Kelp · Customer Discovery Case Study 12.8% reply rate and 22 interested (220% to goal).

Prior to partnering with JJELLYFISH, Kelp’s commercial success had been primarily concentrated in the APAC & EMEA region. Kelp had not yet explored the U.S. market prior to engaging with JJELLYFISH. The startup lacked evidence around U.S. based PE/VC business needs and how that varied across ranges of Assets Under Management. Additionally, Kelp sought to test the viability of an outbound playbook against senior investment professionals (Principals, Managing Partners).

Kelp’s goal in partnering with JJELLYFISH was to validate U.S. market assumptions through 1:1 interviews with Private Equity leaders.

The JJ team worked with Kelp’s Founders to 1) develop an ideal customer profile, 2) curate three commercial assumptions to test, and 3) create an outbound playbook to generate meetings within their target personas. The ICP focused on Principal and Managing Partner levels, leveraging highly personalized, relevant messaging strategies to inspire and excite the core audience.

The team conducted cold outreach and held 12 discovery meetings with Private Equity Leaders. Additionally, 11 interested contacts were delivered post-engagement for followup to meet at a later time. While the central problem owner varied by firm, the JJELLYFISH outbound strategy drove a 12.4% response rate.

Kelp validated that the majority of respondents struggle to efficiently make consistent, high-quality underwriting decisions. Respondents were mixed re: two additional core assumptions including: 1) a struggle to “build angles” (design winning investment strategies/alpha) and 3) making contextualized recommendations using proprietary data.

In addition, Kelp has an informed GTM approach within the U.S. Private Equity market and a path to a repeatable sales motion within the alternative investment community going forward.