How do successful startups think and operate in 2011? They don't operate like small version of large companies anymore, but co-develop products with customers and operate lean by design, not crisis.

1. Startup Mindset 2011
Customer Development
Co-Development with Early Adopters
Wakoopa’s Pivot
The Lean Startup
Low Burn by Design not by Crisis
Bootstrapping Conimbo

2. Large Companies Plan
Startups Model

3. Large Companies Execute
Startups Search

4. Large Companies Sell
Startups Validate Customers

5. his success?
From Product Development
become a catchall tool for HE FOUR STEPS TO THE EPIPHANY and budget. Investors use the
T every startup executive’s schedule, plan,
Most startups lack a process for discovering plan funding. Everyone their firstuses a road map that was
product development diagram to set and their markets, locating involved customers, validating
designed for a very different location, yet they are surprised when they end up lost.
their assumptions, and growing their business. A few successful ones like Design Within Reach do
all these things. The difference is that the ones that succeed invent a Customer Development model.
The Customer Development model, depicted in Figure 2.1, is designed to solve the 10 problems of
the Product Development model enumerated in Chapter 1. Its strength is itsLaunch/
Concept/ Product Alpha/Beta rigor and flexibility.
The model separates out all the customer-related activities in the early stage of1st Ship
Seed Development Test a company into their
own processes, designed as four easy-to-understand steps: Customer Discovery, Customer
Validation, Customer Creation, and Company Building. As you will see, these steps mesh seamlessly
and support a startup’s ongoing 1.1 The Product Development Diagramof them results in specific
Figure product development activities. Each
deliverables to be described in subsequent chapters.
To see what’s wrong with using the product development model as a guide to building a startup,
let’s first look at how the model is currently used to launch a new product. We’ll view the actions at
each step in two ways: in general practice and in the specific example of Webvan, which managed to
Customer Customer Company
Customer million in 3 years. Then we will dissect the model’s toxic consequences for
burn through $800
Discovery Validation Creation Building
startups.
What’s wrong with the old model in general, and how were those wrongs compounded in the
billion-dollar Webvan implosion? Lets look at the model stage-by-stage.
Concept and Seed Stage
In the Concept and Seed Stage, founders capture Development and vision for the company and turn
Figure 2.1 The Customer their passion Model
them into a set of key ideas, which quickly becomes a business plan, sometimes on the back of the
proverbial napkin. The first thing captured and wrestled to paper is the company’s vision.
To Customer Development
The Customer Development model is not need to be defined:the Product Development model, but
Next, issues surrounding the product a replacement for What is the product or service concept?
a companion. to build? Is further technical research needed focuses onthat the product can be built?
Is it possible Broadly speaking, Customer Development to ensure understanding customer
problemsare the product features Validation on developing a sales model that can be replicated,
What and needs, Customer and benefits?
Customer Creationwill the customers bedriving end user demand, and Company market research
Second, who on creating and and where will they be found? Statistical and Building on

6. Case: Wakoopa’s Pivot
Was Social Network for Apps

7. Case: Wakoopa’s Pivot
To Market Research Technology

8. Case: Wakoopa’s Pivot
Week 1: Slide deck

9. Case: Wakoopa’s Pivot
Week 9: Custom for WIRED

10. Case: Wakoopa’s Pivot
Week 14: First demo

11. Case: Wakoopa’s Pivot
Week 22: First customers

12. Case: Wakoopa’s Pivot
Week 30: Version 1

13. Startup Mindset 2011
Customer Development
Co-Development with Early Adopters
Wakoopa’s Pivot
The Lean Startup
Low Burn by Design not by Crisis
Bootstrapping Conimbo

14. Use Commodity Technology
For Community, not Cost

15. Operate on SaaS
Just try, change if needed

16. Minimum viable product
No scaling until revenue

17. Agile development
Release weekly not yearly

18. Bootstrapping Conimbo
Spinoff from One Agency

19. Bootstrapping Conimbo
Power of Drupal, not the hassle.

20. Bootstrapping Conimbo
Cloud and open source

21. Bootstrapping Conimbo
Built one customer at a time

22. The Four Steps to the Epiphany (Steve Blank)
http://steveblank.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/sxsw-new-rules-for-the-new-
bubble-031211
The Lean Startup (Eric Ries)
http://theleanstartup.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/startuplessonslearned/2009-09-29-the-lean-
startup-at-stanford-entrepreneurial-thought-leader-seminar
Rework (Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson)
http://37signals.com/rework/
http://37signals.com/svn

23. Agilician
http://agilician.com/
Productcamp Amsterdam
http://productcampamsterdam.org/