Presented at a Pistoia Alliance webinar to kick off the "Pistoia Presidents Startup challenge"

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2. gritsystems
Pistoia Alliance - President’s Startup Webinar
September 2015

3. Contact
Claus Stie Kallesøe
Founder, CEO
claus@gritsystems.dk
+45 30 14 15 36
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4. “A startup is a temporary
org. in search of a scalable,
repeatable, profitable
business model”
Steve Blank, Bob Dorf,
“The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company”, 2012

5. All start-ups are unique!
Easy to say HOWTO -
harder to do it!

6. “Bootstrapping….
…starting a business without
external help or capital.”
Bootstrapping, Wikipedia. Accessed August 13th 2015
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping#cite_note-15

7. “A startup is not a
smaller version of a
large company”
Steve Blank, Bob Dorf,
“The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company”, 2012

8. So don’t run it like it is!
Major take home today!

9. Getting started
• Company - What is it?
• Product (s) - What are you selling?
• Customers - To whom?
• Process/Method - How?
• Organisation - Who calls the
shots?

10. Getting started II
Then adapt and adapt and….

11. “Winners recognise their
startup is a series of
untested hypotheses
(guesses) that need testing”
Steve Blank, Bob Dorf,
“The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company”, 2012

12. “Planning is
guessing”
David Heinemeier Hansson, “Unlearn Your MBA”, Stanford, 2010
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2353

13. The Product/Service
• Is it unique?
• Will anyone pay for it?
• If NOT unique?
• Why choose yours?

14. Getting (the first) customer(s)
• Network, Network, Network
• Hard work/Persistence
• A good product or service!
• You need to do the selling

15. “The first 10 customers
should be sold by you,
the CEO or founder”
Sean Jacobsohn, Venture Investor, “Your First 10 Customers Can Make Or
Break You”, techcrunch, Aug 30, 2015
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/30/your-first-10-customers-can-make-or-break-
you/?ncid=tcdaily#.omd8fz:R9Oy

16. Keeping customers
• Deliver
• Quality in the product
• Great service

17. Getting
vs
Keeping

18. Risks
• Internal disagreements
• Going after a Big deal/
customer - that doesn’t fit
• Panic => Bad decisions
• Expanding too fast

19. In the end…
Try to make more money
than you consume!

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