The document provides advice for starting a tech startup. It recommends validating ideas through experiments before investing significant time and money. The key is to define problems as testable questions and launch minimum viable products to demonstrate traction with real users. The biggest challenge is defining a product people want to use, so founders should talk to potential customers to understand problems and test assumptions through small real-world experiments before prematurely scaling their startup.

1. I’VE GOT THIS GREAT IDEA FOR A TECH STARTUP.
NOW WHAT?
by Amit Klein @amitklein startupgiraffe.com
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

2. YOU?
Me...
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

3. WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

4. NON-ENGINEERS WHO STARTED GREAT TECH COMPANIES
Zynga LinkedIn Birchbox
Alibaba Groupon AirBNB
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

5. IF ONLY I COULD FIND A TECH CO-FOUNDER...
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

6. INVESTMENT (TIME AND MONEY) IS
EARNED
...NOT GIVEN
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

7. How do you attract tech talent
and investment?
VALIDATE YOUR IDEAS &
DEMONSTRATE TRACTION
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

8. YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE WILL
NOT BE TECHNICAL.
IT WILL BE DEFINING A PRODUCT
THAT PEOPLE WANT TO USE.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

9. AGENDA
๏ Ideas
๏ Minimal Viable Products (MVPs)
๏ Launching
๏ Q&A
๏ Group Activity
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

10. PICKING THE RIGHT IDEA
Domain Experience Good Market Passion
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

11. AN IDEA IS AN
ASSUMPTION
Break it down into
testable questions
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

12. VALIDATING IDEAS
Define and launch Set goals & Develop new hypothesis
experiments Measure results (iterate)
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

13. EXAMPLES
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

14. Wednesday, December 28, 2011

15. After we had been doing that for about nine weeks, I
missed the 9 a.m. Monday deadline... At around 9:10 I
started getting e-mails from people asking where the
newsletters were. Those e-mails kept coming. That’s
when I really knew I was onto something. That was
the moment of validation.
~Marc Cenedella, Founder - TheLadders
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

16. RESEARCH THE PROBLEM
TALK TO PEOPLE
(NOT YOUR SOLUTION!)
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

17. Wednesday, December 28, 2011

18. MOST STARTUPS FAIL
BECAUSE OF PREMATURE
SCALING
~ STARTUP GENOME
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

19. FAKE IT TILL YOU
MAKE IT!
DELAY
COMPLEXITY
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

20. WIZARD OF OZ
TESTING
GHETTO
TESTING
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

21. DEFINING AN MVP
Will people use it?
Will they tell people about it?
Will people pay for it?
What are the biggest risks?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

22. Wednesday, December 28, 2011

23. LAUNCH EARLY
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

24. EARLY CUSTOMERS
Find people who feel the problem most acutely
Make them feel like they have skin in the game
Communicate openly and honestly
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

25. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN PRODUCT-
MARKET FIT ISN’T HAPPENING?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

26. SUMMARY
๏ Break ideas down into questions
๏ Focus on the riskiest question first
๏ Set realistic goals
๏ Launch experiments with least amount effort
๏ Celebrate
๏ Measure results
๏ Learn & Repeat
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

27. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
๏ Creating a strong online presence
๏ Tech - HTML/CSS, Hosting/DNS
๏ Marketing - SEM
๏ Analytics - Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik
๏ Lean Startup - The Lean Startup by Eric Reis
๏ Networking/Events - Ohours, Skillshare, Meetup
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

28. Q&A
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

29. GROUP ACTIVITY
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

30. THANK YOU!!!!!!
AMIT@STARTUPGIRAFFE.COM
@AMITKLEIN
Wednesday, December 28, 2011