Fluent

Fluent is a data technology company that has developed a FICO-like Fluency Score for startups. This is used to quantify and measure risk in business models in early-stage ventures using a standardized score and visualization of product-market fit. This product has been used to develop new tools and categories of data-driven decision making for early-stage ventures, and to provide an equitable framework for access to capital and resources.

The Fluency Score has been used by investors, accelerators, foundations, and the Department of Defense to measure risk in early-stage businesses. Fluent is headquartered in Denver, Colorado and was founded by Beth McKeon and Jaime Gassmann.

The Fluency Score is, in the simplest terms, a data-based tool to measure and understand product and market fit for early-stage businesses. The tool has been used to help startups understand what they need to close gaps in their score, or where the greatest risk in their business model may exist. And it has been used by investors, accelerators, foundations, and the Department of Defense.

This score works to capture current risks in a given business model and the businesses approach to de-risking the business model assumptions. This score also works to discover reasons why a business is struggling to scale and the assumptions a business model is making about the problem and customers it works to serve. Further, the score works to provide insights into a given business without judgement.

Each Fluency Score Report works to provide a standardized score which provides a numerical score that can be used to compare, rank, and track a company or group of companies; breakout of risks, which offers visualizations of risk to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of the five vectors of the score; stage indicator, which offers precise labelling of stage for greater differentiation between similar companies; and recommendations based on an analysis of a company's business model and execution risks.

The Fluency Score measures product and market fit across five vectors of risk. The first vector is validation, which visualizes the extent to which a problem and customer segment assumptions have been tested with the market and customers. Traction, which works to visualize the assumptions about the product or solution and the customers willingness to buy, and whether that has been previously tested. Growth strategy, which visualizes the extent to which a repeatable and scalable growth strategy has been adopted, developed, and tested by a company.

The final two vectors in the Fluency Score are speed, which works to measure how fast the company tackles the work of de-risking assumptions in the product to market fit. And focus, which works to visualize and measure how focused a company is on de-risking the assumptions and risks in its business model.

For those who require some kind of data-driven ways to improve selection, diagnostics, or tailor support for an entrepreneur or related business, Fluent works to provide these things through the Fluency Score. This is also offered as a tool to give users a stage-agnostic, standardized product-market fit data to share with stakeholders pre- and post-program. And it can reduce the need to wait for startups to mature to show a program impact.

For investors, the Fluency Score works to provide a product-market fit data tools regardless of vertical, track stage, or velocity; and in some cases, a tool capable of calculating and visualizing those metrics. This can also enable an investor to know how much of a startup's business model has been de-risked, and how fast the startup is working to figure out the rest through the standardized metrics. Moreover, Fluent suggests the Fluency Score can help investors with the following:

• creating efficiencies through its standardized metrics
• offering more equitable investing opportunities
• offering tailored venture support to portfolio companies
• helping investors discover hidden gems, and help create dynamic portfolio tracking.

For government customers, Fluent offers its Fluency Score to help connect objectives, funding, support, and performance within a framework that can also provide coherent reporting and optimization for return on investment. This further offers government organizations to quantify and track business commercialization potential with effective, standardized data. This data is intended to provide visibility on the impact of government-funded initiatives on startups receiving contracts, grants, and other investments.

For entrepreneurs, the Fluency Score offers a chance to analyze the unresolved risk in a business model, the riskiest assumptions in that business model, and works to provide guidance on how to de-risk those assumptions and provide a product and market fit. Further, this offers indications of potentials, based on an entrepreneur's traction and potential, and offers context for how a startup can do better, even in the early stages, and even offer potential focus areas.

Part of Fluent, Fluency Ventures, works to use the Fluency Score to provide data-driven investments. This venture arm of the company works to provide access to capital and resources based on this score. Through the Fluency Ventures website, Fluent offers companies a chance to be tracked by Fluency Ventures; if Fluent is interested in the company, they provide a free Fluency Score to better understand the company's possibility for success.