I am taking a bit of a controversial stand on starting a company. Don't do it! I elaborate a bit more in the short presentation on why. I have seen too many people that said they wanted to start a company just for the sake of being an entrepreneur, a CEO. It's not that glamorous. Having to worry about making payroll every day is not something everyone is cut out for. If you decide to start a company, there are a couple of tips in this prsentation

1. Raffael Marty, CEO
iEntrepreneurs
iTech Gulf, Kingdom of Bahrain
April 10th, 2014

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Raffael (Raffy) Marty

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Starting Your Own Company
Don’t Do It

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If You Are Still Here
it starts with passion
There is no such thing as an “Entrepreneur’s” profession

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Problem
• Deep problem understanding
• What’s the solution?
• Can you build the solution?
• In time
• At reasonable cost?

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• Is there a market for your solution?
• How well do you know the market?
• Will people pay for your solution?
!
• Can you sell your solution?
• How will you sell it? At what price?
• Do you know the buyer / budgets / …?
• How do prospects buy? What’s the sales cycle? How do they
spend money?
Market

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• Do you have a business model?
• Pricing
• Financial model
• What’s the way to profitability?
• When to hire who?
• When do you sell product? to who?
• Don’t write a long business plan - safe the time and think about
the business itself
The Business Model

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Average sale: $250 / month Profit margin: 50%
Staff cost: $10k / month
Staff: 10 employees
—> 800 customers
The Cloud SaaS Example
Hang on, we need more staff to operate the cloud
service and support customers
—> more customers
How do you acquire these customers?

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• How will you fund your company?
• Self funded
• Friends and family (careful)
• Outside Investors (getting $500k is easy!)
• What do you do with that money?
• Always think of the next funding round - you will need it!
• Founders are too optimistic on getting profitable!
• Where does that money get you to?
• What do you do once you spent that money
Funding

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Institutional Investment - The Series A
• Team
• Customers / Traction (Market)
• Product
Only for 1% of companies
$1bn market

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Why is the Silicon Valley Different?
”… rich people and nerds”
- Paul Graham

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• Team
• Who is in control?
• Clear roles and responsibilities!
• Get ready for the long haul! Don’t take
“No” for an answer
• Technology is only a small piece!
• Pay it forward - advice / help /
network
Miscellaneous Tips
• Relationships!
• Relationships!
• Never cold-call investors
• Get warm intros
• From credible people
• Build a pitch deck, not a business plan

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raffael.marty@pixlcloud.com