A brief and wide panoramic of what building a startups means and some best practices to reduce risks while starting a project

1. From an idea
to a Startup.
Stories, facts and best practices
GIULIANO IACOBELLI - @giuliano84
Co-founder @stamplay

2. Me
Software Engineer. 28yrs old.
Co-founder @Stamplay

3. What is a startup?

4. Usually it goes like.

5. And often seems to end like
But, guess what?

6. This is not reality.

7. 9 out of 10 die

8. Startups are really hard
and there is no secret
ingredient to succeed

9. A good definition of
startup
“A human institution designed to deliver a
new product or service under conditions
of extreme uncertainty”
- Eric Ries

10. VISION
and
MISSION

11. Vision
What is gonna be?
(so why we do our thing)

12. Vision
Chester Carlson
invented a way to make copies
of paper docs
IBM laughed at him.
With Haloid created Xerox
machines and today “to Xerox”
is a verb.

13. Anatomy of a good
Vision
• Short
• Easy to understand (also if arguable)
• Comes true quite fast (< 5yrs)
• Long lasting (decades)

14. Mission
What we do? For whom?

15. Mission
Wang Laboratories
3 Billions in revenue in the 80s
with Word processing oriented
computers
Failed.
Didnt foresee general purpose
computers

16. (VC Since 1911 - 104 IPO Served)
Somthing from their Portfolio:

17. (VC Since 1911 - 104 IPO Served)
Something they discarded:

18. Startups
Everything but an exact
science

19. “Don’t worry about failure you only have
to be right once”
- Drew Houston
Dropbox

20. Startup Myths
1. Cost nothing to build
2. Get funded with some nice slides and a
lot of passion
3. It all about the idea
4. Its founders are hippie college dropouts

21. Myth 1
“Startups are cheap”
Lean or not, building something
meaningful costs money and savings
run out.

22. Myth 2
“Make them dream you’ll get money”
You are already underestimating the
number of times you will be rejected and
how long it will take you to raise some
funds.

23. Myth 3
“The idea makes the difference”
Yes, a great idea with:
• a great execution,
• a great timing
• a great team
• great perseverance

24. Myth 4
“A startupper is a hippie college dropout”
Anatomy of the average founder:
40yrs old, Married, with Children 6-10 yrs
work experience. Bachelors or higher.

25. How to make it?
Find your product/market fit before
you run out of money.
THAT’S IT.

26. Startup is not a linear path

27. What if..
..everything you think to know
about your product and market
was wrong?

28. Burned
$ 450.000.000
For smokeless cigarettes but...

29. Smokers dont give a f**k
about smoke

30. Grocery home delivery within a 30-min window
choosed by the customer but..
..they didnt considered that many working
customers would like their groceries delivered at
home and at night.

31. Burned
$ 800.000.000
CNET named it the largest dot-com flop in history

32. Burned
$ 5.000.000.000
For satellite-based
phone system
that nobody wanted
Yes, satellites are that expensive..

33. You dont invent products.
You solve problems

34. Setup the right milestones
1. How much you know customer’s needs?
2. Our product solve that need?
3. How much are they willing to pay for
our solution?
4. How much this problem is a priority to
the customer?

35. Customer Develoment

36. Customer Discovery

37. The lean startup circle
Get it done and get it done fast.

38. You’ll get plenty of
doubt: analyze data

39. It’s all about speed and
control

40. Business Model Canvas

41. Customer Segments
People and organizations addressed
by our company

42. Customer Segments
• For whom are we creating value?
• Who are our most important
customers?

43. Value proposition
Services and products that provides value to
our customer segments

44. Value proposition
• Product satisfies a new need
• Product offers better perfomance
• Product is more tailor made
• Product costs less
• Product has a better design

45. Channels
How our company reach its customers and tell
them its value proposition

46. Channels
• Through which Channels do our Customer
Segments want to be reached?
• How are our Channels integrated?
• Which ones work best?
• Which ones are most cost-efficient?
• How are we integrating them with customer
routines?

47. Customer Relationships
Types of relationships established between the
company and customer segments

48. Revenue Streams
Represents the incomes of the company for
every customer segment

49. Revenue Streams
• For what value are our customers really
willing to pay?
• For what do they currently pay?
• How are they currently paying?
• How would they prefer to pay?
• How much does each stream contribute
to overall revenues?

50. Key Resources
Strategic assets that the company need to
mainatin its business model

51. Key Resources
• What Key Resources do our Value
Propositions require?
• Our Distribution Channels?
• Customer Relationships?
• Revenue Streams?
Resources type: Physical, Intellectual, Human, Financial

52. Key Activities
Strategic activities to deliver the value
proposition, reach customers and nurtrure
relationships.

53. Key Activities
• What Key Activities do our Value
Propositions require?
• Our Distribution Channels?
• Customer Relationships?
• Revenue streams?
Categories: Production, Problem Solving, Platform/Network

54. Key Partners
Defines contractors and partners that are
critics for company’s business model

55. Key Partners
• Who are our Key Partners?
• Who are our key suppliers?
• Which Key Resources are we acquiring
from partners?
• Which Key Activities do partners
perform?

56. Cost Structure
Where all the costs for the company in order to
have its business model up and running

57. Cost Structure
• What are the most important costs
inherent in our business model?
• Which Key Resources are most
expensive?
• Which Key Activities are most
expensive?

58. YOUR TURN?

59. Ask yourself
• What are the emerging trends I
notice?
• What problem I solve?
• What does my product do?
• Who will buy it and why they buy it?

60. ENJOY THE RIDE.

61. Thanks.
http://facebook.com/giuliano.iacobelli
@giuliano84
giuliano.iacobelli@stamplay.com
http://giulianoiacobelli.com

62. Credits & Inspiration
• Augusto Coppola
• Tara Hunt
• Steve Blank
• Alex Osterwalder