Industry Platforms and Consortia

Value Propositions

Almost every industry has one, or more, platform companies trying to become the industry’s “go-to” marketplace for buyers, sellers, financial intermediaries, credentialers and other service providers to meet and transact more efficiently. Some of these companies are start-ups created by entrepreneurs with deep vertical knowledge and some are buyer- or supplier-led consortia created back during the Internet bubble. While most of the latter died, a few have thrived.

Strategic Issues

Industry cloud and consortia platforms face similar issues to the ones faced by my other clients, plus a few additional ones:

Acquisition Strategy

Many successful industry platforms have grown through add-on acquisitions and are seeking to emulate this strategy. I help develop and execute such strategies.

Serial Verticalization

The advantage of an industry approach is the depth of business processes a platform can tackle and the defensive moat that can be built as a result of this depth. The disadvantage is that a single industry may not support the type of return on investment expected by shareholders. I have helped several clients identify and expand to adjacent industries, or find non-adjacent industries with similar business processes.

Data Monetization

Because of their deep domain knowledge, industry cloud companies develop tremendous databases of information that can have tremendous value to industry participants. I help clients think through the technology architecture, privacy/ownership, and data presentation issues associated with becoming a data-as-a-service provider.