Start with the CEO, not the technology.

Across lost deals, customer behavior, pricing decisions, and hard-won experience are connections rarely examined together. We can now investigate opportunities that were once hidden or too expensive to pursue, find what's worth building, and create something your business can use, sell, or scale.

Give Us a Starting Point
Scattered information New connections New value

Give us a starting point.

Judge us by what we bring back.

Bring us a real business problem, a decision you're facing, or an opportunity you want to pursue. We'll investigate what's behind it, connect what matters across your company, and look beyond the immediate question for something worth building.

Please don't include confidential information in this form. We can discuss sensitive details once we've agreed on appropriate safeguards.

Briefly describe the problem, decision, or opportunity you'd like us to start with. Please don't include confidential details.

If a topic helps, choose one and add a sentence or two. Or write something entirely different.

These are starting points, not a list of services. What is most worth exploring may be something neither of us has considered yet.

78th Street Ventures

What Could Be Created

What could this become?

The possibilities aren't limited to what we already know to look for. These are just a few illustrations of what scattered information, experience, and relationships could become.

Not a menu of services or promised outcomes. The most valuable opportunity in your business may be something neither of us has considered yet.

01

A way to find revenue already being missed.

Past deals, buying patterns, and customer conversations could become a repeatable system that finds and prioritizes opportunities for the sales team.

02

A new pricing advantage.

Quotes, margin history, and the judgment behind past pricing decisions could become a tool that helps protect margins on future business.

03

A capability the business didn't have before.

Experienced people's methods, operating knowledge, and existing customer relationships could become practical tools or an entirely new offering.

These are only illustrations. The investigation may lead to a completely different opportunity, or show that an idea isn't worth pursuing.

One Illustrative Starting Point

“Sales says we need more reps to keep growing.”Do we?

Growth has slowed and the sales leader believes additional headcount is the answer. Before adding fixed cost and waiting months to learn whether it worked, the CEO wants to know whether headcount is actually the constraint.

See How We Investigate This

What we are really trying to determine

Is the company short of sales capacity, or is existing capacity being deployed poorly?

The answer can sit across pipeline data, customer fit, territory coverage, sales conversations, win and loss patterns, external account signals, and the judgment of the strongest performers. Looking at any one source alone can produce the wrong answer.

Bring the context together around the question. Context → investigation → decision
Context we examine
Company

CRM · pipeline · wins/losses · financials

Customer + market

Sales conversations · customer behavior · external signals · competitors

People

Top performers · leadership judgment · assumptions · past decisions

Investigate What is actually constraining growth? Patterns · contradictions · missing information · alternatives
CEO decision brief
FindingWhat is actually happening.
EvidenceWhat supports or challenges the conclusion.
DecisionWhat we recommend doing.
TestHow to know before committing further.
How we investigate

Examine the full record, not a sample. Sales conversations, lost-deal notes, CRM activity, account history, and relevant account communications are examined together for patterns in qualification, deal stalls, and why customers say no.

Look outside the company. Accounts that match the strongest customer profile are checked against current signals such as hiring, expansion, new facilities, leadership changes, contract activity, and competitor moves.

Challenge the answer from different points of view. The emerging conclusion is tested from the perspectives of finance, sales, the customer, the competitor, and the board. Each perspective is used to challenge the evidence, identify what does not fit, and develop the strongest alternative explanation.

What we start with

A small amount of relevant company information and access to the people closest to the issue. We do not start by asking for a major integration, new software, or a project team.

What comes back

Finding

A clear answer to what is actually constraining growth. Headcount, account selection, coverage, qualification, conversion, territory design, or a combination of them.

Evidence

The specific patterns in accounts, activity, conversations, wins, losses, customer behavior, and market signals that support or contradict the conclusion.

Decision

Whether to hire, where to hire, and what to change first. The recommendation is tied directly to the evidence rather than to a general belief that more capacity will create more growth.

Test

A defined test with actions and measures agreed in advance, so the CEO can validate the answer before making a larger commitment.

The strongest argument against it

The recommendation includes the best case for why it may be wrong, what evidence would change the conclusion, and what remains uncertain. The CEO sees the disagreement instead of having it smoothed away.

