What to Do Once You Have an Idea (case study)

FAST START STUDIO ACADEMY
SERGEY SUNDUKOVSKIY PH.D.
What to Do Once You Have an
Idea
1

Agenda
Putting Together a Deck
Visualizing Your Idea
Finding Co-Founders/Mentors/Advisors
Prototype Wireframing
4

Startup Progression
Idea is not a product, product is not a company
5

Putting Together a Deck
10-20-30 Rule
Show Do Not Tell
Taxicab and Elevator Pitches
Target Customer
Market Analysis
Differentiation and JUD
Pressure Testing
Competitive Advantages
6

Business Plan vs. Business Deck
Business Plan as we knew it in the Business School is dead
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Deck Rules
10 slides
 In reality it is 3 (others are used as reference)
20 min
 In reality it is 5 (at most)
30 point font
 Last guy from the end of the table
 Too much information
9

Deck Rules
Picture is always better !!!!!
It is worth 84.1 words
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Deck Structure
Executive Summary
Problem
Solution
Platform
Market Opportunity
Business Model
Pricing
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Financial Projections
Competitors
Differentiation
Competitive Advantages
Team
Milestones/Roadmap

Executive Summary
GuidedFlow is a help management platform designed
to enable website owners and self-service solutions
to produce interactive tutorials, walkthroughs aiding
end-consumer adoption and task completion
13

Problem
Problem: Traditional websites and software
platforms struggle with user onboarding, feature
discovery and task completion due to confusion and
complexity of software interaction
14

Solution
Solution: GuidedFlow allows website owners and
software platform companies to produce interactive
tutorials, walkthroughs and guided help workflows to
aid customer onboarding, feature discovery and
complex task completion
15

Pitches
Taxicab Pitch
“Facebook for teenagers”, “Flicker for Video”
Elevator Pitch
 What do we do?
 Who are we doing it for?
 How are we different?
“ConferenceByWire is an event streaming solution that brings live and
on-demand events directly to the remote viewers over the Internet.
Unlike other solutions it does not require significant infrastructure
investment”
20

Pressure Testing
Have your idea and the pitch pressure tested
Do not insist on NDAs. Nobody cares
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Differentiation
Distinction without difference
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Differentiation
Features
Business Model
Target Audience
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Differentiation and JUD
What Investors Are Looking For?
 JUD – Just Enough Difference
 Different Enough
 Not Too Different
Valid Question
 “Why existing competitors are not focused in ‘this’ area?”
Invalid Question
 “Why wouldn’t existing competitors replicate ‘this’?”
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Competitive Strategies
Prices
 We are just like that only cheaper
Differentiation
 We are just like that with following differences
Niche
 We are just like that only verticalized
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Competitive Advantages
Not Easy to Overcome
 Original Content
 Execution
 Loyal Customer Base
 Brand Awareness
Easy to Overcome
 Patents
 First Mover
 Obscurity
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Deck Distribution
Push your deck online
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Visualizing Your Idea
Idea Description
Idea Visualization
Wireframes
Mockups (UI)
Clickable Prototype (UX)
Videolize
Mind Mapping
29

Idea Description
Idea Description
 Success Calculator: Inventor (cloud over the head). Many factors
represented by circles (founder experience circle, previous startup
experience circle, competition circle, funding circle, customer circle,
market size, industry circle, board of directors circle, product
development experience, advisers circle) go into the SourceIgniter
Predictor Engine box, what comes out is a Success Score
30

Videolize
Videolize aka video scribe – Same as visualize only better
36

Mind Mapping
Organize Your Thoughts
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Finding Co-Founders/Mentors/Advisors
Co-Founder Selection Criteria
Finding Co-Founders
Commitment vs. Involvement
Mentor/Advisor Selection Criteria
Mentor/Advisor Expectations
Incubators
41

Co-Founder Selection Criteria
42
NOT GOOD BAD
GOOD

Co-Founder Selection Criteria (cont.)
Complementary Skillset
Worked Together Before
Similar Work Ethic
Similar Commitment Level
Similar Conflict Resolution Style
Can Disagree and Commit
Ideal Number of Co-Founders is 3
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Decide How to Decide
Do no block unless you feel very strongly about it
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Mentor vs. Advisor
Expectation Setting
 Hands On vs. Not Hands On
Mentor
 Advice
Advisor
 Cover Gaps
 Pressure Testing
 Industry IQ
 Introductions
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Mentoring
Real difference is focus. Mentors focus on you. What do
advisors focus on?
48

Mentoring (cont.)
Do I know anything about being pregnant?
49

Incubators
Help Getting Started
Learning the Ropes
Good Mentors
Great Advisors
Helpful Introductions
Right Atmosphere
Place to “Hang Your Hat”
50

Right Incubator Program
Make sure to pick a right program for you
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Building a Static Prototype
Prototype’s Purpose
Prototype Features
Prototype Duration
Prototype Starting Point
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Fine Line
Half-Baked and the Prototype are not the same thing
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Prototype Purpose
Fail Quickly and Pivot
Prove Business Hypothesis
Discover Inflection Points
Collect Customer Feedback
Collect Initial Analytics
Zero in on a Customer Profile
Get Funding
54

Prototype Wiring
Wire it together
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Product Development
61
Startup DNA
by Yevgeniy Brikman

Product Development
62
Startup DNA
by Yevgeniy Brikman

Product Analytics
If you can’t measure it you can’t improve it
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Traction Points
Sample Traction Points
 CTR
 Number of sign ups
 Number of sign ins
 Number of video uploads
 Number of product configurations
 Number of store deployments
65

User Testing
ABT – Always Be Testing
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A/B Testing
Less the data, louder the opinion
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What Can Be A/B Tested?
Headline
Lead (first sentence)
Hero Shot
Font
Color
Call To Action
Number of Steps in the Funnel
Algorithm
68

Usability Testing
Eye Tracking
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What Are They Measuring?
Attention
Emotion
Task Completion Time
Hovering
Clicks
Hotspotting
Path
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What to Do Once You Have an Idea (case study)

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