In all the different roles I have, I get involved in a lot of different business journeys. Some I’ve started, built, scaled and sold myself. Others I’ve invested in or taken leadership roles to help stabilise or grow. And some I’ve turned down; not because they weren’t interesting, but because they didn’t yet have the heart of an investable business.
When I’m thinking about investing, either with money or time or both, it’s not just about spreadsheets, forecasts, and impressive pitches. I want to know what’s really there underneath the surface. Will this business still be standing and thriving in five years?
And the question I ask most often is this:
“What’s to stop a company with £1 million in the bank entering your market and wiping you out?”
It’s a brutal question, that’s why I like it. Because it gets straight to the heart of the matter and because I’m not looking for a business that needs rescuing. I’m looking for something that’s already got structure, direction, and the early signs of resilience not just hustle or hope. And if it hasn’t quite got there yet, that’s okay too because in my coaching and mentoring work, I sometimes help founder/directors build those muscles so that the business becomes investable.
A simple question that cuts through the noise
I’ve seen too many founders assume that growth is security. That if revenue is rising and there is a solid client base, everything is fine. But growth without strategy is fragile. And charisma without systems doesn’t scale.
So I ask the question: “What would stop a well-funded competitor from overtaking you overnight?”
You don’t need to be the biggest player in your market. You just need a reason why you’ll still be here when others fade. That’s what I’m looking for.
The problem with numbers
Don’t get me wrong, financials matter. I want to know the margins are real, the cash flow isn’t a fantasy, and the business model actually works.
But you can’t spreadsheet your way into a stable, scalable company. I’ve seen clever models with shaky foundations. Businesses with impressive growth that relied entirely on one customer, one founder, or one flash of luck that won’t strike twice. Numbers tell you what’s happened. I want to understand what happens next.
What I’m really looking for
When I ask that £1m question, I’m not just looking for a defensive answer. I’m listening for how founders think. What they’ve built that’s robust. Where the blind spots are. What they take for granted, and what they shouldn’t.
Here’s what I’m really assessing:
- Positioning & differentiation – What makes this company meaningfully different? If price is the only selling point, someone else with deeper pockets will undercut you. If the value proposition is clear, sharp, and hard to replicate, you’ve got something.
- Operational maturity – Can the business function without daily firefighting? Are there processes in place that scale? Or is it held together by sticky tape and the founder’s personal energy?
- Leadership depth – Is there a team, or just one person wearing too many hats? Businesses that depend on a single individual are fragile, even if they look successful right now.
- Growth strategy – Is there a real plan? One that’s tested, paced, and matched to resources and capability? Or are we just hoping the market keeps doing us favours?
And perhaps most importantly…
- Culture – The one thing you can’t buy – You can copy a website. You can match a product. You can hire similar people. But you can’t buy culture.
A strong, healthy culture is a competitive advantage. It shows up in how teams make decisions, solve problems, take ownership, and drive results even when the founder isn’t in the room. It’s in the rhythm and mindset of the business, the unwritten rules people follow because they believe in the mission.
Culture is the glue, the engine and the heartbeat, and if it’s strong, I know this company can keep going and keep growing, even when the market shifts. If it’s weak, no amount of capital will fix it.
Let me give you three examples; one where I walked away, and two where I said yes.
Why I didn’t get involved
There was a business in the B2B services space, marketing primarily. They were turning over a couple of million, with a small but passionate team. The founder was smart, and there was plenty of energy around the table.
But scratch the surface and it started to wobble. The clients were there because of the founder. Pricing was inconsistent. Processes were light. The founder was clearly tired, but still very much the engine of the whole operation. When I asked my £1M question, the answer was something like: “We’ve got long-term relationships, they’d (our clients) never leave us.”
But long-term relationships don’t survive poor systems, slow delivery, or a better offer from someone new. That confidence wasn’t backed up by anything structural; no tech, no IP, no unique operating rhythm. If a better-funded business had entered with more polish, more speed, and less emotional baggage, clients could move on quickly.
There was potential and I offered to coach them to build a better foundation. But I didn’t invest. Not because I didn’t like the founder or the idea, but because the business wasn’t resilient enough to scale or defend its space without me ending up with a job in the company I’d just invested in.
And why I did
The contrast couldn’t have been clearer with a regional infrastructure consultancy I came across.
The founder had deliberately built a team to deliver the work without them. Processes were embedded. Delivery teams were empowered. Mid-level leaders were already being developed. Clients came back not because of who owned the business or the personalities of its leaders, but because of how the business ran.
When I asked the £1M question, the founder didn’t flinch.
“Others have tried. We win because we deliver better, and our people stay. We make our clients look good and they know it.”
The culture was serious but not heavy. The commercial model was well thought through, and there was clear room for growth. This wasn’t a business built on charm, it was built on repeatability. And that’s something money can’t buy quickly.
I invested and worked with them to sharpen their pricing strategy, increase margin confidence, and expand their leadership pipeline. But the core was already there. They didn’t need rescuing, just refining.
And why I did again
In the product space, a wellness brand came across my desk. Still early-stage, but with an impressive sense of who they were.
The product was solid but it was the surrounding ecosystem that caught my attention. The founder had built a community around the brand. Their customer journey wasn’t just transactional, it was relational. They were educating, engaging, and building loyalty that didn’t come from discounts or gimmicks.
When I posed the £1M question, they answered with a smile:
“They can copy our product. But they’d have to copy our community, our voice, our values and our trust. That takes time.”
And they were right. Anyone could throw money at ad spend. But they’d built something slower, stickier, and far more valuable: a customer base that felt seen and heard, and who did half the marketing for them.
That’s not something you can buy off the shelf. That’s culture and that’s clarity. That’s knowing exactly who you’re for, and making sure your business reflects it at every level.
I got involved not because they were the biggest or most established, but because they’d already built an internal strength that would be hard to copy quickly.
Why now?
I ask my £1M question because I’ve learned that surface-level growth can mask deep structural fragility. What I’m really asking is: What’s your edge? Why you? Why now? And why will you still be here when the noise dies down?
If the answer lies in the founder’s charisma, or a single big client, or a short-term market trend, I get nervous. But if the answer lies in how the business runs, how it thinks, how it behaves when no one’s watching, then that’s where I pay attention.
Sometimes I invest. Sometimes I don’t. And sometimes I coach the business toward a future where it could be investable. Not just shiny enough to raise money, but solid enough to grow, profit, and sustain itself for the long haul.
That’s what I look for. Not just potential, but proof.
Where to start
If you’re leading a business and thinking about future investment, acquisition, or even just long-term sustainability, ask yourself the same question I ask:
“Would I invest in this business if I didn’t own it?”
If the honest answer is no, you’ve got work to do. But it’s fixable.
Start with the things that money can’t buy:
- Strengthen your culture.
- Build a leadership team that can run without you.
- Put in place the systems, rhythm and resilience that make growth sustainable.
- Create a strategy that still holds when the wind changes.
Because that’s what serious investors are looking for, not just a growth story, but a business that can stand on its own two feet.
Mark Jarvis
Founder | Interim MD | NED
Author of The Very Best Business Handbook You’ll Ever Own
Work with me:
I help owners, founders and leaders create a scalable business that works without them, build a world-class team, and 10x profitability. Book a call with me here to see if we could work together.
Remember, there are only three types of people – those who make things happen, those who wait for things to happen, and those who talk about why things don’t happen for them. Which one are you?
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