1. Startup: dal perchè al per come
In meno di due ore
Augusto Coppola
Lecce, 15.11.2013

2. 2
My background

3. 3
My first startup: reactions
friends
boss
specialists

4. 4
My first startup: a success

5. What I mean by “success”
60x
5

6. 6
What my investors told me
Dear smart guy!

7. 7
My second startup: reactions
friends
specialists
investors

8. 8
My second startup was a failure

9. What I mean by “failure”
0x
9

10. 10
What my investors told me
@#*WTF@]+!!

11. 11
Director at LVenture
LUISS ENLABS Accelerator

12. 12
InnovAction Lab co-founder
More than 30 startups spawned in 3 years

13. Startup: un dubbio

14. 14
Il panorama startup in Italia ieri

15. 15
Il panorama startup in Italia oggi
...

16. 16
Il dubbio
Le startup sono una moda
o una necessità?

17. Prime riflessioni

18. 18
Il 50% delle startup chiude in 5 anni

19. 19
Nessuno ci capisce nulla
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessemer_Venture_Partners

20. 20
Conclusione
Ma allora è una moda?

21. 21
No!

22. La parola ai dati

23. 23
Una necessaria precisazione
Non esistono i fatti, ma solo le interpretazioni
(F. Nietzsche)
G: Pensa, ogni volta che respiro muore un uomo!
A: Hai provato a prendere qualcosa per l’alito?
(Gigi ed Andrea)

24. 24
Scegliere un impiego
Il mondo dei pregiudizi, delle scelte facili è terminato

25. 25
Italia vs USA: un confronto
Dato
PIL (miliardi di $)
Occupati (milioni e %)
PIL per lavoratore
USA
Italia
Ratio
14.704
2.172
6,77
141 (46%)
23 (38%)
6,13
104.000
94.000
1,10
Fonte: www.imf.org (23.08.2012)

26. 26
Dove viene creato lavoro in USA?
Fonte:http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/u-s-job-growth-driven-entirely-by-startups.aspx

27. 27
Quali posti di lavoro?
Azienda
hc
Ricavi ($bn) Mkv ($bn) Mkv/hc ($M)
PIL x
Telecom
82.900
37,4
12,7
0,15
1,60
Oracle
115.000
37,2
144,4
1,26
12,11
Microsoft
94.000
76,01
285,7
3,04
29,23
Apple
72.800
169,1
391,8
5,38
51,73
Google
53.900
53,5
296,4
5,50
52,88
LinkedIn
3.800
1,11
21,0
5,52
53,07
Facebook
4.900
5,5
58,9
12,02
115,57
Fonte: http://finance.yahoo.com/ 06.07.2013

28. 28
Visione spicciola
Tutti abbiamo almeno una startup: noi stessi

29. 29
Idea

30. 30
Business idea initial structure
Vision
Mission

31. No kidding, I’m perfectly seriuous
Our challenge is to assertively network economically
sound methods of empowerment so that we may
continually negotiate performance based
infrastructures
(generated by Dilbert ‘s Mission Generator)
31

32. 32
The story of the lazy patent office clerk
A solution with no perspective goes nowhere

33. 33
Vision: why are we doing it?
Understanding trends to anticipate value

34. 34
Great visions: examples
Microsoft, 1975
A computer on each single office desk
My first startup, 1997
New services will be enabled and provided by Internet
My second startup, 2002
Money will not be the only currency

35. 35
Visions can be humble and still work
Real case, 2009
Japanese food will be a major trend in Italy

36. 36
Good vision 4 qualities
1. Short (and written in plain English)
2. Easy to understand (also if arguable)
3. Comes true quite rapidly (less than 5 years)
4. Persistent (it lasts for decades)

37. 37
A man with a vision: a sad story
What is the market pain you’re addressing?

38. 38
Mission: what we do? For whom?
Microsoft, 1975
Developing one easy to use operating system for any HW platform
vendor
My first startup, 1997
Developing a billing system for Internet services delivered by Telco
operators
My second startup, 2002
Developing a new Telco platform to price and charge any possible
good by taking into account any possible combination of currencies

39. 39
Vision and mission keep you focused
Collect and organize data about pros and cons

40. 40
What market should we address?
Large and quickly growing markets (CAGR > 10%)

41. 41
Jot down your initial business idea
1. What are the emerging trends we are noticing?
2. What does our product/service do?
3. Who will buy it?
4. Why will they buy it?
5. What is the forecasted size of our market?
6. How will our opportunity window last?
Jot down everything in less than 200 words and
start pitching your targets

42. 42
Now the bad news
The world is plenty of good ideas (not to mention the silly ones)

43. 43
Turning ideas into profitable businesses
To do it, you need 3 key elements
3. Team
2. Team
1. Team

44. 44
Team

45. 45
The fundamental question
Can we do it?

