Growing great ideas into great companies
Growing great ideas into great companies.
Arbor Dakota Strategies
Many entrepreneurs and companies have great ideas. But growing those great ideas into great companies is more complex than it appears. Customers do not flock to you because you have a great idea. Arbor Dakota helps you grow that great idea into a great company…the hard part of entrepreneurship.
We specialize in helping early stage tech companies with developing uncontested markets, sharpening their message and presence, improving their sales discipline and achieving the growth that they, and their investors desire. We also help them better understand the metrics that drive valuation, improve the probability of funding (or even eliminate the need for funding) and reducing the amount of mistakes that they make (and there are many). We combine creativity with experience with hard work to achieve results that will not disappoint. We love the dirty, messy, ugly process of early stage company development. And, if you want, we will work side-by-side with you and actually pitch in and do the work. We’re hands-on, not just advice from afar.
Our customers include tech companies ranging in size from $0 revenue to $50M in revenue, economic development organizations, university technology transfer offices, incubators, accelerators and VC firms (for portfolio companies).
We help fill the gaps that cause you to lose revenue.
Services
Consulting
Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift, market messaging and lead generation, developing OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), sales process, financial reporting, attracting investors and overall business and company-building consulting. Learn more…
CEO Development
It is not easy for founders to evolve from Founder-CEO to Early Customer Acquisition-CEO to Scale-CEO. Arbor Dakota offers a methodology and set of tools to help CEOs through these transition phases to help ensure maximize growth potential for the company.
Mentoring
Arbor Dakota Helps entrepreneurs through the journey to help overcome the many obstacles in their path.
Training and Content
We offer a range of training programs and content on a variety of entrepreneurial topics including sales, messaging, on-boarding employees, implementing a partner program, lead generation, strategy development, board development and management and many more… To learn more see the Training Courses, TEDD Talks and eBooks Pages.
Board Development and Relations
Helping CEOs learn how to select board members and manage through board issues. We also serve on boards of early-stage companies. Learning to effectively use your board can be one of the most challenging, but financially rewarding issues in your CEO journey.
Public Speaking
Speaking on a variety of either entrepreneurial, strategy or innovation topics. Arbor Dakota has done speaking to company personnel populations as small as 35 people to large conferences of 2,500 people.
Learn More From a Thought Leader
Latest News
Ted Dacko Named Global Blue Ocean Leadership Award Winner for 2022
Five years ago, in 2017, the idea for the Global Blue Ocean Leadership Awards was born. The aim was to create an award given [...]
Arbor Dakota Conducts CEO Master Class Series For Entrepreneurs For Ann Arbor SPARK and Desai
Arbor Dakota has been contracted by Ann Arbor SPARK and Desai Accelerator to conduct an eight-session CEO Master Class for entrepreneurs. This is the fifth [...]
Arbor Dakota Introduces Video CEO Master Class Series For Entrepreneurs
Arbor Dakota is pleased and proud to introduce a video series entitled "CEO Master Class For Entrepreneurs" This series is designed to help start-up [...]
What Others Are Saying
“We’re proud to have Ted Dacko’s application of the blue ocean process featured in our book Blue Ocean Shift. As CEO, Ted shifted HealthMedia from the red to the blue ocean, transforming the struggling $6 million dollar company to one worth $185 million in just two years. We wish more companies in the technology and healthcare sectors would follow this lead. Three cheers to Ted!”
“Ted’s content, training classes and mentoring have been invaluable to help Ann Arbor SPARK tech companies launch and scale. His content is well-received, his classes are full and get great reviews and there is constant demand for his consulting services.”
“Without Ted, I would have never moved HealthMedia beyond a science fair project. His marketing expertise, sales expertise, organizational expertise and operational expertise are the best I have ever seen. He is a brilliant business mind and it has always been a pleasure to work with him.” from 2008 Deals of the Year Speech