Navigate To The Lighthouse: A Silicon Valley Guide to Executing Global Deals

by Kurt Davis

Execute a lighthouse deal to catapult your startup over the chasm of early adopters and into the land of new opportunities with trillion-dollar companies. Navigate to the Lighthouse explains how to do that, using strategic business development as a competitive advantage. When you approach the chasm and look at lighthouses shining on potential trajectory-changing deals, two questions likely cross your Should I invest the time and resources to pursue what seem like impossible deals? If so, what’s the path to get there—strategically and tactically? Kurt Davis has the answers. He’s gone through the journey, and now he wants to share his hard-earned knowledge with you. He breaks the process down into three Chart Your Course, Galvanize Your Crew and Maneuver Strategically, and Land the Deal and Expand. Master these and you’ll be on your way to landing the lighthouses and building an enduring business. Don’t take just his word for it. Navigate to the Lighthouse includes contributions from more than twenty, past and current, tech investors and executives from Apple, PayPal, Microsoft, Sony, DocuSign, Adyen, Bill.com, Boku, Uber, Google, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Lighspeed Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and more.

256 pages, Paperback

Published September 21, 2022

About the author

I am a technology executive with over two decades of experience building tech startups throughout Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia. From 2008–2017, I worked with a startup
called Boku, where I led global business development, focusing on deals with Apple,
Microsoft, Spotify, Sony, and more. My first book, Finding Soul: From Silicon Valley to Africa, was born of my journey in 2017 working at entrepreneurship centers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Reviews

[Tim Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the book “navigate to the lighthouse”, Kurt Davis has merged a sales book with a business book. During Kurt’s time at Boku, he realised that to create a framework to sell large deals, lighthouse deals, it wasn’t just about selling, but also being active in the business to make sure that Boku was ready as a business to work with these companies. The book therefore reads how to create a territory plan, how to team sell across different geographies but also how to make sure the business was ready to take on these lighthouse clients. This might mean acquiring other businesses for example.

[Kenneth Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book because I am as far from the Silicon Valley as you can get. Stil learned a lot about the business! I highly recommend it.