Entrepreneurial methods in finding Product-Market-Fit. Lecture at StartupSauna Ilkka O. Lavas serial entrepreneur at IT and Media industry publisher at www.citydigital.fi

1. Finding
the
s
Product-­‐Market-­‐Fit
Ship
in
harbour
may
be
safe,
but
this
is
not
what
ship
is
built
for.
Choose
your
des8na8on
.
Dra:
your
route.
Remember:
Success
is
not
a
des8na8on,
it’s
the
journey.
Ilkka
O.
Lavas
/
City
Digital
Ltd
at
Aalto
University
2014.
Photo
by
Mar8n
Nikolaj
(CC
BY
2.0)

2. at
Aalto
University
Ilkka
O.
Lavas
Finding
the
Photo
by
Lavas
@
Burma
Sprite
Clone
In
Burma
/
Myanmar
Is
example
of
innova8ve
method.
Product-­‐Market-­‐Fit
Entrepreneurial
methods

3. Ilkka
O.
Lavas
• 2
books
about
entrepreneurship
• Partner,
board
member,
investor
– PorYolio
of
12
businesses
– 10+
aquisi8ons
done
– 3
exits
• Young
Entrepreneur
of
the
year
2009
in
’Southern
Finland’
• 35years,
2
boys,
1
wife,
1576
a
connec8ons,
1035
linkedin
conns,
twiber
@lavas

4. PorYolio
EXITed:
EXITed:
EXITed:

5. Mobo
When
you
spend
8
hours
doing
something,
you
should
be
able
enjoy
it
Most
important
in
work
life
is
to
enjoy
work
and
your
achievements
at
work
itself
good
feeling
to
go
to
you
need
to
have
every
day
work
if
you
don’t
like
your
job
or
you
are
dissa8fied
at
job:
QUIT

6. Entrepreneurial
Marke8ng:
Agility
• Agility
as
a
success
factor?
• What
is
agility?
Photo
by
Tarja
Ryhannen
Mitrovic
/
Flickr

7. BUSINESS
PLAN

8. Photo:
Ollis
Leppänen
hbp://liiketoimintasuunnitelmaroskakoriin.fi/
1.
Are
you
enthusias8c?
Why?
Purpose
2.
Start
from
yourself.
Your
Mission
and
Vision.
3.
Choose
where
to
start
dra:
first
steps
of
your
business
trust
your
ins8ncts
4.
Clarify
how
business
works
How
do
do
find
first
customer?
Learn
how
can
you
provide
your
first
customer
great
services
5.
Don’t
plan
too
much
6.
Just
do
it.
Learn.
Be
beber.
Execute.

9. hbp://www.businessmodelgenera8on.com/downloads/business_model_canvas_poster.pdf

10. Secrets
of
Entrepreneurial
marke8ng
MARKETING
IS
A
CONTINUALLY
OPTIMIZING
LEARNING
PROCESS

11. AIDA
• A
-­‐
Aben8on
(Awareness):
abract
the
aben8on
of
the
customer.
• I
-­‐
Interest:
raise
customer
interest
by
focusing
on
and
demonstra8ng
advantages
and
benefits
(instead
of
focusing
on
features,
as
in
tradi8onal
adver8sing).
• D
-­‐
Desire:
convince
customers
that
they
want
and
desire
the
product
or
service
and
that
it
will
sa8sfy
their
needs.
• A
-­‐
Ac8on:
lead
customers
towards
taking
ac8on
and/or
purchasing.

12. Outbound
marke8ng
A
-­‐
Ac8on:
lead
customers
towards
taking
ac8on
and/or
purchasing.
D
-­‐
Desire:
convince
customers
that
they
want
and
desire
the
product
or
service
and
that
it
will
sa8sfy
their
needs.
I
-­‐
Interest:
raise
customer
interest
by
focusing
on
and
demonstra8ng
advantages
and
benefit
©
Ilkka
Lavas
2012
W3
Group
Finland
Oy
Choose
your
Target
Audience
(Segment)
A-­‐
Aben8on
(Awareness)
Marke8ng
message,
Gepng
no8ced
(push)

