Building a strong product is only half the equation — founders also need a scalable way to sell it. That's where our partnership with GrowthX comes in: a revenue-focused accelerator built for companies that are post-product and post-revenue, and ready to build a repeatable sales engine.
"Great products or services don't sell themselves. We've watched talented founders stall out because they never built a real sales engine," said Neill S. Wright, CEO of Bronze Valley. "GrowthX gives our founders a way to turn early traction into a business that actually scales."
We recently connected with Andrew Goldner, Founder & CEO of GrowthX, to talk about what makes Bronze Valley founders a strong fit for the program, what he's seen in working with them, and where he sees founders go wrong when it comes to achieving scale.
About GrowthX
GrowthX’s revenue accelerator is a 16-week program designed to help founders institutionalize their sales process and drive meaningful revenue growth. Rather than relying on a founder's personal hustle to close every deal, the program helps companies build defined, repeatable systems that don't depend on any one person — with the goal of growing revenue 4-6x. Following the initial 16 weeks, companies enter into an extended 2-3 year partnership with GrowthX as they continue to scale.
According to Goldner, what makes Bronze Valley founders a strong fit isn't a particular industry or founder type, it's where they are in their journey.
"These are smart, ambitious founders who have built something real and are ready to figure out how to turn that into a repeatable business. That's really the sweet spot for GrowthX," he said. "We work best with founders who are past the 'is there an idea here?' stage and are wrestling with the harder commercialization questions."
Goldner added that the founders' mindset matters as much as their stage. "Bronze Valley founders are curious, coachable and willing to do the work," he said. "The best results happen when founders are willing to get into the market, test assumptions and change their minds when the evidence tells them to."
Several Bronze Valley portfolio companies have had great success in participating in GrowthX’s program. It's a partnership that reflects something we've always believed: founders need the right expertise at every stage, not just at the start.
GrowthX and the Bronze Valley Portfolio
Over 27 of our portfolio companies have completed the GrowthX revenue accelerator to date, including LiQUiD, Transition, Brevity and City Detect, to name a few. Altogether, these founders represent 15 rising cities, have raised nearly $35M in capital, and post a 93% five-year survival rate — well above the 37% national average for tech startups.
Goldner described a common pattern among founders who fully embrace the process: "Founders often come in with a lot of possibilities. Over the course of the program, the best ones become much clearer about who they should be selling to, why those buyers care, and where the team should spend its limited time."
A couple of the Bronze Valley portfolio companies shared their experiences as well:
“What we've learned and put into practice over the last 15 weeks has been huge — sharpening our understanding of our ready-now buyer, distinguishing that from our broader ICP, and building a much clearer sense of what it takes to build a sales engine. More than anything, GrowthX has changed how I think as a founder and how we prioritize our time. I wish I'd had this framework much earlier," says Chrystal Graves, Founder and CEO of LiQUiD
“GrowthX taught me the significance and importance of "not every customer is a great customer." If you don't have clarity on what transformation, victory, or strategic outcome your solution can provide a prospective customer, the odds of getting that customer are slim to none,” says Kelvin Johnson, Co-Founder and CEO of Brevity.
“Thanks to the Revenue Accelerator, we closed a six-figure, recurring revenue deal and a new qualified sales opportunity with a potential value of 10x our previous largest sale,” says Gavin Baum-Blake, Co-Founder and CEO of City Detect.
What Founders Get Wrong About Scaling
Goldner also shared a broader observation on where founders tend to stumble when it comes to scaling sales — and how AI has raised the stakes. "The biggest mistake we see is founders trying to scale sales before they've really figured out what's working," he said. "AI makes it incredibly easy to automate the wrong things faster if you don't yet know who your best buyer is or what message resonates."
GrowthX's approach is to build the playbook before automating it — answering foundational questions with real market evidence before scaling outreach. That philosophy is also behind GrowthX Go, the company's new AI platform launching with its September cohort. "The goal isn't more automated activity," Goldner said. "It's building a sales motion worth automating in the first place."
Looking Ahead
For our founders, this partnership means one less gap to navigate alone. Instead of figuring out scaling sales by trial and error, Bronze Valley portfolio companies have a direct path to a program built for exactly that challenge, with a track record across a dozen companies and counting.
