So much hype revolves around building "startups," but the goal of any startup or person working at one should be to build a business, not a startup. This goes over the difference, and what to focus on when, so that you can build a business, not a startup.

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PRESENTED BY SAM HYSELL
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BUILDING A BUSINESS, NOT A STARTUP

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AGENDA
Startup Traps // Lean Startup Definition // Vision & Data: A Love Story // #1 Priority
// 4 Stages of Winning Startups //

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@SAMHYSELL
PARTNER KNOWNUNKNOWNS.CO
ON A MISSION TO CHANNEL HUMAN
CAPITAL INTO CREATING REAL VALUE.
TRAINS AND COACHES STARTUPS ALL
OVER THE WORLD.

4. STARTUP TRAPS
KNOWN
UNKNOWNS
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CAN vs SHOULD TRAP
“How do we build this?”
“If we build it, they will come”
“They need it, we just need to build it”

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CAN vs SHOULD TRAP
The biggest risk a startup usually faces is
not can it be built, BUT should it be built?

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BUILD TRAP
“But we need this feature too”
“We want to ship 4 new features in the
next quarter”
“But first we need to build out what’s in
our backlog”

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UNKNOWNS
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BUILD TRAP
“Customers’ problems are not a lack of
your product’s features” @lissijean
More than likely customers will use your
product for one purpose and one
purpose only. Focus on that and
nothing more.

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EVERYBODY TRAP "My customer is everybody”

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EVERYBODY TRAP
If your customer is everybody, your
customer is nobody. You need to
understand exactly who qualifies as
your customer and focus on making
them really happy.

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BEING HUMAN TRAP
“Guys, I just had an awesome idea!”
“We need to make this happen”

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BEING HUMAN TRAP
“Guys, I just had an awesome idea!”
“We need to make this happen, it’ll make our
customers so much happier and we’ll be able
to acquire so many more customers”
“I am my own customer so I know what I
need”

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Endowment Effect (We ascribe more value
to things that are our own)
+
Confirmation Bias (We only listen to
evidence that supports what we believe)
=
Assumptions (Something we take to be
true without much evidence)
BEING HUMAN TRAP

14. LEAN STARTUP DEMYSTIFIED
KNOWN
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LEAN MANUFACTURING
Whatever doesn’t deliver value
to the end customer is waste

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STARTUP DEFINITION
“A startup is a human institution designed
to create a new product or service under
conditions of extreme uncertainty.”
Eric Ries

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STARTUP DEFINITION
“A startup is an organization formed to
search for a repeatable and scalable
business model.”
Steve Blank

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LEAN STARTUP
Elimination of waste in the discovery, creation and delivery of new value and
for whom.
Building stuff that people don’t love is waste. We are not sure what people
love. Let’s figure that out before and while we build our businesses.

19. VISION & DATA: A LOVE STORY
KNOWN
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HE HAD A VISION (FIND NEW LAND)
BUT NO GPS. HE DIDN’T BLINDLY GO
ONE DIRECTION FOR DAYS ON END.
HE’D GO A LITTLE BIT, COLLECT
DATA, AND USE THAT DATA TO
INFORM WHERE TO GO NEXT

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UNKNOWNS
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Customer
Understanding
(data)
Vision

22. THIS MEANS
DATA-INFORMED
NOT DATA-DRIVEN
KNOWN
UNKNOWNS
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23. THIS MEANS FINDING
AND USING DATA TO
SUPPORT DECISIONS
KNOWN
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24. #1 PRIORITY
KNOWN
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Fundraising
Mentors
Features
Marketing
Hiring
Partnerships
Sales

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Fundraising
Mentors
Features
Marketing
Hiring
Partnerships
Sales
DEMAND

27. AS A STARTUP, CREATE DEMAND
AND SOLVE FOR THE PROBLEMS
THAT ARISE. THERE’S NO POINT
IN SOLVING FOR PROBLEMS THAT
WILL NEVER EXIST.
KNOWN
UNKNOWNS
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28. WHAT’S THE BEST PROBLEM
YOU COULD HAVE?
KNOWN
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29. WHAT’S THE BEST PROBLEM
YOU COULD HAVE?
KNOWN
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TOO MANY CUSTOMERS

30. STAGES OF CUSTOMER VALIDATION
KNOWN
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Problem/
Market Fit
Solution/
Market Fit
Product/
Market Fit
Goal: Learn and Improve. Learn and Improve. Learn and Improve. Learn and Improve. Lea

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Problem/Market Fit
Definition: A big problem exists amongst a certain customer segment.
Goal: Validate that a certain customer type has a certain problem.
How: Develop a Persona (goals, behavior, pains) & Interview Your Customers.
Explore > Refine.

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Problem/Market Fit
Action Step: Create customer persona (goals, behavior, pains, facts) and
interview at least 5 of those people without saying anything about your
solution.
(cheat sheet at knownunknowns.co/course)
After you’ve done the interviews, go back to your persona and replace the
assumptions with actual data.

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Problem/Market Fit
Exit Criteria: You know who is, and isn’t, your customer. You’ve found a
consistent problem your customers have.
Common Pitfalls: Everybody trap. Assuming they have a problem.
(Remember, customers don’t care about your solution, they care about their problems)

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Solution/Market Fit
Definition: Your solution creates user success for a specific customer segment
Goal: Validate customers actually give something up (money, time, or
reputation/progress) to take you up on value proposition (functional + rational).
Determine MVP (minimum viable product - minimum you need to create to solve
problem)
How: Sell (before you think you’re ready). YaaS (you as a service) - automate only to
remove bottlenecks preventing you from more customers. Build ONLY what users need to
solve problem.

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Solution/Market Fit
Action Step: Using the data from your interviews, formulate a value proposition
and pitch 10 people in exchange for some form of action proving their intent
(money, time, reputation/progress)
Determine what you need (and only that) to solve the problem you validated in
step 1.

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Solution/Market Fit
Exit Criteria: You’re turning leads into customers, consistently. You’re making
your customers happy, really happy.
Common Pitfalls: Technology in search for a problem. Not charging (revenue IS
a beta feature). We’re not ready to pitch.

40. CONGRATULATE
YOURSELF! MOST
STARTUPS NEVER MAKE IT
PAST THIS POINT.
KNOWN
UNKNOWNS
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Product/Market Fit
Definition: A certain market segment loves and needs your product so you can
now focus on acquiring market share
Goal: Scale. Determine what channels and value propositions convert the
highest.
How: Channel/Value Proposition Testing (optimizely/phone sales), AARRR
Funnel Optimization

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Product/Market Fit
Action Step: Pick two channels, drive 30-40 targeted visitors, see which
converts better.
Distribution Hacking—How 500 Startups Does Paid Advertising

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Product/Market Fit
Exit Criteria: You have dominant market share and are the go to product in your
market for solving your customers problem.
Common Pitfalls: Premature scaling (trying to grow before achieving
Solution/Market Fit)

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Definition: You’re no longer a startup.
Goal: Increase revenue, profitability,
continued innovation.
How: Offense and defense. Healthy mix
of all 3 tiers of innovation.
Action Step: Go back through Stages 1-3

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@acroll

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Exit Criteria: Continue to innovate or
die. Leave the company (Founder vs.
CEO)
Common Pitfalls: Selling your soul.
Staying too long.

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THE PESSIMIST COMPLAINS
ABOUT THE WIND; THE
OPTIMIST EXPECTS IT TO
CHANGE; THE REALIST
ADJUSTS THE SAILS.
William Arthur Ward

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THANK YOU
SAM@KNOWNUNKNOWNS.CO