This month's newsletter is the final in a three-part series about our endeavor to increase our impact and mainstream our message to the broader business community.

 

In our conversations with you, we learned that our global community has become a unique and invaluable resource for entrepreneurs. You have told us that where we can increase our impact is by increasing our focus on how we engage that community to help ignite the growth of the Astia companies.

 

Every successful high-growth company hits an inflection point that results in hyper growth. You told us that the Astia community and offering, when thoughtfully engaged, can be the resource to ensure that the Astia companies successfully navigate to this hyper-growth. The peer-to-peer connections, the industry connections, the investor connections - when mapped to this objective - can be the rocket fuel for growth for the companies we serve.

 

We listened to you, and to this end, allow us to present the newly refined Astia offering for women-led, high-growth start-ups:

 

Astia Access - A broad offering for exceptional startups that aspire to high-growth and who seek expert-level feedback. Access members receive timely, targeted, and unfiltered feedback - an invaluable tool for any smart entrepreneur's toolbox - as well as access to online tools and community. Early 2013 Launch

 

Astia Global Entrepreneur Program - A premier offering for exceptional entrepreneurs leading emerging companies (the "e-suite") who are poised to take advantage of Astia's global community. Chosen by the community via in-person screening, companies participate in the Astia Global Entrepreneur Program that includes a week-long boot-camp followed by three months with a team of Astia Advisors. Advisor teams drive to mission-critical business milestones and are comprised of an investor, a c-level entrepreneur, and two other industry leaders. Launched Spring 2012

 

Astia Portfolio - A premier offering for breakout companies on the fast track to success. By invitation-only, best-of-class companies from around the world will present to and be selected by industry leaders to join this elite cohort. Launching the second half of this year. 

 

For each level of engagement, companies will receive:

• Unparalleled access to the global community of entrepreneurs, investors, industry leaders.
• Unfiltered feedback, strategic guidance & high-level introductions.
• The opportunity to engage with and learn from a global cadre of exceptional entrepreneur peers.

 

To help you extend our message, we listened to our entrepreneurs and here are the key messages they would want us to share:

• Astia is extremely competitive and highly selective: Companies are sourced, screened, and selected by the global community of experts.

• Astia offers select ventures an opportunity to achieve high-growth: We focus our work on the difficult stages of growth. When things get tough, Astia is with you.

• Astia is a community: We short-cut the pathways to success through the development of rich relationships. We make the right connections at the right time.

• Astia offers women entrepreneurs the resources to be successful:  Being a successful high growth company requires rapid professional growth for the founders. Astia's offering provides the leadership skills necessary for founders to become CEO's.

• Astia advances a woman-led not a woman-only mission. In everything we do we strive for a 50/50 representation of men and women.  

We are excited to implement the ideas you have shared with us and have every confidence that this refined approach will deliver on our desire to increase our impact.

 

I very much look forward to working with you in the coming months as we roll this out.

 

Cheers and thank you to all who continue to engage, support, and lead this important work,

 

Sharon Vosmek

CEO, Astia