Its not easy! Exicon COO and Founder, Cat Purvis gave a presentation at HKUST to executives on the world number one Kellogg EMBA programme (entrepreneurship and family business module). A full house listened to Cat’s experience and insights into how to carve the way through the world of a start up. http://www.exiconglobal.com/report-download/life-of-a-start-up

1. Enterprise Cloud for Mobile & Applications
Supply, Logistics and Warehousing for Enterprise & Consumer Apps
October 2012

3. We are all about the App and its ingredients
Developers
Distribution Updates
Fonts
Licenses User Interface
Services
Platform
Code Images
Languages
Security
Geography
Versions
APIs
Marketing Documentation
Appstores
Specifications Analytics

4. Our Application Lifecycle Benchmarking and References
Find out who is doing what in Apps and APIs
Management Platform
APIs Developer
Apps APIs Developer
APIs Developer
Developers and Project Management
Matching you to three qualified Developers
BYOD Member Registration
ID, Authentication, Access
Dashboard
Development Life Cycle
Specification and Promotion, Matching,
Asset Life Cycle
Bid Management Collaboration, Management
Communications
Publishing and Distribution
Analysis
ROI and Measurement
Manage access, deployment and performance
Manage and Control
Enterprise App Monitoring, Alerts,
Asset Repository
Stores, Distribution Analytics

5. Dashboard controls and monitors assets and
ecosystem 1. Control Development Projects
2. Manage Developer Relationships
3. Monitor Apps and APIs

6. An established developer community
60+
Countries
4,000+
Software Houses
~12
Developers/ISV
~50K
Developers
AMERICAS EMEA APAC
29% 36% 35%
1,522 60 10,000
Development Houses connected with OEM’s, Countries actively serving Successful applications for your
Enterprises and Brands globally Global Fortune 1,000 companies benchmarking and competitive analysis

7. Our customers
Offices
Hong Kong
San Francisco
Results speak louder than words.
80% of our work with our customers is repeat business.

8. Savings and Benefits
Faster TIME to Market Huge Savings Minimum IP Leakage
50% faster
from Napkin to
Download in multiple Up to US$ 10M You control and learn
countries

9. So how did we get here?
Depends when you asked
Phase 1 – Outsourced Project Management, 2001 – 2 founders
(I sold out to my partner, 2003)
Phase 2 – “Incubator” for our own ideas - “Catalist Group”, 2006 – 2 founders (Money
and Operations) – Magazine, China Ad Network, Email Database, Warehouse for apps to
name a few.
Phase 3 – Brought Exicon back for Vendor Approvals, 2007.
(Catalist team, Rolled all businesses together, sold or closed)
Phase 4 – Cloud Enterprise App Warehousing and Logistics.
First Tier 1 clients for our SaaS platform as of last week – HP and GMH
(2 Partners, including both Founders of Catalist, 5 Board members, Advisory Board of 3)

10. So what is start up like?

11. Start ups are like Trench warfare

12. Start ups are really
f%$£@*g hard.
No joke.

13. Its lonely

14. Choose your partner wisely
What
tree?

15. What have we learned about resourcing?
1. You need money to pay the bills
2. You need money to attract the talent – if not what
else have you got?
3. You need diversity
4. You need all the help you can get

16. Implementing vision takes time
V1.0 Your Brain
Inception
Funding

17. Life Cycle of a Start-up
IPO
Pre-seed Seed Early, Growth
Ideation Prototype Launch Growth
Exit
Sell-off
Merger

18. Financing options
Self Financed v Funded
Bootstrapping Private Equity
Debt (take a loan)

19. Financing options - Bootstrapped

20. Financing options - Funded

22. Raise money when you can,
not when you want to.

23. Investors are NOT your friend!
1. Look for investors who have founded and run a
start up before.
2. Look for investors with some of their own
money in play.
3. Look for investors who understand the
problem and are excited about your solution
4. Look for investors who can help you with more
than money

24. Spending the money

25. The magic of innovation

26. What are some obvious mistakes we made?
1. Hired PLUs
2. Hired when desperate, repented at leisure-
stressfully
3. Didn’t make tough decisions early
“ Hire Slowly, Fire Quickly”
4. Leverage others experience early
1. Hiring decisions
2. External support

27. Outsourcing is start ups friend
1. Physical - Your existing network, consultants, accounting etc
2. Virtual - Elance.com, Freelancer.com, Exicon 
3. Leverage technology – Expenisfy, BambooHR, Basecamp,
4. Interns (this building’s full of them)
Challenges
1. Timezones
2. Communication – Languages and Meaning
3. Quality
4. Cost

28. In Conclusion
• If you haven’t got it yet, start up is hard
• Get all the money you can BEFORE you need it
• Get more than you think you will need
• Be smart about what you are giving up to whom
and why and when
• Everybody is in front of an entrepreneur for a
reason.
• Take all the help you can get
GOOD LUCK!!

29. Thank you
COO / EXICON
Cat Purvis
EMAIL
cat@exiconglobal.com
WEBSITE
www.exiconglobal.com
FOLLOW US @exicon

30. Appendix
Insights and inspiration from…
http://www.slideshare.net/AmitRanjan/financing-
options-for-technology-startups (Slides 17 and 18)
http://www.slideshare.net/joestump/starting-your-
startup(Slides 12, 16, 21 and 24)