2. What is this Talk
Itâs for People
⢠who have an idea for a mobile or web app
⢠looking to work for a startup
⢠just want to learn
Saturday, 19 January, 13
3. Warning
⢠There is a lot of opinion in this
⢠A lot of relying on industry leaders
⢠The best people still only success 10-20%
of the time
⢠I cite where I can, but some bits of wisdom
are hard to pin-down
Saturday, 19 January, 13
4. What is a Startup?
⢠"The only essential thing is growth. Everything else
we associate with startups follows from growth." -
Paul Graham
⢠A coffee shop is not a startup, but a coffee chain
expanding, or something that distributes coffee to
thousands of households is
⢠We mostly talk tech because nothing scales quite
as easily as software
Saturday, 19 January, 13
6. STOP!
⢠Stop building your idea, start solving a
problem
⢠Be careful not to have a âmade up problemâ
⢠âCustomers donât care about your
solution, they care about their problemsâ-
Dave McClure
Saturday, 19 January, 13
7. ⢠âGet out of the buildingâ -Steve Blank
⢠Who needs what youâre making?
⢠Why isnât someone already doing this?
⢠What are people forced to do now that
your product does not exist?
⢠Will people pay for a solution to this pain?
Saturday, 19 January, 13
8. but but but...itâs secret
⢠Youâre so much more likely to be making
something only you will want than
someone stealing your idea
⢠Nobody credible will sign an NDA to hear
your idea
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9. What you donât need
to worry about yet
⢠Name
⢠Logo
⢠Business titles
⢠Business cards (sorta)
⢠Business plans
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10. But, I need
something, right?
⢠Launchrock.com
⢠Unbounce.com
⢠Get some seed people; build a mailing list
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11. Incorporating
⢠Youâll need to eventually, but the best
companies tend to be products ďŹrst
⢠Donât do a partnership, simple corporate
structure
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12. Getting Started
⢠What is the absolute minimum thing you
make to validate your idea as being useful?
⢠Put the big assumptions up front
⢠âMinimum Viable Productâ
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13. Minimum Viable
Product
⢠âThe MVP is a version of a new product
which allows a team to collect the
maximum amount of validated learning
about customers with the least effortâ
⢠Doesnât have to be public
⢠Deployed to early adopters
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15. ⢠You canât outsource your core competence
⢠If you donât have tech in-house, you wonât
be able to move as fast
⢠Investors wonât take you seriously if youâre
dependent on an outside ďŹrm
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16. Options for Lone Non-
Technical Founders
⢠Find old friend whoâs a programmer
⢠Hire Contractor to make an MVP
⢠Learn yourself (codeacademy, BCIT, etc)
⢠Network, but tech events are ďŹlled with
people like you
⢠Sell something ďŹrst
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17. Partnerships
⢠Donât split up company right away
⢠Make sure commitments are taken into
account
⢠Reverse vesting is your friend. Most
investors will ask for it anyway
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18. Ok, back to making
stuff....
Saturday, 19 January, 13
19. Programming Languages
⢠Unfortunately, this is an early decision that
has a lot of long-term implications
⢠âThe single worst strategic mistake that any
software company can make: they decided
to rewrite everything from scratchâ -Joel
Spolsky
⢠Determines who you can hire, not just
technically, but culturally
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21. Web
⢠Ruby on Rails
⢠DJango/Python
⢠PHP
⢠Java
⢠.NET
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22. Launching
⢠The product is typically deployed to a subset of
possible customers, such as early adopters that are
thought to be more forgiving, more likely to give
feedback, and able to grasp a product vision from
an early prototype or marketing information.
⢠You can try for TechCrunch, but sometimes mid-
level bloggers are your sweet-spot
Saturday, 19 January, 13
23. But what if it sucks?
⢠âIf you are not embarrassed by the ďŹrst
version of your product, youâve launched it
too lateâ -Reid Hoffman
⢠âYour #1 competitor starting out will
always be the BACK button.â -Garry Tan
⢠If you launch a crappy product, nobody is
going to know
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24. Distribution
⢠âGet distribution or die tryingâ -Parveen
Kaler
⢠How will your users ďŹnd you?
⢠Who is going to be your ďŹrst paying
customer?
⢠You pay for users or they refer each other
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26. Pricing
⢠Donât give your initial customers it for free
⢠âYou get the real feedback after you ask
for $20â -Dan Martell
⢠Donât ask âWhat would you pay for this?â
⢠âYouâve found the market price when
buyers complain but still playâ -Paul
Graham
Saturday, 19 January, 13
27. Validated Learning
⢠âIf you launch it and see what happens,
youâll succeed -- at seeing what happensâ -
Eric Ries
⢠âThe truth is apoliticalâ -Google Aphorism
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29. Iterating
⢠âYour startup is essentially an organization
built to search for a repeatable and scalable
business modelâ -Steve Blank
⢠Pivot if necessary
⢠âItâs not the customers job to know what
they wantâ -Steve Jobs
Saturday, 19 January, 13
31. Traction
⢠Loosely DeďŹned, but you can tell when you
have it
⢠Month-over-month growth
⢠Customer/market ďŹt
⢠Ideally a âHockey stickâ
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32. Let me know what itâs
like to have traction :-(
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34. Should you take
Investment?
⢠Might allow you to quit your day job
⢠Investors can ask questions that are illegal
for employers to ask
⢠Software costs are ridiculously cheap
⢠Youâll need large market, scalability, exit
plan, value proposition, unfair advantage
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35. Investment Concepts
⢠Equity
⢠Convertible notes
⢠X% of company doesnât mean X% of
control
⢠Accredited Investors
⢠Dumb Money vs. Smart Money
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36. Seed Stage
⢠25k isnât hard to get for credible teams
⢠A lot of accelerators popping up
⢠Serious gap in 100,000 to 1,000,000 range
in Canada
⢠Angellist.co
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37. Raising is Hard
⢠There are outlier stories, but those come
from established people or teams with
crazy traction
⢠Takes months
⢠âTraction trumps everythingâ
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40. Working for a Startup
⢠If youâre not a dev, youâre gonna have a
tough time
⢠If youâre a dev, youâre gonna have to adjust
expectations
⢠Right after a company raises money is a
great time
⢠Hire slow, ďŹre fast
Saturday, 19 January, 13
41. ...more reading
⢠Thoughtbot Playbook
⢠Hacker News
⢠Paul Graham Essays
⢠4 Steps to the epiphany
⢠The Lean Startup
⢠500 Startups Blog
Saturday, 19 January, 13