Question to decision in weeks, not months. The CEO gets a grounded recommendation, its supporting evidence, and a practical way to test it.

What could be built next

Finding the constraint is only the beginning.

If the investigation shows that the team is pursuing the wrong accounts rather than lacking salespeople, we could build a system that continuously identifies, evaluates, and prioritizes better-fit prospects.

Another finding could lead to a completely different solution. We build around what proves worth pursuing, not a predetermined tool.

Question to decision in weeks, not months. Then determine what, if anything, is worth building.

Built-in dissent

Every recommendation includes the strongest case for why it may be wrong, what evidence would change the conclusion, and what remains uncertain.

Give Us a Starting Point
78th Street Ventures

One CEO Question

“Sales says we need more reps to keep growing.”Do we?

What we are really trying to determine

Is the company short of sales capacity, or is existing capacity being deployed poorly?

The answer can sit across pipeline data, customer fit, territory coverage, sales conversations, win and loss patterns, external account signals, and the judgment of the strongest performers. Looking at any one source alone can produce the wrong answer.

Bring the context together around the question. Context → investigation → decision
Context we examine
Company

CRM · pipeline · wins/losses · financials

Customer + market

Sales conversations · customer behavior · external signals · competitors

People

Top performers · leadership judgment · assumptions · past decisions

Investigate What is actually constraining growth? Patterns · contradictions · missing information · alternatives
CEO decision brief
FindingWhat is actually happening.
EvidenceWhat supports or challenges the conclusion.
DecisionWhat we recommend doing.
TestHow to know before committing further.
How we investigate

Examine the full record, not a sample. Sales conversations, lost-deal notes, CRM activity, account history, and relevant account communications are examined together for patterns in qualification, deal stalls, and why customers say no.

Look outside the company. Accounts that match the strongest customer profile are checked against current signals such as hiring, expansion, new facilities, leadership changes, contract activity, and competitor moves.

Challenge the answer from different points of view. The emerging conclusion is tested from the perspectives of finance, sales, the customer, the competitor, and the board. Each perspective is used to challenge the evidence, identify what does not fit, and develop the strongest alternative explanation.

What we start with

A small amount of relevant company information and access to the people closest to the issue. We do not start by asking for a major integration, new software, or a project team.

What comes back

Finding

A clear answer to what is actually constraining growth. Headcount, account selection, coverage, qualification, conversion, territory design, or a combination of them.

Evidence

The specific patterns in accounts, activity, conversations, wins, losses, customer behavior, and market signals that support or contradict the conclusion.

Decision

Whether to hire, where to hire, and what to change first. The recommendation is tied directly to the evidence rather than to a general belief that more capacity will create more growth.

Test

A defined test with actions and measures agreed in advance, so the CEO can validate the answer before making a larger commitment.

The strongest argument against it

The recommendation includes the best case for why it may be wrong, what evidence would change the conclusion, and what remains uncertain. The CEO sees the disagreement instead of having it smoothed away.

Question to decision in weeks, not months. The CEO gets a grounded recommendation, its supporting evidence, and a practical way to test it.

What could be built next

Finding the constraint is only the beginning.

If the investigation shows that the team is pursuing the wrong accounts rather than lacking salespeople, we could build a system that continuously identifies, evaluates, and prioritizes better-fit prospects.

Another finding could lead to a completely different solution. We build around what proves worth pursuing, not a predetermined tool.

Give Us a Starting Point
78th Street Ventures

Selected Work

What can happen when you look differently at what a company already has.

Three examples drawn from actual work around one expert’s body of knowledge. Names have been withheld. The common thread is recognizing an asset others overlook, seeing what it can become, and building a practical way to capture the value.

01

From an expert’s method to a working platform

Starting asset

350+ recorded episodes, along with frameworks and presentations from an experienced expert, with delivery still dependent on his being in the room.

What we saw

The knowledge did not need reinventing. It needed structuring into tools people could use between direct sessions with him.

What we built

Eight specialized applications in 90 days, turning the methodology into a working digital platform that extends the work beyond presentations and in-person sessions.

For a company

What your best people know can become tools the rest of the company uses when those people are not in the room.

