The story of our name is written in the stars. If you’re into mysticism - or some biblical sh!t - then maybe you knew that already. But the name isn’t meant to be religious… not until you work with us, that is.
It all starts with Moses in the wilderness near Mount Sinai (yeah here comes the biblical sh!t). You’ve heard of him, right? He’s the guy from your Sunday school classes, with the beard and the tablets and all that. But before he was talking to the big man upstairs he was trudging across the desert to get to the promised land. “Let my people goooo*”.
Back in the day, scaling up and management issues were already a thing.
Here he was, leading a whole bunch of people through the desert when his father-in-law, Jethro, did what father-in-laws tend to do and told him he was doing a crappy job and was a terrible manager: there were internal conflicts, disagreements about where they should go next, middle management infighting and woeful communication amongst the group (the megaphone hadn’t been invented yet and we all know what happens when you pass a message from one person to the next and then the next). Anyway, here is old mate Moses - the same guy from all the religious texts no matter which book you do or do not follow - close to the first burn-out in human history.
His father-in-law was indeed being critical, but he also came to Moses with good advice: delegate, because you can’t do it all on your own. Find experts, empower them and be a leader, not a mere manager of their problems.
What leadership lessons did Moses learn from Jethro?
- Effective leaders know their limitations: leadership is not a one-man show and if you have a compelling vision for the future, it’s too big a burden to carry on your own.
- Effective leaders choose the best: a leader has to be able to choose individuals who are not only capable, but trustworthy and have integrity.
- Effective leaders delegate: they don’t try to do everything themselves. They focus on the big picture and break it down into manageable chunks.
This advice could have been straight out of the Harvard School of Business, McKinsey or even just what your mom told you almost every day when you were growing up (Hi Ma!).
What does all this mean for you?
First, it’s our job at iytro to take some of the burden away from founders. Think of us as trusted confidants, helping founders stay focused on their initial vision for their businesses, and we help you deliver on that promise.
Second, our name. We didn’t call ourselves Jethro, because that may have sounded too much like 70’s progressive rock. We’ve adapted the name of Jethro, the guy with the good advice, into something a little bit less intangible: we called ourselves iytro.
Why we exist
We’ve been immersed in an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation for several years, and this is how our co-founders met back in 2018. Jon was the CMO of the Venture Capital Fund Alven, and Phil was a marketing freelancer working for an Alven portfolio company. During their work together, they both noticed that a number of startups share a common pain: difficulty with understanding and launching the right marketing strategies. Often finding it difficult to know which profiles to hire at different stages of growth.
In the first years of their existence, the primary objective of a founding team is to find product/market fit. To respond to this issue, a startups’ priority is to focus on Tech, Product, Sales and Recruitment. Consequently de-prioritizing investments in marketing. In our experience, we think this is a strategy fraught with peril. A startup is unlikely to survive in a competitive market without a proper marketing strategy.
Unfortunately, most founders just don’t know where to start when it comes to their marketing. Early stage startups need assistance: a helping hand, trusted advice, someone to show them the way. An ally. Someone they can trust. Like a father-in-law.
That’s why we were born. Meet iytro, the Part-Time CMO, giving early stage startups immediate access to experienced marketers. Pleased to meet you. Now, let’s keep moving. Together. To the promised land.
