Many have asked what exactly we do at Vernon. It’s true that we’ve never explained it in detail. So here we go: a detailed yet concise overview of how we help companies operate at their peak.
Our Track Record
We (both Teo and Pedro) have worked with top-tier tech companies and operators. We co-founded Circular.io, supported by Point Nine, LocalGlobe, and Kibo Ventures. We also held executive roles at companies like Jobandtalent, Busuu, Social Point, and Lyst, which reached Series B-C or were acquired. Additionally, at Vernon, we’ve advised over 40 clients including VCs like Northzone and Whitestar, and companies such as Clarity.ai, Mercadona Tech, and Chicfy (now Vinted).
During these two decades in the industry we’ve learned how best-in-class product is built: via pragmatism, focus, and a streamlined structure.
What We Do
We save companies time and money by helping them get to best-in-class products faster. We do this through two types of projects:
Product and Tech Due Diligence / Internal Review
We typically work with VCs or directly with founders. In both cases, due diligence before an investment or internal reviews, we help companies identify the key product and tech challenges that can compromise their business objectives and how to address them. This is structured in a 2-3 week project:
- We start with a kick-off session with founders and the executive team.
- A custom questionnaire is shared with the company’s team.
- This is followed by a one-day workshop at the company’s headquarters to dig deeper into responses.
- We end the assessment with follow-up sessions with key stakeholders.
- Lastly we build a report outlining 8-10 challenges and recommended initiatives.
With this process, we are answering two questions: can the current product and tech plan realistically support the business plan? What are the key operational challenges the board should be looking into for the next 12-18 months?
We cover a wide range of product and tech topics, including product development cycles, roadmap, analytics, tech architecture, infrastructure and security, machine learning and AI, operations, product marketing.
Execution Support
We are not your typical consultants who leave you with a slide presentation; we are builders. The second type of project involves working with your team to implement all or some of these initiatives. For those beyond our expertise (or our available time), we tap into a network of professionals in fields such as interface design, user acquisition, and recruitment.
Our approach includes:
- Due Diligence / Internal Review. This is optional as some companies already have a clear picture of what they need help with.
- Detailed definition of initiatives. We work with your team on identifying the issues, making the first commits, drafting the sales material, crafting the landing messages or whatever it takes to ensure the initiatives are clear and moving in a good direction.
- Follow-up sessions during implementation. We are very flexible here, from on-demand sessions to interim or fractional roles for a few months.
Examples of our initiatives include reducing B2B onboarding costs by 40%, developing machine learning recommendation systems, reworking product positioning, speeding up product development cycles, building an AI video product from scratch, or building a robust analytics infrastructure.
Let’s get to work together
As shared in our previous post, we are focusing on projects with an AI emphasis but remain open to any opportunities to have real impact.
Connect with us at [email protected] if there is something you think we can help you with!
