Presentation given as background for a mentor session for Founderinstitute in Brussels on 01/11/2010. This was teh public part, for the "secret" part you'll have to watch the video on the website of the www.founderinstitute.be

1. 7 tips for productizing
startup ideas
Koen Delvaux
@kodel – www.del-mot.be
01/11/2010

2. Idea versus product
Productizing is turning an idea into something that can be sold

3. Properties of a product
It exists
Made for a market
Has a design
Sells for a price
It works
Known by a name
Serves a purpose

4. User testing: Get out there
Don’t do user surveys behind a desk.
Confront users with your product
in the context where they will use it.

5. Pricepoint: Make the sale
Don’t ask:
Would you buy a product X for Y?
Ask:
I have X and can sell it only today for Y.
Do you want it?
You don’t need the product to sell it.
(and determine price elasticity)

6. Underdo the competition
(credit: 37signals)
Try to focus on 1 feature that others missed out on
More
fun!

7. Spread ALL your ideas
Your idea sucks.
Tell it to other people until it becomes good.
Afraid they will steal your idea?
The owner of an idea is:
• The one who makes the most noise
• The one who executes upon it
Person to person, not online

8. Iterate: Fast & small
First product shipped: 3 months after start
Incremental releases: every 3 weeks
Don’t plan, but DO
Agile methods:
• Often only blabla
• Customer= teammember
See: http://refactr.com
Don’t follow the plan
Follow the user

9. Partner like crazy
Define your market
Find your competitors.
Then see how you could partner with them.
Your go to market model will define the boundaries of your product.
Pick a spot in the value chain
Don’t try to be the whole chain
(tip: emerging market = blue ocean)

10. Business models can wait
1 CSF for startups: find product-market fit
• Your value proposition will keep changing
until you find product-market fit
• Your business model will be dictated by your
final value proposition
Risk:
« we can’t change that,
since our business
model depends on it » (free is not a bad place to start)

11. Final notes
Productizing is easy when you build a product
for yourselves. Teams that create products out of
their own need are more successful. They can
trust on their intuition and work with passion.
A startup CEO’s job is product manager.
Engineering and sales should “get” the product,
both at the same level of understanding.