02

From an archive to an answer engine

Starting asset

Hundreds of recorded expert conversations, with useful answers buried in long-form audio.

What we saw

The value was already there. It was simply hard to reach at the moment someone needed it.

What we built

The archive was structured into a system that takes a real question and goes directly to the relevant thinking from the recordings.

For a company

The same principle can apply to call recordings, lost-deal notes, support tickets, internal documents, and the judgment of experienced people.

03

From a trusted audience to a destination

Starting asset

Years of recurring content with a loyal audience and nowhere for that audience to go afterward.

What we saw

The relationship was the asset. Every interaction ended when the segment did.

What we built

A digital destination where the audience can go deeper on the same themes throughout the week, turning recurring content into an ongoing relationship.

For a company

A customer base, channel, trusted audience, or body of expertise you already have may contain the foundation for the next valuable capability.

The common thread is not the technology. It is recognizing an asset others overlook, seeing what it can become, and building a practical way to capture the value.

Give Us a Starting Point
78th Street Ventures

About

Operating and M&A experience first. AI as leverage.

Todd Lorbach Founder, 78th Street Ventures LinkedIn profile ↗

78th Street Ventures was founded by Todd Lorbach, whose background spans operating growth, international business development, and advising business owners on M&A transactions.

Earlier in his career, Todd spent eight years helping an industrial software company expand internationally through an IPO and acquisitions, including opening offices abroad, building international distributor relationships, and working across markets as the company acquired international competitors.

For the last 14 years, he has advised business owners on M&A transactions.

Today, 78th Street Ventures applies that business perspective with AI to help CEOs uncover opportunities, connect information in new ways, and identify practical ways to create value.

Give Us a Starting Point
78th Street Ventures

Why now

What AI Makes Possible Now

AI makes practical what used to be too expensive, too slow, or too difficult to do.

No individual can continuously absorb every relevant detail across a company and the world around it. Important context lives across people, systems, customers, competitors, markets, and past decisions.

AI brings far more of that context together when it matters, continuously and at scale. The point is not to replace judgment. It is to give judgment more context.

AI makes work that was previously uneconomical practical at scale.

The raw material is usually already there.

A company already has customer history, conversations, documents, market signals, operating data, expertise, and years of accumulated judgment. The problem is that it lives in different places and is rarely examined together.

We gain access to the information relevant to one important question, connect what is scattered, and use it to create something new: a clearer decision, an opportunity the company was not pursuing, a working tool, or a capability that did not exist before.

The information already existed. The value comes from what becomes possible when it is connected.

01Discover · Connect what is scattered

Bring together relevant company information, external signals, conversations, and human judgment around one important question.

02Build · Create what was not practical before

Turn what we learn into a clearer decision, newly visible opportunity, working tool, or new capability built around the actual problem.

03Expand · Only after value is proven

If it creates meaningful value, connect more information, automate more of the work, and build it into an ongoing company capability. If it does not, stop.

BeforeAnalysis was the bottleneck.
Many questions, signals, and possible opportunities
Human time + research cost
Only the biggest issues justified deep investigation
NowThe economics have changed.
Many questions, signals, and possible opportunities
AI-assisted research + analysis at far lower marginal effort
Far more questions become practical to investigate
Turn useful findings into decisions, tools, workflows, or new capabilities
Expand what proves valuable into an ongoing company capability
Where an investigation can lead

From a finding to something a business can keep using.

Connecting customer histories, operating information, employee judgment, and market signals may reveal an opportunity worth acting on. The next step could be a useful tool, a new process, or a commercial offering that did not exist before.

Not every finding deserves a build. We test the economic case first, then expand what proves useful.

Start with what matters. What becomes possible may be quite different from the question that began the investigation.

Before Now practical What it could become
Customer history and lost opportunities sat in different places. Explore patterns across conversations, transactions, accounts, and current market signals. A repeatable way to identify overlooked revenue.
Experienced people's judgment was difficult to share. Connect their methods with real operating situations and make the knowledge usable. Tools and capabilities the wider team can use.
Many opportunities cost too much to investigate. Evaluate more possibilities and test the strongest before investing heavily. New offerings or operating advantages worth building.
Give Us a Starting Point