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Startup Secrets - Roadmap to Success
1. Proprietary and Confidential
START UP
SECRETS
An insider’s guide to unfair competitive advantage
Roadmap to Success
@underscorevc
startupsecrets.com
2. Proprietary and Confidential
Have a Question? Tweet it!
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@underscorevc
#startupsecrets
3. Proprietary and Confidential
Frequently asked questions:
• What is involved in a startup?
• What are the things I need to think about / learn to be successful?
• Is my (idea/project/opportunity) fundable?
• How do I pitch it to raise money?
• And many more questions and frequently questioned answers!
What are YOUR questions ?
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Why are we here?
startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
4. Proprietary and Confidential
Frequently asked questions:
• What is involved in a startup?
• What are the things I need to think about / learn to be successful?
• Is my (idea/project/opportunity) fundable?
• How do I pitch it to raise money?
• And many more questions and frequently questioned answers!
Startup Secrets as a series is designed to bring these questions to life in practical frameworks and
case studies…
• So we designed this workshop as a Roadmap to Success
and in turn therefore to the Startup Secrets series as a whole
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Why are we here?
startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
5. Proprietary and Confidential
Macro: Building an enduring company…
5startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
Vision / Mission
Value Prop
R o a d m a p
Enduring
Company
Startup
…
…
…
…
7. Proprietary and Confidential
A good first step…
7startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
Some kind of ROADMAP to execute from
Might take many forms for different audiences
Product Roadmap?
Business Plan?
Investor Pitch Deck?
… or even a Napkin Sketch!
It will almost certainly be wrong!
But it can’t be mindless, it needs to be mindful!
So you have some straw man, or baseline to work from
9. Proprietary and Confidential
Each Step: Reduce Risk, Increase Value
9startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
Ideation Confirmation Creation Validation Repeatability Scalability Profitability Predictability
Increasing VALUE
DecreasingRISK
10. Proprietary and Confidential
Reality - Iteration
10startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
Ideation Confirmation Creation Validation Repeatability Scalability Profitability Predictability
Increasing VALUE
DecreasingRISK
11. Proprietary and Confidential
What will yours be?
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The roadmap to success…
startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
Pivots?
Ideation
Repeatability?
Predictability?
Scalability?
Validation?
Profitability?
Funding?
Creation
12. Proprietary and Confidential
What will yours be?
• Expect the unexpected…
12
The roadmap to success…
startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
Pivots?
Ideation
Repeatability?
Predictability?
Scalability?
Validation?
Profitability?
Funding?
Creation
Outlier
customers
Business Model
Reworking
Funding
Mirage
Iterations
The unexpected:
“near death”
experience
Team
Upgrades
Growth vs
Leverage?
Re- Creation
(See LinkedIn article here)
Startup
Euphoria
13. Proprietary and Confidential
What will yours be?
• Expect the unexpected…
Longer, harder, maybe even bigger
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The roadmap to success…
startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
Pivots?
Ideation
Repeatability?
Predictability?
Scalability?
Validation?
Profitability?
Funding?
Creation
Outlier
customers
Business Model
Reworking
Funding
Mirage
Iterations
The unexpected:
“near death”
experience
Team
Upgrades
Growth vs
Leverage?
Re- Creation
Startup
Euphoria
15. Proprietary and Confidential 15
Milestones
startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
Increasing VALUE
DecreasingRISK
Product
Market Fit
Prototype
Problem Fit
Value Prop
Idea Fit
MVP & MVS
Customer Fit
Company
Execution Fit
Company
Public Market Fit
Company
Business
Model Fit
Ideation Confirmation Creation Validation Repeatability Scalability Profitability Predictability
16. Proprietary and Confidential 16
Whiteboard:
startupsecrets.comRoadmap to Success @underscorevc
Project, Org, Company Name
Team
• Team Member Names & Backgrounds
Why uniquely qualified to address this problem / opportunity
Value Prop
• Problem you’re solving
Product / Service
Vision
• Market need
Evolution in several years
How will you lead it
Create Roadmap – TIMELINE
– Ideation
– Confirmation
– Creation
– Validation / Iteration
– Repeatability
– Scalability
– Profitability
– Predictability
Who? Why? How? What? When?
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What are you missing?
How much of this is incomplete or missing?
Team
Value Proposition
Product
Go-To-Market
Business Model
… and many others
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Planning for the perfect pitch…
How much of this is incomplete or missing?
Team
Value Proposition
Product
Go-To-Market
Business Model
… and many others
MONEY? See “Funding Strategies To Go The Distance”
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Incomplete stand outs are better than
complete stand ups!
We looking for outstanding:
• People
• Technology or other disruption
• Market opportunity
One outstanding of the above literally stands out vs. all good, but none great
We don’t expect complete
• Team
• Product
• Value prop
• GTM plan
• Business Model
Entrepreneurs don’t need all the answers!
