The Xchange Company Inc.

I joined The Xchange Company Inc., a venture capital firm with a vision to reimagine the venture industry, in May 2022 as the company’s Head of Content. The company had plans to launch a leadership development arm called The Institute. I was also tasked as the lead of The Institute to help get the leadership arm off the ground.

When I joined The Xchange, the company was in year two of operation and still figuring many things out. It was primarily working as a very successful fund (11 investments in its first 9 months) and advisory to its portfolio companies. My first objective was to work deeply with the founders to develop the company brand and narrative and to revamp a website that did not do the company or team justice in showcasing its vision and work. 

In our work together, we landed on initial positioning, that The Xchange, “takes ideas and people to highest potential.” While this was an initial positioning we felt that it encapsulated the journey of building a successful business and the stance The Xchange wanted to take as a humanist VC that cares for the founders and businesses it works with. The Xchange cares about 1) values, 2)value and 3) valuation, in that order, which also became part of its positioning.

I develop a V2 site that, while still slightly vague to give room for the company to change and grow, had a much better vibe—modern but slightly etheral/aspirational—the company needed to be seen as credible in its market but also differentiate itself.

Our brand positioning work also let to significant headway on the intentions and design of the company’s venture platform (currently in development).

For The Xchange, I created “The Xchange Brand & Content Bible” a shared resource accessible by the team to streamline the narrative on pitch decks and marketing collateral. The bible, which encapsulates the companies purpose, vision, mission, values, as well as, its brand positioning statements and visuals, while also giving teams access to all content and marketing collateral ever produced, has become an item I believe all companies must have. 

To begin the launch of The Institute, I worked with one of the founders to develop his ideas into a book and coaching methodology that we called the XOS—The Xchange Operating System. In addition to this work, we built a substack community to play with positioning. The Institute arm of the company was put on hold due to a pivot in direction. It remains a future aspect of the company’s overally play while current focus is its platform and advisory.

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