Merrick Furst (@merrickfurst), Founder of FlashpointGT (@FlashpointGT) and distinguished Professor at Georgia Tech, gave the opening keynote at the June 4 Startup Day ATL and introduced the concept of Startup Engineering. FlashpointGT is built upon this concept, which makes keeping founders connected to reality the top priority. Furst’s keynote set the stage for the entire day and explored what it takes to build a startup, the difficulties you will face along the way and advice for startup founders and future entrepreneurs. The process of from ideation to creation of a startup is difficult and opaque, but in this keynote, Merrick provides clear and concise advice to help aid budding startup engineers.

1. @MerrickFurst @FlashpointGT
flashpoint.gatech.edu

2. How We Expect a Startup to Go

13. How Startups Actually Go
… that’s a Different Movie

29. Flashpoint is about Connecting to Reality

30. Which Requires Connecting Founders to Reality

33. rational self interest

35. rational self interest

37. rational self interest

38. Startup Engineering
Principles
Touchstones to Ground Truths
Enabling Practices

39. You Can Rely on People
To Do What They Cannot Not Do.

40. Figure What
What You Can Avoid Doing
&
Don’t Do That

41. Try to Get Your Customers to Prove That
They Can Avoid Buying Your Product
When You Fail
Customers are Buying Your Product

42. It is Possible to
Figure out Demand
… without having a Product …
by Meticulously Mapping Customer Pain

43. The Job of Founder
of Innovator
of Entrepreneur

44. is

45. To Become
That Thing in The World
That Enables Customers
To Become
Closer to Who They Are
Given Who They Are Required to Be

46. Flashpoint Founders Put
Startup Engineering Principles
Into Practice

47. To Become
That Thing in The World
That Enables Customers
To Become
Closer to Who They Are
Given Who They Are Required to Be

48. Reducing
Ambiguity
Uncertainty
Inaccuracy

49. Zombie Myth

50. rational self interest

51. Startup Engineering
Find out who your customer is
See what your customer is required to be
Enable them to close that gap
.
@MerrickFurst @FlashpointGT