Things I will

tell my kids if
they become
entrepreneurs

Disclaimer:
There is no playbook for startups

11

Things I will tell my kids if they

become entrepreneurs
Idea
Team
Fundraising
Execution
Market

Competition
Money & Risk
Success
Tools

13

IDEA

14

Somebody somewhere already had your idea.

Dont waste too much time thinking youre a genius

15

Your idea is 1% of success.

Googles key idea (pagerank) was published as a public paper in 1998

16

Execution > idea

Jeff Bezos was not the only person trying to sell books on the internet.
He just executed better and faster.

17

Team > idea

A great team will pivot out of a bad idea

18

Product > idea

How you implement an idea is more important than the idea itself

19

Startup = idea + execution + product + team + luck

20

Talk about your idea to as many people as possible

You will get feedback, challenges, referrals, unexpected connections

21

Great ideas have lonely childhoods.

The more disruptive your idea, the less people will understand it.

22

Good ideas can look terrible at the beginning

ex: Facebook was a social network for moneyless students

23

Copycats kill excitement

24

Dont worry too much about your companys name. You grow a name.
What does Amazon, Google or Apple mean anyway.

25

IDEA
Where and when

26

Every new technology is an opportunity: look for gaps between

how things have been done and how they can be done

27

Every asleep industry is an opportunity: do things

incumbents cant or wont do because the economics dont
make sense to them, or because technically they cant.

28

Every fringe user is an opportunity: go after those who are

already behaving like everybody will behave in the future

29

Crisis are full of opportunities

Necessity is the mother of invention (and entrepreneurship).
Great startups are born all the time

30

IDEA
Vision vs feedback

31

Its not the customer's job to know what they want

Steve Jobs

32

If I had asked people what they wanted,

they would have said faster horses.
Henry Ford

33

Finding balance in feedback vs vision

In absence of vision rely on feedback
With a clear vision you can ignore feedback

34

Conscious feedback (survey) < unconscious feedback (data)

What people say they do < what people really do

35

Friends & family might not give you truthful feedback

Beware of asking your friends whether they would pay for your service.
They will all say yes, until you ask for their credit card number.

36

TEAM

37

How many founders?

1 founder hard
2-3 co-founders best
4+ co-founders complicated

38

manager leader
You need leaders and managers, and usually cant be both. Make sure
you and your co-founders complement each other.

39

If youre not comfortable giving equity to

someone, they shouldnt be a co-founder

40

Clarify everything (cap table, salaries) on day one, especially if

youre working with friends

41

Define on day one what happens if a co-founder leaves

42

TEAM
CEO duties

43

No need to know everything.

Surround yourself with people who know what needs to be known.
You are the head coach, not the star player.

44

Founders duties: vision, fundraising, evangelisation, hiring and managing

45

TEAM
Recruitment

46

Paul Graham: People can become formidable, but its hard

to predict who
Recruiting is one of the hardest thing there is.

47

First employees are as important as co-founders

48

Bad recruits can kill your project in the early days

49

Hire people who are better than you

50

Hire people who you would feel comfortable reporting to

51

Choose employees like you choose your friends

52

Go for attitude over experience

vice.com recruits people coming out of schools with no experience,
because they have not been formatted by how things are done
elsewhere, and will want to prove themselves

53

What you need to succeed in startups is not an expertise in startups.

Its an expertise in clients

54

Hire people who have options

Good people will always have multiple options on the table.
Convince them that you provide the best way to spend their
precious time. People with options are not dependent on
you as an employer, and will be more truthful

55

Look for people with no ego getting in the way

56

Retaining is less expensive than recruiting

57

Have an extremely high bar, hire slowly

58

Use trial periods for what they are: trial periods

59

Fire people who are bad are their jobs, create politics, are negative

60

Fire fast
You will always take too much time to fire your first employee

61

Beware when you become a trophy employer.

You will start attracting people who want to help
themselves more than they want to help your project

62

Money is just one factor in employee motivation

Others: experience, meaning, impact, network, etc

63

4 things that lead to better performance:

Fairness: knowing that you're being paid a reasonable amount
for your work so that money no longer becomes an issue.
Autonomy: controlling events in your work life by choosing
what you want to do and when you want to do it.
Mastery: excelling at a craft that you enjoy and being
recognized as a master by peers that you respect.
Purpose: feeling that what your work is helping other people
and changing the world in a positive way.
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/the-true-secret-of-employee-motivation.html

64

TEAM
Managing yourself

65

You are your most important ressource. Take care of yourself.

