Why domain expertise is not enough for launching truly disruptive products
1. Why domain expertise is not enough for launching
truly disruptive products
Who needs to be on the founding team of a Tech Startup
2018
2. MY HISTORY WITH LVIV AND STARTUP
● Interested in Startup since 2009
● Founded my first high-tech startup in 2011, then
moved to Lviv
● In startup mode in Australia for a few years
● Then back to Lviv in late 2015
● Joined YouTeam which turned into another startup
○ A two-sided digital marketplace for hiring talented,
full time employed software developers
● Then founded LeverPoint Advisory
○ Consults 4 & 6 startups concurrently
3. FOUNDING TEAMS AND PRODUCT OWNERSHIP
● This presentation is about the Founding Team at
Strategy Formation Level.
● For this presentation Co-Founder = Product Owner
● Cannot generalise about all skills required for
startup
● This is because the skill sets required vary greatly:
○ From startup to startup
○ Depending on what stage of the lifecycle of the
start up
4. CATEGORISING FOUNDERS
One way of categorising founders:
● Non-Domain Expert
● Domain Expert taking product directly to market
● Domain Expert who:
○ Uses their product within their SME,
AND THEN
○ Take their product to market
5. CATEGORISING FOUNDERS
Another way of categorising founder:
● Amateur
● Semi-Professional
● Professional
Professional at what?
● Taking New Products, Services,
Processes OR a combination
thereof to market
6. LEVELLING UP AS A PRODUCT OWNER
My Journey as a Product Owner, how to think about
the problem we are solving.
Amateur Founders see it as a:
- Technical Problem, then later
- Design Problem
Semi-Professional Founders see it as a:
- Primarily related to testing our assumptions
with prototypes
7. LEVELLING UP AS A PRODUCT OWNER
Professional Founders imagine:
● Market Entry point
● Path-to-Market
● Go-To-Market Strategy
● Think about the assumptions associated
with Go-To-Market Strategy
● Carving a niche, by executing on the right
marketing strategy
MARKETING SHOULD LEAD >> PRODUCT SHOULD FOLLOW
8. DOMAIN EXPERTISE IS REQUIRED
● Domain expertise is necessary to have on
the team.
● If you are not a founder with domain
expertise
○ Find a co-founder who is a domain
expert
● Otherwise you will make some low grade
errors
9. BUT IS DOMAIN EXPERTISE ENOUGH?
● No, it isn’t, but why?
If the founders are inexperienced with Tech
Commercialisation they will likely:
● Apply the wrong conceptual frameworks
● Selecting the wrong path-to-market
● Prioritise the wrong activities
● Make a lot of avoidable errors in taking their
product to market
10. RELYING ON OUR INTUITION
● As founders we often need to use our intuition to
make complex decisions
But can you trust your intuition?
● Not if it is uninformed / inexperienced
● BUT Informed intuition is often extremely useful
HENCE the concept of Tech Accelerators
11. ADDRESSING THIS LACK OF EXPERIENCE
Dream Team >>
● Domain Expert of the Target Segment
● Chief Technology Officer
● Tech Commercialisation Expert
Otherwise it becomes a very expensive learn curve.
● The problem Tech Commercialisation people are very
rare.
● They are professionals who have:
○ Taken multiple products to market in the past and
○ Have internalised this knowledge & experience.
12. SPOTTING INEXPERIENCE
● Choosing poor market opportunities.
● Choosing problematic paths to market.
● Unclear about initial target market?
● Who their competitors or competitive set is?
● What they are aiming to achieve with their next
release?
● What activities are required to achieve their goals?
● What strategies are required to run a Product
Company?
13. SPOTTING INEXPERIENCE
● The Marketing Channels they need to leverage
to drive Product Adoption
● The need to transition from a:
○ Product Management Focus, to a
○ Whole Product Management Focus, to a
○ Product Marketing Management Focus
● The Whole Product needed to gain a foothold
in the mainstream market
14. STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
Blending the three types of knowledge/expertise together:
● Domain Expert and
● Go-To-Market Strategist
● Chief Technology Officer
Then we need the right operational staff in place
Solopreneurs beware :) there is a huge amount to know for
one person. Could need 10+ years of experience, on
significant size projects.
15. FAILURE AT LAUNCH
Startups can happen any time but most often at
product launch
Because the team doesn’t have a
commercialisation strategy
LeverPoint’s mission is to try to stop this
happening quite so much.
16. We have a systematic approach to
commercialising high-tech startup.
We help by introducing frameworks to
projects:
● lacking structure and
● Help them formulate credible
Go-To-Market strategies.
Based on experience with over a dozen
high-tech startups.
OUR UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION
17. Get in touch regarding Go-To-Market Strategy
Particularly if you are a software or product company, who can relate
to the failure at launch phenomena.
Tristan Senycia
tristan@leverpoint.co.uk
Go-to-Market Excellence Required for Product Success
Helping Product Owners with Market Entry & Product Adoption, while
avoiding costly errors
THANK YOU