13. Inbound
marke8ng
1. Abract
traffic
1.
Get
found
2. Convert
visitors
to
2-­‐4.
Convert
leads
5.
Analyze.
3. Convert
leads
to
sales
4. Turn
customers
into
repeat
higher
margin
customers
5. Analyze
for
con8nuous
improvement

14. Outbound
marke8ng
A
-­‐
Ac8on:
lead
customers
towards
taking
ac8on
and/or
purchasing.
Convert
buyers
to
buy
more
and
create
recurring
sales
D
-­‐
Desire:
convince
Convert
customers
that
they
leads
want
and
desire
the
to
sales
product
or
service
and
that
it
will
sa8sfy
their
needs.
Target
Audience
Inbound
marke8ng
Analysis
Create
Audience
Collect
Data,
Analyze,
Learn
and
Tell
your
audience
develop
(tweet,
facebook,
A-­‐
Aben8on
email)
Convert
visitors
to
leads
I
-­‐
Interest:
raise
customer
interest
by
focusing
on
and
demonstra8ng
advantages
and
benefit
©
Ilkka
Lavas
2012
W3
Group
Finland
Oy
www.w3.fi
(Awareness)
Marke8ng
message,
Gepng
no8ced
(push)

15. Where
to
start
?
CHOOSE
YOUR
SEGMENT

16. The
business
model
canvas
Something
Somebody
Who?
START
BY
THINKING
TO
WHOM
SHOULD
I
SELL

17. Customer
Segment
Example
Finns
in
Finland
5.400.000
ppl

18. Customer
Segment
Example
Finns
living
abroad
400.000
Finns
+
Kids
800.000
Finns
United
States
700,000
Sweden
470,000
Canada
131,040
Brazil
90,000

19. Case:
Suomikauppa.fi
OFFERING
–
MARKET
-­‐FIT

20. Search
For
business
idea
• Search
for
business
idea
– Living
abroad
– Need
for
Finnish
food
and
products
– There
was
no
online-­‐shop
where
you
can
buy
Finnish
products.
– Rela8ves
sent
Finnish
Chocolate
Fazer
Sininen
and
Juhla
Mokka
Coffee.
Difficult.
• Common
sources
for
new
ideas:
Customers,
Employees,
Friends,
Other
Entrepreneurs,
Magazines,
Seminars,
Common-­‐Life-­‐Problems/
Situa8ons

21. w
Product
I
my
ant
to
have
Finland
–party
for
finnish
kids.
Happy
family.
Kids
educated
with
finnish
food-­‐culture
Experience
Enjoy
finnish
candies
Safe
milk
for
the
baby
Delivered
directly
to
home
Safe
for
my
kids.
(vs
china)
Customers
Gains
I
want
to
teach
my
kids
how
to
make
rye
bread
yourself.
I
want
Fazer
Sininen
Chocolate
Now.
I
need
to
feed
my
babyborn.
Eat
something
luxury
Customer
Jobs
Customer
Pains
Is
it
safe
to
order
online?
What
happens
with
the
customs?
How
long
8me
do
I
have
to
wait?
How
much
do
I
have
to
pay?

23. Timing
• We
we
not
first.
There
was
one
pioneer
who
failed.
We
learned
from
pioneer
and
harvested
the
benefits.
• Payment
systems?
Online
payment?
• Are
your
customers
used
to
pay
online?
• Are
your
customers
willing
to
buy?
• Do
your
customers
know
of
your
existance?
How
do
I
reach
my
customers?
• Do
your
customers
already
recognize
the
need
of
your
offering?

24. Be
trustworthy
• ”Finland
is
not
a
country,
it
is
a
club.”,
everyone
knows
somebody
who
knows
you.
• You
can
sell
easily
once,
but
to
sell
the
second
8me
you
must
have
been
successful
with
the
first
delivery.
• Returning
policies
• Customer
service
• Good
rela8ons
with
the
customs
• Import
licences
(US
FDA,
Australia
etc)
• Export
licences
• Reliability
even
during
high
peak
seasons

25. Be
ready
to
learn
• You
should
never
become
too
self-­‐assured
that
you
think
don’t
need
to
learn
anything
anymore.
• Learning
is
about
the
joy
of
imperfec8on.
• Listen
to
your
customers,
our
first
400
products
were
from
our
customer
wish
list,
now
more
than
3000
products.
• Our
customer
were
more
experienced
than
us
that
they
want
Taffel
Chips
and
Harwall
Jaffa
delivered
to
more
than
100
countries.
• We
did
not
think
that
many
Finns
can’t
write
or
read
Finnish
properly
anymore
if
they
have
lived
20+
years
abroad.

