Our client, ThreeBell Capital, an innovative wealth management firm for entrepreneurs, asked us to explain the entire wealth creation process from founding to IPO and after in one visual.
How do you show a process that takes decades in one visual?
How do you show a process that takes decades in one visual?
By choosing a clever analogy. Here we analogized the period of life from creating a company to taking public and managing the assets afterwards as a walk through a city.
There are two major periods in the life of a company founder - before they have liquidity, and after. The before part is the ground, and the after part is the water because water is liquid.
ThreeBell Capital serves as the guide for founders. To show what ThreeBell capital does we created the guide character, who directs the founder along the way.
The Sketch
We started with a sketch of the entire city to conceptualize where the ground and the water should be. Then we divided the image into different areas - company growth on top, the marina to the left where the founder chooses a dock from which to sail into the Sea of Liquidity. At the bottom the employee is walking a similar road. Still below, long-term personal goals, such as buying a home, are represented as a quiet neighborhood.
We started with a sketch of the entire city to conceptualize where the ground and the water should be. Then we divided the image into different areas - company growth on top, the marina to the left where the founder chooses a dock from which to sail into the Sea of Liquidity. At the bottom the employee is walking a similar road. Still below, long-term personal goals, such as buying a home, are represented as a quiet neighborhood.
To navigate the city of startup liquidity, we put a river through it, representing the obstacles a founder may face. Here the guides have an opportunity to help the founder. For example a cliff in the middle of the river is something to be aware of - that is the Alternative Mimnum Tax treatment that founders may have to deal with.
To talk about financial terms in an accessible way, we analogized them to buildings. The IPO, for instance, is a skyscraper symbolizing the success of the company. The 180 days of holding period after the IPO is a safe, because to get your money you have to wait.
What happens when your assets become liquid we represented by the different types of boats you could ride.
Characters
The people who play key roles in a founder's life, such as the angel investors, the co-founder, etc. are all represented with different characters.
Putting everything together, we created a micro-world where startup equity and liquidity finally make sense!
credits Three Bell Capital