66

Behind every entrepreneur is a solid partner / family / assistant

67

Seek support from people who have been / are entrepreneurs

Your friends working at large companies wont be able to relate to what
you will go through.

68

FUNDRAISING

69

Never ask investors to sign NDAs

Sends a message you dont trust them. Dont send your pitch to people
you dont trust in the first place

70

Raise only what you need, as late as possible

71

Be honest about your past. Good investor will say if youre smart,
those mistakes you made wont happen again with my money

72

Dumb investor: money

Smart investor: money + network + visibility + experience

73

Fundraising is a milestone, not a success

74

Be confident, not arrogant.

When asked how he recognises good founders, this is what Y Combinator
president Sam Altman says: Good founders become more humble as they
get more successful

75

EXECUTION

76

Work hard

77

A startup CEOs challenge is to define whats

the Most Important Thing (MIT)

78

You cant decide how long its going to take

They say its usually 10 years

79

Do every possible job, especially the client facing ones

The founder of Craigslist is still doing user support. Steve
Jobs was famous for randomly answering clients complains.

80

Focus is one of the most important thing there is

81

Opportunistic strategic
You can either pursue every opportunity - in which case youre not really
deciding where youre going - or have a clear strategy and reject
opportunities that dont fit in. Opportunities will take you somewhere
fast, strategy will take you somewhere far.

82

Employee effort entrepreneur effort

Running 16h a day working for yourself is less tiring than
spending 8h on a chair doing a job you hate

83

EXECUTION
Growth

84

Either you fail, or growth becomes your number one problem

85

In many ways the startup journey is a downhill spiral of the CEOs quality
of life by adding constraints - users, customers, investors, etc.
Noam Bardin, Founder, Waze

86

Let people control the ressources and priorities.

Let them know how success is measured

87

Make people feel like they are in startups inside a larger organization

88

Recreate diversity inside teams (designers + writers + programmers)

89

Make sure people dont have to grow into leadership roles

Large companies are filled with specialists who got promoted
to management positions while having no such skills.

90

MARKET

91

Peter Thiel: You want to be the last mover, not the first
Google is the last search engine. Facebook is the last social
network (for now at least).

92

Find a small market inside which you can have a monopoly

Amazon started with books, expanded to commerce in general. Lending
club started with peer to peer loans, now expands to lending in general.
Uber started with taxis, will expand to everything related to
transportation.

93

There are more opportunities now than ever (finance, health,

insurance, industry, transportation, logistics). The digital
revolution is just starting.

94

Dont be ahead of your time.

Answer a simple question: why now?

95

COMPETITION

96

Competition means there is a market

Rejoice!

97

Worry about a competitor only when they have a superior product

98

Dont worry about competition from big companies

They are not reactive, slow, and complicated.

99

Google/Facebook/Amazon/Apple could do this in 5 minutes

True. Just didnt happen with Airbnb, Uber, Zenefits, Dropbox,
Snapchat, Square, Pinterest, Spotify, Jawbone, Box, Lending
Club, Evernote, Eventbrite, etc

101

Google/Facebook/Amazon/Apple will launch a similar service and kill you

Google buzz (2010) to compete with Twitter (2006) = shut down
Google Knol (2008) vs Wikipedia (2001) = shut down
Google+ (2011) vs Facebook (2004) = partial shut down
Google keep (2013) vs Evernote (2008) = 10M vs 100M+ users
Facebook Slingshot (2014) vs Snapchat (2011) = sling-what?
Amazon Wallet (2014) vs Square (2009) = shut down

102

Even young companies can get complacent quickly

(Skype should have been Whatsapp)

103

No candle-maker has become a bulb manufacturer, no

carriage-maker has become a car producer, and the post
office did not invent the email.
Marc Giget
http://perspectives.pictet.com/2013/06/19/interview-with-prof-marc-giget/

Radical innovation rarely comes from incumbents

104

The real problem is standing out

105

Build the right media mix

106

Evolve your mix over time

t=0

t=1

t=2

Earned

Paid

Owned

Owned
Owned

Paid
Earned

Earned
Paid

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108

MONEY&&RISKS
RISK
MONEY

109

People who don't pay you will treat you like shit
People who pay a lot will show a lot of respect

110

Dont disregard money.

Money is a form of validation.

111

Money cant buy happiness.

But it can buy freedom to pursue your projects

112

Entrepreneurs have more job security than employees

The 85k employees company I was working for in 2001 shut down in
one week because 20 guys had shredded some papers in Houston. As an
entrepreneur, I can work on week-ends, call my contacts and ask for
business. Employee does not control anything. Entrepreneur does.