26. Our
predessor
failed,
and
we
did
learn
• 1996-­‐1998
there
the
pioneer
with
smaller
offering
at
the
same
market.
• They
did
not
meet
the
needs
of
customers:
– Only
30
products
(we
have
over
3000)
– Slow
delivery
(we
deliver
very
fast
and
reliable)
– Service
only
in
Finnish
(we
have
8
languages)
• It
was
not
right
8me
to
do
business:
Business
opportunity
Time
window
was
not
open
yet:
– Paying
online
was
not
very
common

27. If
we
can
deliver
finnish
products
abroad,
who
else
may
be
interested?
EXPANSION:
CHOOSING
ANOTHER
SEGMENT

28. The
business
model
canvas
Something
Somebody
ELSE
=Different
message!

30. Sales?
MARKETING
IS
CONNECTED
WITH
SALES

31. Example
marke8ng
funnel
1000
-­‐96%
40
-­‐50%
20
20
-­‐50%
10
Visitors
to
Web
Site
Organic
Traffic
Marke8ng
SEM
Other
Paid
lead
sources
Raw
Leads
Registered
Visitors
/
coocies
/
emails
/
retarge8ng
data
Qualified
Leads
We
know
this
customer
is
about
to
buy
Inside
Sales
Sales
Closed
Deal

32. Other
Cases
Living
in
market
turbulence:
Technological
changes
Turnaround
Print
media
vs
Digimedia
Case
CITY-­‐magazine

34. City
Digital
Käyttäjä:
Urbaani
20-­‐45
v
aktiivinen
ihminen

35. Miksi
juuri
nyt?
Digitaliza8on,
iPads,
mobile
penetra8on
is
big
enoug
hbp://www.businessinsider.com
/state-­‐of-­‐internet-­‐slides-­‐2012-­‐10?op=1
Declining
print
revenues
and
circula8ons.
hbp://www.slideshare.net/annabholm
/wmemc-­‐presenta8on-­‐holm-­‐ulhoi-­‐uliyanova

36. Market
Opportunity,
Growing
Market

37. 1985-­‐2012
2012,
2013
-­‐>
" Business:
print
magazine
" Business:
Digital
media
family
" Area:
HKI,
Tre,
Oulu,
Vaasa,
Turku.
Local
big
" Area:
Finland,
Global
ci8es
"
Customers:
Local,
Finnish
customers
"
Customers:
Brands,
local,
Finnish
and
Interna8onal
customers
and
brands
"
Circula8on
200k-­‐450k
"
Circula8on
1100k
"
Unique
Visitors
on
website
100k
"
Unique
visitors
8000k
(8M)
" Content
creators:
20
" Content
creators:
150-­‐200

38. 1.
Know
where
you
are
4.
Be
beber
4.
Fail
and
Learn
Never
Give
Up!
2.
Decide,
where
you
want
to
go.
3.
THEN
GO
Fail,
Fail,
Fail
again
but
always
fail
forward!
• Angry
birds
was
53rd
game
of
Rovio
• SuperCell
guys
worked
in
different
businesses
for
20
years
before
huge
win

39.
REMEMBER.
YOUR
MISSION
IS
NOT
MONEY.
MONEY
IS
RESULT
OF
AWESOME
EXECUTION

40. Media
Digitaliza8on
is
global
opportunity
www.citydigital.fi
www.ilkkaolavas.com
Ilkka.lavas@city.fi
Twiber:
@lavas
Facebook:
IlkkaLavas
Gsm
+358
400
997969
www.city.fi/profiilit/lavas/blogi
hbp://www.linkedin.com/in/
ilkkaolavas