Startup First Steps (Course) - Session 1
References
Thoughts
Disruption
What is disruptive innovation? It takes products only available to experts or the wealthy and makes them accessible to a wider audience.
Clayton Christensen explains…
Disruptive Innovation Explained
From zero to one
For a company to grow really big, it must (a) make something lots of people want, and (b) reach and serve all those people.
https://paulgraham.com/growth.html
Build / Measure / Learn
How?
For non professioanl users (non IFA’s) everyone is not an answer - so what is?
”… a large proportion of which are ready and willing to buy…” hmmm…
Business Model
The business model is the message https://medium.com/zebras-unite/zebrasfix-c467e55f9d96
Counter Intuitive Good signs
- ideas that a hard to get started
- ideas in a boring space
- ideas that have existing competitors
Product Manager
- AT the start, I need to be a product manager, first and foremost
- use a learning mindset to mitigate own biases
- move from build mindset to learn mindset
- must elucidate a vision
Selling to Investors
- the best argument is facts on the ground
- investing in lines not dots
Helping the financially uncertain.
How to present a complicated set of decisions in an accessible manner?
Different Propositions in same product
- go up value chain to make money
- public > schools > advanced public > IFA’s
Focus on the user and all else will follow.
- from Google
- be engaged, receptive and responsive
Align social purpose with hard-nosed profitability
- Revenue is the difference between a hobby and a business.
Traction
- Traction is evidence that people other than yourself, your team, and your mom care about your idea.
- Investors today don’t fund solutions that work; they fund business models that work.
- traction roadmap > key milestones > go-to-market strategy
Challenges
Fall in love with the problem, not the idea
The goal of a new startup is not to create and execute a great product idea, but to take advantage of a unique insight into a market to create new behaviours.
- Basically, how to avoid Founder bias.
- I like this: another way to think about how to get started - what behaviours by whom?
- Questions:
- Does this product address a genuine problem that customers have?
- Are they already searching for solutions to their problem?
- Will the customers understand the product and get value out of it?
- Are they able to make a decision to start using the product by themselves or do they need help from others?
- Will they keep using it?
- An idea is only an insight into the problem space
- Problem/Solution fit is just full of quotes:
- “…All your initial energy should be channeled towards finding evidence of a monetizable problem, not towards acquiring more resources to build out your solution.”
- “…The combination of a big enough monetizable problem and a unique solution = Problem/Solution Fit.”
- “…Start by recognizing that your true job is to create a customer (not your solution).”
Do people care enough?
- to be scalable cannot rely on a handful of worthy partners
- need something people will pay for.
- do I want this?
Total Addressable Market
- what is my market ..?
- customer discovery