113

21st century job security = network + reputation

114

Employee vs (successful) entrepreneur - salary evolution

money

entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs laughing

employee

Employees laughing

time

115

SUCCESS&&FAILURES
FAILURE
SUCCESS

116

Success is multidimensional
Money
Fulfilment
Experience
Independence
Impact
Status
Network
Family
Legacy

117

Money is a consequence, never the objective

118

Zuckerberg could have sold Facebook 500 times. His motivation is not money.
Facebook has had countless offers: an unnamed investor offered $10 million
in June 2004, Friendster was interested in a purchase, Google offered to buy
or partner in the summer of 2004, Viacom offered $75 million in March 2005,
Myspace wanted to buy in spring 2005, News Corp (Myspace's parent
company) wanted to in January 2006, Viacom came back in 2005, NBC was
also interested soon after, Viacom again made an offer of $1.5 billion in
2006, Yahoo offered $1 billion in June 2006, AOL also considered $1 billion
soon after, Yahoo came back again at the end of 2006, and finally Google
offered $15 billion in 2007.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/mark-zuckerberg-was-planning-to-sell-facebook-in-july-2004/

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Media buzz is completely disconnected from success

Journalists just dont have time to look at the real numbers.

120

People always underestimate the role of luck

121

122

Life is a marathon, not a sprint

123

The only way to last is to be ethical and respectful

124

Compromising with your values is dangerous

125

You won't be good when you go against what you like

126

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn

127

Good decisions come from experience

Experience comes from bad decisions

128

The point is the journey

129

TOOLS

130

131

132

The Value Proposition Canvas

Value Proposition

Customer Segment

Copy or outperform current solutions that delight

your customer?

Help make adoption easier?

What would make your customers job or life easier?

Make your customers job or life easier?

Rank each gain your products and services create according to

its relevance to your customer. Is it substantial or insignificant?
For each gain indicate how often it occurs.

What positive social consequences does your

customer desire?

(e.g. regarding specific features, performance, quality, )

(e.g. flatter learning curve, usability, accessibility, more
services, lower cost of ownership, )

(e.g. lower cost, less investments, lower risk, better quality,

performance, design, )

(e.g. flatter learning curve, more services, lower cost of

ownership, )

(e.g. makes them look good, increase in power, status, )

Create positive social consequences that your

customer desires?

What are customers looking for?

(e.g. good design, guarantees, specific or more features, )

(e.g. makes them look good, produces an increase in power,

status, )

What do customers dream about?

(e.g. big achievements, big reliefs, )

Do something customers are looking for?

How does your customer measure success and

failure?

(e.g. good design, guarantees, specific or more features, )

Fulfill something customers are dreaming about?

(e.g. performance, cost, )

(e.g. help big achievements, produce big reliefs, )

Produce positive outcomes matching your

customers success and failure criteria?
(e.g. better performance, lower cost, )

Products & Services

Gain Creators

Gains

Describe how your products and services create customer

gains.

Describe the benefits your customer expects, desires or would

be surprised by. This includes functional utility, social gains,
positive emotions, and cost savings.

How do they create benefits your customer expects, desires

or would be surprised by, including functional utility, social
gains, positive emotions, and cost savings?

List all the products and services your value proposition is

built around.

Do they
Create savings that make your customer happy?

Which products and services do you offer that help your

customer get either a functional, social, or emotional job
done, or help him/her satisfy basic needs?

(e.g. in terms of time, money and effort, )

Produce outcomes your customer expects or

that go beyond their expectations?

Which ancillary products and services help your customer

perform the roles of:

(e.g. better quality level, more of something, less of

something, )

Buyer

What would increase the likelihood of adopting a

solution?

(e.g. lower cost, less investments, lower risk, better quality,

performance, design, )
Rank each gain according to its relevance to your customer.
Is it substantial or is it insignificant? For each gain indicate
how often it occurs.

Which savings would make your customer happy?

Customer Job(s)
Describe what a specific customer segment is trying to get
done. It could be the tasks they are trying to perform and
complete, the problems they are trying to solve, or the needs
they are trying to satisfy.

(e.g. in terms of time, money and effort, )

What outcomes does your customer expect and what

would go beyond his/her expectations?
(e.g. quality level, more of something, less of something, )

What functional jobs are you helping your customer

get done? (e.g. perform or complete a specific task, solve a

How do current solutions delight your customer?

