Innovative entrepreneurship workshop for the Noorderlingen in Groningen

1. Innovative
Entrepreneurship
Noorderlingen workshop - February 4th 2015

2. Leon Pals
Chairman Startup Foundation
Founder of several of its initiatives
@leonpals
leon@startupfoundation.co

3. Startup Foundation
An independent not for profit [or for impact] organisation,
driving innovation by supporting startups

4. Who are you?
Name & expertise
Problem?

6. “A startup is a temporary organisation
searching for a repeatable and
scalable business model”
- Steve Blank

8. Effectuation
A framework for entrepreneurial thinking

9. Causal thinking
=
Managerial thinking
=
Choosing the best means to achieve a goal

10. Effectual thinking
=
Entrepreneurial thinking
=
Imagining new ends with a given set of means

11. Effectuation
principles
To get you started on the right track

12. 12

13. Bird in hand
Who are you and what do you have?

14. 14

15. Affordable loss
What can you afford to lose?

17. Lemonade
Embrace surprises

18. Lemonade
Embrace surprises
And always bring salt & tequila

19. 19

20. Crazy quilt
Form partnerships to cover your weaknesses

21. 21

22. Pilot in the plane
Focus on what you can control

23. Pilot in the plane
Control vs. predict

24. Because the future is made
Control vs. predict

25. Let’s do a small game
We love games.

26. “If I can predict the future, I can
control it”
- ?

27. “If I can predict the future, I can
control it”
- Any experienced manager

29. “If I can control the future, I don’t
need to predict it”
- ?

30. “If I can control the future, I don’t
need to predict it”
- Any experienced entrepreneur

32. “Great Scott!”
- ?

33. “Great Scott!”
- You

35. Innovative
entrepreneurship
Or Effectuation, Customer Development, Lean
Startup and dozens of canvasses.

36. Startup ≠ small version
of big company

37. Startup ≠ small version
of big company
Startups are temporary organisations in search of
a repeatable and scalable business model

38. Startup ≠ small version
of big company
Startups are temporary organisations in search of
a repeatable and scalable business model
search = innovative

39. Startup ≠ small version
of big company
Startups are temporary organisations in search of
a repeatable and scalable business model
search = innovative = uncertain

40. Companies
execute
Which is what they are good at
They have managers that predict, operate and
plan using something called the Waterfall method

41. Webvan
The tale of a Startup that wanted to be a Company

43. $1.200.000.000

44. $1.200.000.000
Nothing left, except

46. Nine out of ten fail

47. Nine out of ten fail
Because they try to be a company:
Plan, Build & Launch

50. Time
Waterfall

51. Time
Risk Waterfall

52. Time
Risk
Agile
Waterfall

54. Startups don’t fail because
of product development
Most of us know what we can build

55. Startups fail because
of a lack of customers
Just because you build it,
that does not mean they will come

56. By Steve Blank
Customer development

57. Customer development
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Pivot

58. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Pivot

59. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Execute
Pivot

60. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Execute
Learn
Pivot

61. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Execute
Learn Confirm
Pivot

62. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Execute
Learn Confirm AARRR
Pivot

63. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Execute
Learn Confirm CEO hired
Pivot
AARRR

64. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Execute
Learn Confirm CEO hired
Entrepreneurs start to think about leaving
Pivot
AARRR

65. Lean Startup =
Customer development combined with Agile product development

66. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Learn Confirm
Pivot
Learn
Learning is mostly done
by talking to potential
customers.
But can also be achieved
through observation
and customer feedback

67. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Learn Confirm
Pivot
Confirm
Confirmation can be
achieved through
several kinds of tests,
depending on what
you want to confirm.

68. Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Pivot

70. Build
Measure
Learn
Lean Startup Process
Build Measure Learn Loop
Ideas
ProductData

71. Validated learning
Decreases uncertainty

72. Validated learning
Decreases uncertainty
Minimises risk

73. Validated learning
Decreases uncertainty
Minimises risk
Increases chances of success

76. Seriously though
You do not launch a startup, you steer it to success.

77. It is okay to start like this

79. Time for a challenge

80. Challenge
Who knows?
W O R K S H O P I N T R A C T O

82. Challenge
Who knows?
Illustrations by
Esther Gons @wilg

83. Illustrations by
Esther Gons @wilg

84. Customer Conversations

85. Learn Confirm

86. Why would you have
Customer Conversations?

87. 87

88. What would you like
to be more sure of?

89. Topics
Generate topics

90. Customer
Development
Ga het gesprek aan
W O R K S H O P I N T R A C TO

91. Dear mom,
Don’t you think I’m great?
Love,
Your son

92. It’s not just your mom
People want to be helpful, more than being honest.

93. How can we get facts?

94. How can we get facts?
- Talk about their life, not your concept

95. How can we get facts?
- Talk about their life, not your concept
- Ask about specifics,

96. How can we get facts?
- Talk about their life, not your concept
- Ask about specifics, from the past

97. How can we get facts?
Anything future related is worthless as we cannot
predict the future with certainty.

99. Do you think this is a
good idea?

100. Do you think this is a
good idea?

101. How do you currently
deal with this?

102. How do you currently
deal with this?

103. When does this
happen?

104. When does this
happen?

105. Would you buy a product
that would solve this?

106. Would you buy a product
that would solve this?

107. Please show me how
you do this?

108. Please show me how
you do this?

109. Can you talk me through the last
time that you experienced this?

110. Can you talk me through the last
time that you experienced this?

111. How much would you
pay for this?

112. How much would you
pay for this?

113. How much does this
currently cost you?

114. How much does this
currently cost you?

116. How do we do this as
casual as possible?

117. Scene of the customer

118. Start with softball [easy
to handle] questions

119. How do you screw it up?

120. How do you screw it up?
- Use a script or survey instead of topics

121. How do you screw it up?
- Use a script or survey instead of topics
- Talk about your business, instead of listening

122. How do you screw it up?
- Use a script or survey instead of topics
- Talk about your business, instead of listening
- Try to sell, instead of learn

123. Learn Confirm

124. Good or bad
conversation?

125. “That’s so cool. I love
it!”

126. “That’s so cool. I love
it!”

127. “There are a couple of people I can
introduce you to, when you’re
ready.”

128. “There are a couple of people I can
introduce you to, when you’re
ready.”

129. “What are the next steps?”

130. “What are the next steps?”

131. “Looks great, let me know
when it launches.”

132. “Looks great, let me know
when it launches.”

133. “Can I buy the prototype?”

134. “Can I buy the prototype?”

135. “When can you come back and
talk to the rest of the team?”

136. “When can you come back and
talk to the rest of the team?”

137. Commitments

138. Commitments
- Time [next meeting, taking part in trial]

139. Commitments
- Time [next meeting, taking part in trial]
- Reputation risk [introduction to peers]

140. Commitments
- Time [next meeting, taking part in trial]
- Reputation risk [introduction to peers]
- Cash [letter of intent, deposit, pre-order or sale]

141. 128

142. JFDI
- Set topics
- Do at least 5 to 10 Customer Conversations

143. Test Design

144. Learn Confirm

145. Minimum
Viable
Product

146. Minimum
Viable
Product
Test

147. Minimum effort
towards validated
learning

148. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Execute
Learn Confirm CEO hired
Entrepreneurs start to think about leaving
Pivot
AARRR

149. Search
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Learn Confirm
Pivot
Confirm
Confirmation can be
achieved through
several kinds of tests,
depending on what
you want to confirm.

150. Test cases
Options are merely limited by your imagination

151. Video + Landingpage
75.000 signups

152. Wizard of Oz
Proved people would buy shoes online

153. Concierge
Created early customers

154. A test drives
validated learning

155. But what do we
need to learn?
You need to find your riskiest assumption, and a way
to (in)validate it.

156. The riskiest assumption is
the one that, if proven false,
will kill your business

157. How to design a test

158. How to design a test
- Set your learning goal

159. How to design a test
- Set your learning goal
- Form a falsifiable hypothesis to test

160. How to design a test
- Set your learning goal
- Form a falsifiable hypothesis to test
- Make it measurable

161. How to design a test
- Set your learning goal
- Form a falsifiable hypothesis to test
- Make it measurable
- Set a fail condition

162. How to design a test
- Set your learning goal
- Form a falsifiable hypothesis to test
- Make it measurable
- Set a fail condition
- Set a time-box

163. Build
Measure
Learn
Lean Startup Process
Build Measure Learn Loop
Ideas
ProductData

164. If you cannot fail,
you cannot learn
About half your tests should fail

166. Accept failure as
validated learning
Swallow your pride, become successful

167. JFDI
Design a test, conditions:
Must have a learning goal, based on a falsifiable
hypothesis and measurable.
Also think about the time-box and fail conditions.

168. What have we learned?

169. Let’s get real

170. Ideas are generic

171. Jargon & Buzzwords
Make a Startup less actionable

173. Tests

174. Why get hands on?

175. Why get hands on?

176. "Entrepreneurship is something
you learn best by doing it”
- Paul Graham

177. But most of all

178. It is reality
The red pill

179. “Put your ideas into practise, they will improve
if you take note of what happens next”

180. - Leon Pals
“Put your ideas into practise, they will improve
if you take note of what happens next”

181. So why do we see so many
peers struggling?

182. So why do we see so many
peers struggling?
Fear

183. “The greatest barrier to
success is the fear of failure”
Sven Goran Eriksson

184. What is Lean Startup?

185. “Do a little, see if it works”
- Tendayi Viki

186. Theorising/debating/
planning
Might make you sound smart, or not

188. Lessons learned

189. Gain credibility

190. You might create
something

192. Red pill
Assumptions
Meetings
Theory
Your comfort zone
Blue pill
Validated learnings
Running tests
Experience
Where the magic happens

193. Thank you.
Any questions?
@LeonPals
Thank you. Any
questions?