the process by which Connectd puts disparate capabilities and experiences together with founders looking to fill gaps in what they're doing is incredibly helpful.

That's where we met Amy, with 20-plus years of marketing experience. She was quickly able to understand our business, the types of people and institutions that purchase our services, and the best part was the small and large things she noticed and was able to point out and provide ideas around. Those things really helped push the ball forward for our business.

How did you structure your partnership with Amy to ensure the support was focused and useful?

Alex Ambrose: At first, monthly calls roughly. The first call was for her to learn about what we do as a business, and then she spent some time investigating and learning on her own. We gave her full insight into what we do and how we do it, and then we talked about the issues we were facing from a marketing perspective.

One example where she was really helpful: gaining insight into customers who leave and understanding why they leave. On one of our lines of business, customers would cancel and we didn't really know why, and didn't have any capability to reach out to them. Amy pointed out, "We could set up a survey before they cancel. It'll just take them a second to complete, but it's a way to get critical information about why they're leaving before they go."

It was like a lightning bolt of insight, and she's had a number of these. As soon as she shares an insight, the value of implementing it into our business workflow is just blindingly obvious. The goal is to check in with her every so often, show her the progress on the things we last discussed, and talk through the challenges we're currently facing.

What has been the most meaningful outcome of this partnership, and what's next beyond the pro bono phase?

Alex Ambrose: We're past the pro bono phase. Amy now has equity in the company. The meaningful outcome is really the direct impact she's had on marketing and sales ideas, how we position ourselves, social media strategy, pricing, customer support. Everything around that is absolutely critical for any startup.

Amy doesn't have the investment background that the rest of the team and advisory board has, but she brings something really different to the table. The key things she helps us with are: number one, grow the business. Number two, retain the customers we have. And number three, appropriately track the people we've lost to better understand why we lost them and avoid losing more in future. It's been an incredibly helpful partnership.

What advice would you give to another founder considering Connectd?

Alex Ambrose: 100%, this is a really unique service. The roster of experienced professionals Connectd has across all aspects of business is absolutely amazing and incredibly helpful. And the team at Connectd spends a really good amount of time genuinely understanding startups and what they're trying to build before finding appropriate matches within the platform.

I've recommended Connectd to startups I know in Dublin. I think it's an amazing service. I can't believe it didn't exist before. I hope you continue to be successful, and I hope we can expand the partnership and bring in more people when the time is right for our firm.

Connectd didn't just introduce me to support. It helped build and grow our business.

Alex Ambrose, Founder, Allocator Training Institute