Tim Chan explains the process of creating a vision for your startup and turning your ideas into a reality. He encourages entrepreneurs to leap into the great unknown and never shy away from an idea that seems too large or ambitious. This content was produced for the 2014 Orange County Fall semester of the Founder Institute by Founder Institute mentor Tim Chan, founder of Level3 Apps. Follow Level3 Apps on Twitter to learn more: https://twitter.com/level3apps

1. Vision
and
Ideas
Founders
Ins.tute
Orange
County
h5p://fi.co
Tim Chan
tim@level3apps.com

2. Startup
or
the
idea?

3. Idea
first
Pro
• Strong idea
• Lots of passion and energy driving the idea forward
• Lots of fun in the beginning
Con
• Recruiting can be difficult
• Team members have their own ideas
• Difficult to explain the vision
• Team relationships are still new and unknown with
potential issues down the road.

4. Startup
first
Pro
• Get to know the team, learn each others strengths/
weaknesses
• A strong team works together for research on
market strengths
• Investors look at the team makeup
Con
• Each team member has different ideas, so coming
to an agreement is slow going
• No clear product vision. Each member has their
own ideas on vision and there must be
compromises from everyone.

5. good
idea?
• Why do we need it?
• Is there a healthy market?
• Provides value to the user?
• Great execution!
• Personal experience?
• Passion and expertise?

6. Crea.ng
ideas
• Learn
• Who, what, how, why
• Create
• What is the ideal solution
• Do
• Identify people and resources
• Study the market
• Features that competitors are missing
• Prototype again and again
• Adapt
• What worked and what didn’t work in the prototype?
• What needs to be changed or enhanced?
• What are the next steps

7. “Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end
up following you.”
–Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO
“People who know what they are talking about don’t
need Powerpoint.”
–Steve Jobs, Apple CEO

8. “Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.” –
Michael Dell, Dell Chairman and CEO
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of
your product, you’ve launched too late.”
–Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Co-Founder and
Venture Capitalist

9. Resources
• Founder Institute Mentors
• Basecamp.com
• Trello.com
• Udemy.com
• Fiverr.com / Fiverup.com
• freemind.sourceforge.net (or any mindmapping tool)
• Wireframes
• Balsamiq
• Keynotopia
• InVision App