(e.g. specific features, performance, quality, )

specific problem, )

What social jobs are you helping your customer get

done? (e.g. trying to look good, gain power or status, )

(e.g. products and services that help customers compare

offers, decide, buy, take delivery of a product or service, )

Co-creator

What emotional jobs are you helping your customer

get done? (e.g. esthetics, feel good, security, )

Transferrer

What basic needs are you helping your customer

satisfy? (e.g. communication, sex, )

(e.g. products and services that help customers co-design

solutions, otherwise contribute value to the solution, )
(e.g. products and services that help customers dispose of
a product, transfer it to others, or resell, )
Products and services may either by tangible (e.g. manufactured goods, face-to-face customer service), digital/virtual
(e.g. downloads, online recommendations), intangible (e.g.
copyrights, quality assurance), or financial (e.g. investment
funds, financing services).
Rank all products and services according to their
importance to your customer.
Are they crucial or trivial to your customer?

Help your customers better sleep at night?

(e.g. by helping with big issues, diminishing concerns, or

eliminating worries, )

Limit or eradicate common mistakes customers

make?
(e.g. usage mistakes, )

Get rid of barriers that are keeping your customer

from adopting solutions?
(e.g. lower or no upfront investment costs, flatter learning
curve, less resistance to change, )

Rank each pain your products and services kill according

to their intensity for your customer. Is it very intense or
very light?
For each pain indicate how often it occurs. Risks your
customer experiences or could experience before, during,
and after getting the job done?

Pain Relievers

Pains

Describe how your products and services alleviate customer

pains. How do they eliminate or reduce negative emotions,
undesired costs and situations, and risks your customer
experiences or could experience before, during, and after
getting the job done?

Describe negative emotions, undesired costs and situations,

and risks that your customer experiences or could experience
before, during, and after getting the job done.

How are current solutions underperforming

for your customer?

(e.g. lack of features, performance, malfunctioning, )

Co-creator (e.g. esthetics, feel good, security, )

What does your customer find too costly?

What are the main difficulties and challenges

your customer encounters?

Transferrer (e.g. products and services that help customers

Do they
Produce savings?

(e.g. in terms of time, money, or efforts, )

Make your customers feel better?

(e.g. takes a lot of time, costs too much money, requires

substantial efforts, )

What makes your customer feel bad?

(e.g. frustrations, annoyances, things that give them a

headache, )

(e.g. understanding how things work, difficulties getting

things done, resistance, )

What negative social consequences does your

customer encounter or fear?

(e.g. kills frustrations, annoyances, things that give them

a headache, )

(e.g. loss of face, power, trust, or status, )

Fix underperforming solutions?

(e.g. financial, social, technical risks, or what could go awfully

wrong, )

(e.g. new features, better performance, better quality, )

Put an end to difficulties and challenges your

customers encounter?

(e.g. make things easier, helping them get done, eliminate

resistance, )

Wipe out negative social consequences your

customers encounter or fear?
(e.g. loss of face, power, trust, or status, )

Eliminate risks your customers fear?

(e.g. financial, social, technical risks, or what could go

awfully wrong, )

What risks does your customer fear?

Besides trying to get a core job done, your customer performs

ancillary jobs in different roles. Describe the jobs your
customer is trying to get done as:

Buyer (e.g. trying to look good, gain power or status, )

dispose of a product, transfer it to others, or resell, )

Rank each job according to its significance to your
customer. Is it crucial or is it trivial? For each job
indicate how often it occurs.
Outline in which specific context a job
is done, because that may impose
constraints or limitations.
(e.g. while driving,
outside, )

Whats keeping your customer awake at night?

(e.g. big issues, concerns, worries, )

What common mistakes does your customer make?

(e.g. usage mistakes, )

What barriers are keeping your customer from

adopting solutions?

(e.g. upfront investment costs, learning curve, resistance

to change, )
Rank each pain according to the intensity it represents for
your customer.
Is it very intense or is it very light.?
For each pain indicate how often it occurs.

Copyright Business Model Foundry AG

The makers of Business Model Generation and Strategyzer

Produced by: www.stattys.com

strategyzer.com

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135

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Alan Kay

136

Thank you:
Sam Altman, how to start a startup
http://startupclass.samaltman.com/
Hugh MacLeod, cartoons drawn on the back of business cards
http://gapingvoid.com/
Strategyzer, helping CEOs operate like surgeons
http://www.strategyzer.com

137

Get in touch
@laurenthaug
ch.linkedin.com/in/laurenthaug

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