30 weeks business model validation: your values
TRANSCRIPT
30 WeeksValues, Vision, Motivation, Dilemmas
Jen van der Meer
MOTIVATION
Why are you doing this?
Why are you doing this?
Why are you doing this?More time
More money
Can’t work for other people
Social impact
Huge financial returns
Control over my own destiny
I want to have CEO in my title
Control over product, autonomy
No one looking over my shoulder
Freedom
I see a huge opportunity
Hungry to learn
Uber feminism - defining my own rules
I’m not employable
It’s my family business, my legacy
Environmental impact
I want to be a founder
No one would hire me
I am creating art / culture / music
What else?________________________
What is a startup? (according to 3 w.m.)
“A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.” – Eric Ries
“A startup is a company designed to grow fast.” –Paul Graham. Y Combinator.
“A startup is a temporary organization designed formed to search for a scalable repeatable business model.” – Steve Blank.
“”Most startups change their business model multiple times. A scalable startup is a special class of startup – world class team, large vision, large target market, passionate belief and a reality distortion field.”
Motivation & Ambition
“The most important factor for business success was ambition with those firms starting out with high growth expectations performing most strongly. Indeed, motivations influence
business success mainly by driving differences in growth expectations, which in turn drive success.”
Entrepreneurship Understanding Motivations UK Survey 2015
Rich V. King Founders choices are straightforward: Do they want to be rich or king?
Few have been both. - Noam Wasserman
Fail Rich
King Exception
Well below potential Close to potentialLi
ttle
Com
plet
e
Con
trol
ove
r com
pany
Financial gains
The Founder’s Dilemma at HBR.org.
FUNDING PHILOSOPHY
Not every dollar is the same
Forms of FundingAngel
Incubators Venture
Customer-funded revenue SBIR Grants
Prizes and Other Grants Loans
Private Equity Corporate VC
The Wonders of Customer Revenue
It’s revenue! You need less capital! You can hire a team,
invest profits into product
Who + What
Custom Offer Scalable OfferLa
rge
Nee
dSm
all m
arke
t
Cus
tom
er S
egm
ent
Value Proposition
Who + What
Eek High
potentialstartup
“Lifestyle”Begin here, cross the chasm
Custom Offer Scalable OfferLa
rge
Nee
dSm
all m
arke
t
Cus
tom
er S
egm
ent
Value Proposition
10X
Vision
Vision is long term - think Visionary. Someone who sees the world in the future, and can describe a future they are working to create. A visionary founder speaks with confidence and optimism about what they want their business to become.
Vision
You’ll attract co-founders, and early customers, and your first employees, and investors with your vision - your world view. The bigger and clearer and more compelling your vision is, the better you’ll be able to attract these people.
Take a deep breath“I will get the money and customers and resources and people I need to build this business.” Then take about 10 very deep, very big breaths, and repeat that phrase a few times.
Now assuming that this statement is true - what does the world look like 1 year from now? Describe what has happened in your company.
Now what does the world look like 5 years from now?
10 years from now?
What is the future you are creating?
Did you describe technical achievements? Fundraising milestones? Did you describe how this vision was connected to you - your energy, your contribution?
Give it more details and rich color - what do you want to feel, create, how do you want your business to connect with the world.
Get more specific. What cities have you reached? How many people have you reached? What new kinds of customers have you found?
How have you changed the culture? How have you delivered impact?
Scale
Impact. Scale. Envisioning Big Outcomes. If it is clear enough and compelling enough AND BIG ENOUGH it will attract the SCALE AND IMPACT-SEEKING people and resources (VCs, angels, future partners and team members)
What does it mean to seek a 10x return?
Unicorn question
How pissed would you be if some other company was anointed the chosen one? And blew you out of the water?
Yesterday news broke of General Motor’s acquisition of Sidecar assets. Why the sale? In short, we were forced to shut down operations and sell. We were unable to compete against Uber, a company that raised more capital than any other in history and is infamous for its anti-competitive behavior. The legacy of Sidecar is that we out-innovated Uber but still failed to win the market. We failed — for the most part — because Uber is willing to win at any cost and they have practically limitless capital to do it. Sunil Paul, Founder, Sidecar Jan 20, 2016 Medium (Post Mortem)
How fast?
My current user base of _______ would be on track to grow to ____________ in 5 years to be considered worthy of growth investment (VC, angel) today.
What kinds of returns?
Now multiply by 10.
(the impact you’ll achieve. the money you’ll need).
And again.
x10.
Values
Key Partners Key Activities Value Propositions
Customer Relationships
Channels
Revenue StreamsCost Structures
Key Resources Key Channels
Customer Segments
Are your assumptions still the same?
Purpose of Why We Search While you are here…
Learning how helpful humans are when you ask them.
Run through the exercise of seeing how you could achieve scale.
Defining a hidden unmet need, and a scalable solution.
Uncover your blinders, limiting beliefs, and see how big you can think.
Realize you can’t really control for anything, so follow the water around the rock.
The Conscious Pivot
What’s encouraged: find the biggest business model potential, scale and win ($$$$$)
What may make sense for you: figure out your values, and keep one foot firmly planted on the ground in those values. Pivot to the place where the business model fuels your values, and vision.