Sim Simeonov gave this presentation at a Startup Bootcamp meeting.

1. Strategies for Startup Success Simeon Simeonov (@simeons) Founder & CEO, FastIgnite http://sim.vc/about

2. Founding. Funding. Growing. Startups.

3. Why Me? The wiser speakers refused to talk on this subject

4. Strategy Paradox The same strategies that have the highest probability of extreme success also have the highest probability of extreme failure--Guy Kawasaki http://simeons.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/guy-kawasaki-why-good-strategies-fail/

5. Case Study: PayPal How much risk did PayPal take on? Livingston, Jessica. Founders At Work. p6 (interview with Max Levchin)

6. Flawed Thinking About Startups Poor analysis of the wrong data in a mythological context

7. Poor Analysis of Startup Success Limited or inaccurate data Correlation vs. causation Omitted variable bias Sensationalism

8. Sample Bias Most of the industry’s effort is spent analyzing successes

9. Ego Revisionist history due to egocentric ex postfacto analysis

10. Case Study: YouTube Why Did YouTube Succeed? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nssfmTo7SZg (talk by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim)

11. Conclusion Success is often the result ofavoiding failure by will or luck

12. Therefore… A better title for a talkabout startup success is…

13. Why Do Startups Succeed and Fail? Simeon Simeonov (@simeons) Founder & CEO, FastIgnite http://sim.vc/about

14. Why Me? The more thoughtful speakers refused to talk on this subject

15. Semantics, Semantics What do “success” and “failure” mean?

16. Case Study: “A” Company “A” raises $100+M of institutional capital and goes public at $2.4B valuation

17. Case Study: “F” Company “F” raises $2M and sells for $20M

18. Case Study: “M” Company “M” raises 500K and shuts down six months later

19. Pop Quiz Which of A, F & M succeededand which failed?

20. The Right Measure of Success Innovation? Market share? Revenues? Impact?

21. Success For Whom? Employees? Execs? Founders? Angel investors? Institutional investors?

22. The Score Company A Founders & execs did very well Investors were under water after IPO lock-out Company F Lead founder made $8M Investors got >=2x their money Company M Successful experiment inside a large VC firm

23. Failure is Data Efficient experimentation is critical to any evolutionary system

24. Conclusion Success and failure are notuseful analysis targets

25. Therefore… A better title for a talkabout startup success is…

26. Succeed Your Own Way Simeon Simeonov (@simeons) Founder & CEO, FastIgnite http://sim.vc/about

27. Why Me? I’ve succeeded and failed enough times to have pattern recognition

28. One Thing to Remember You need to understand what startup success means for you

29. Corollary #1 You must understand what drives you

30. Corollary #2 You must ignore ecosystem and societal definitions of success

31. Corollary #3 You must not be afraid to fail in the eyes of others

32. Failure is Data At a minimum, you learn a lot about yourself

33. How Much Wealth Do You Want? For most people, the marginal utility of wealth diminishes rapidly

34. Wealth vs. Risk When you have nothing it may be easier to risk everything. However, a base level of wealth may allow for greater risk taking in the future

35. Rich vs. King You cannot grow beyond a certain point without ceding a lot of decision-making authority

36. Success in Emerging Markets The more turbulent the environment, the greater the benefit of ignoring established definitions of success

37. Success & Happiness It is much easier to be both happy & successful if you drive how success is measured

38. Conclusion As an entrepreneur, you have the right & responsibility to succeed your own way