46. 46
How to recognize a great team?
Microsoft Corporation, 1978

47. 47
Spotting the weak element in your team
You

48. 48
The key quality of a great entrepreneur
Discipline
Discipline is the refining fire by which
talent becomes ability
(R.L. Smith)

49. 49
Discipline is not a trait of character
The more I practice, the luckier I get
(G. Player)

50. 50
Most critical discipline
Learning

51. 51
What do you know about your market?
Nothing
Entrepreneurs live in world of surprises,
they cannot afford the luxury of prejudices

52. 52
Understanding your errors is critical
Fail fast and cheap (and move on)

53. 53
Second most critical discipline
Team Making

54. 54
Understanding forces behind people
And you still behave like a five-year-old child. People gather,
scatter. They go left and right following their interests.
(Akira Kurosawa, Kagemusha)

55. 55
Keep bad learners out
Those who think they are the best
part of the human race
Those who don’t know how to
deal with “no!”

56. 56
Leaders on board since the beginning
The best decision is the right decision.
The next best decision is the wrong decision.
The worst decision is no decision.
(S. McNealy)

57. 57
Questions about your teammates
•
•
•
•
Is every team member 100% committed?
Do you have agreed roles and duties?
What is each person going to do all day?
Are you the right team to do it?
•
•
•
•
How are you going to divide equity?
Who is going to take a salary? How much?
What if you run out of money?
What if they are offered a job at Google?

58. 58
Unpleasant issues
Grey zones must be carefully discussed

59. 59
Questions about founders
• Where are the founders from? What have they accomplished in
the past?
• What is their reputation? Whom do they know?
• Who else needs to be on the team? Are they prepared to
recruit high-quality people?
• How realistic are they about the venture chances? How will
they respond to adversity?
• Do they have the mettle to make the inevitable hard choices
that have to be made?
• How committed are they to this venture? What are their
motivations?

60. 60
Working in a team means also...
...be sure of what you know, but actively looking for
different points of views to challenge your...

61. 61
...in other words...
... understanding that harsh criticism is a value for your
startup

62. 62
Business and friendship
The startup making is not
about making friends…
…but friendship is a by-product
of well designed teams
A friendship based on business is better than a
business based on friendship
(J. Rockefeller)

63. 63
Third most critical discipline
Market Focus

64. 64
Market

65. 65
What do you know about your market?
Everything
You don’t know what your market will be BUT
you perfectly know what your market is

66. 66
Market size estimation: TAM
Available
data and
reports
Bottom up
analysis
Examples:
Total Addressable Market
Revenue if you have a monopolistic
control
ice-creams in USA
($10bn)
Billing systems for telco
operators
($30bn)

67. 67
Market size estimation: SAM
Business
Model
Serviceable
Addressable
Market
TAM you can get with your
current business model
Examples:
ice-creams in supermarkets
($6bn)
Billing systems for telco
operators with IP services
($15bn)

68. 68
Market size estimation: SoM
Examples:
Business
Plan
Share of
Market
SAM part you can
reach in the near
future
ice-creams in supermarkets
in NYC
($240M)
Billing systems for new
European operators with IP
services
($6bn)

69. 69
Investors and Errors

70. 70
A tale of 4 people, 2 flies and 1 bench

71. 71
Competitors: you have to perfectly know them
No excuses

72. 72
If you have a market, you have competitors
They are those who are eating your cake

73. 73
The King of stupid errors
Your ideal world:
• EBITDA/Revenue > 70%
Real world:
• Amazon: 4.5%
• Wal Mart: 24.7%
• Pfizer: 29.2%
• AT&T: 30.6%
• Apple: 32.0%
• Google: 38.3%
• Microsoft: 42.9%
• Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry : 45.0%

74. 74
Alla natura umana manca la volontà di agire,
più che la forza o il tempo
(Sallustio)

75. 75
Like us on www.facebook.com/InnovActionLab
More on us on www.innovactionlab.org
About me:
www.facebook.com/augusto.coppola
http://twitter.com/5anatre

76. Augusto Coppola
augusto.coppola@luissenlabs.com
www.luissenlabs.com
@enlabs
www.facebook.com/LuissEnlabs