For the earlier 6 months, there has been a great deal of handwringing about the marketplace downturn. Most everybody has been advising entrepreneurs to marshal their money, minimize fees, and increase their runway. In essence, perform defense.

Quite a few traders have been developing a whiplash result with their portfolio businesses. As one particular of my CEOs put to me, wryly:

“In my January board conference, I wasn’t selecting and scaling quickly ample and advised to ‘go, go’, go’. In my April board meeting, I was burning also rapidly and was advised to ‘stop, end, stop’.”

Her working experience rhymes with many tales I’ve read.

But lately, as the dust has settled a little bit, I am seeing the best business owners know that now is the time to play offense. The “perform offense” playbook is nicely recognized to lots of, but hard to execute all through a downturn. With the begin of the football time about the corner (go Patriots!) and as I have been chatting to my most proficient business people, I have been considering far more and additional about what taking part in offense looks like in 2022-2023.

Here’s the 6-section playbook I’m hearing:

1. Acquire expertise

A several several years ago, it was impossible to obtain expertise. The greatest engineers, sales reps, and development administrators could name their rate and experienced a dozen provides in front of them. These days, layoffs—particularly at development stage companies—have led to a large pullback in startup choosing. As a result, some of the most talented men and women in our ecosystem are all of a sudden up for grabs once again. My greatest portfolio providers are judiciously introducing remarkably proficient people on the entrance traces, getting benefit of arguably the very best expertise market in a decade. I am shocked at the top quality of the hires that are occurring for these who are seizing this second to pursue excellent expertise.

“The govt team you were ready to attract a year ago may well be really distinct from the government staff you can attract these days.”

2. Uplevel government groups

It is tricky to acknowledge, but the executive group you ended up ready to attract a yr back may be incredibly unique from the government group you can draw in today, notably if you’ve grown in the last calendar year and have a demonstrably vibrant upcoming…