• Self aware, listening, leaders…
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22. Proprietary and Confidential
Startup
Secrets
Workshops
Full descriptions of each at
StartupSecrets.com
1. Startup Roadmap
2. Building a Compelling Value Proposition
3. Company Formation 1: Vision, Mission,
Culture
4. Company Formation 2: Hiring
5. Game Changing Business Models
6. Go to Market 1: Strategy
7. Go to Market 2: Tactics
8. Getting Behind the Perfect Investor Pitch
9. Funding Strategies to go the Distance
10. Turning Products into Companies
11. Have you Got What It Takes?
12. Mastering Mutual Mentorship
In the real world you’d iterate
Today we’re going to do a workshop to allow you to build a value proposition
For (target customers—beachhead segment only)
Who are dissatisfied with (the current market alternative)
Our product is a (new product category)
That provides (key problem-solving capability).
Unlike (the product alternative),
We have assembled (key whole product features for your specific application).
Moore, Geoffrey A. (2009-03-17). Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Project (p. 154). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
For (target customers—beachhead segment only)
Who are dissatisfied with (the current market alternative)
Our product is a (new product category)
That provides (key problem-solving capability).
Unlike (the product alternative),
We have assembled (key whole product features for your specific application).
Moore, Geoffrey A. (2009-03-17). Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Project (p. 154). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
EG
Silicon Graphics in Hollywood
For post-production film engineers
Who are dissatisfied with the limitations of traditional film editors
Our workstation is a digital film editor That lets you modify film images any way you choose.
Unlike workstations from Sun, HP, or IBM, We have assembled all the interfaces needed for post-production film editing.
Moore, Geoffrey A. (2009-03-17). Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Project (p. 154). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
In the real world you’d iterate
Today we’re going to do a workshop to allow you to build a value proposition
Customer problem or need
Customer problem or need
To entertain you along the way, as this is pretty dry subject, I will tell a story, as that is often a key element of any presentation. Usually it’s a story about you and how you came to decide to devote your working life to this new idea.
In my case it is the story of a recent trip I made and you can try to guess where I was and then as you do I’ll tell you my story. It's in italics if you want to skip it during this read and just focus on the main slides
So here is my starting point on that journey. It was a hazy morning. I really couldn’t see much except a few glimpses of the fall foliage. But I’ll tell you it wasn’t New England as you can probably tell from the terrain.
But where should you start in your Pitch? Just like I did here, give an Agenda of what you’re going to cover, mainly to set expectations.
What expectations you ask? Well, given my comment earlier that presentations often replace business plans, it’s important to set out your pitch.
Is it a comprehensive coverage of your business that will go into detail covering your entire business plan, or is it brief introduction to your business to encourage your audience to learn more in person?
Or is it something in between like an update to your current stakeholders on progress in the business with an interim capital raise?
Whatever the case, present your agenda and set your audience’s expectations clearly so you can exceed them with that Steve Job’s like zeal for “one more thing” to put your audience over the top.
Ash’s initial idea
Ash’s initial idea
Amazon
For (target customers—beachhead segment only)
Who are dissatisfied with (the current market alternative)
Our product is a (new product category)
That provides (key problem-solving capability).
Unlike (the product alternative),
We have assembled (key whole product features for your specific application).
Moore, Geoffrey A. (2009-03-17). Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Project (p. 154). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
For Great Wall of China, the value proposition was really quite simple, protect the Chinese from the northern nomadic invaders like the Mongols or risk losing their country. And as I walked along the Jinshangling section, I could not help but be struck by the domineering watchtowers, of which there were no less than 67 on this section alone.
In this picture I capture a section of the wall where the contrast between the new bricks on the left and the old bricks on the right is clear. Your value proposition should be equally clear.
However you describe your value proposition, ensure your audience really “gets it”, before proceeding.
And be careful not to make any assumptions here, that may come out of your familiarity with the opportunity. Instead be explicit about what could simply not be done without the solution you are proposing and why that is so compelling.
(One other word of caution here. Many entrepreneurs, particularly technically driven thinkers spend too long on this section of the pitch. Just present it and don't try to describe every detail of the solution, no matter how proud you are of it! Present just enough to be clear as to why it is a breakthrough. And then use outside examples as proof points. See later on for more of this. )
You can test you value proposition without buiding a product by trying out this story and validating what customers are experiencing now, and what they would pay to get to the “after” scenario…
This should lead you up to describing your vision, for how the market will evolve and how you plan to lead it.
Vision is very important to us, because you will usually be looking at markets that will emerge over many years. And because it will be important to be early into a market to lead the it, we look for entrepreneurs who have the vision to see how it will unfold into a big opportunity down the road.
What are the possibilities opened up by your vision?