a startup is a thesis
DESCRIPTION
Lean Startup Machine Rotterdam - October 2012TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
A Startup is A THESIS
Tendayi Viki, PhDUniversity of Kent
Follow Me: @tendayiviki
Lean Startup Machine Rotterdam
![Page 2: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
About Me:
Academic: @unikent
4 failed startups: Tasksauce
Currently: Valideation
![Page 3: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
![Page 4: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
The Challenge
![Page 5: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Most new businesses fail. In some cases failure rates are
over 90%.
![Page 6: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Previous success does not guarantee future success (Frankish et al., 2012).
Entrepreneurs don’t really learn, they just say they do!
http://ow.ly/eR6Uh
![Page 7: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
![Page 8: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
This can be problematic:
Because it places too much emphasis on the value of the initial idea.
![Page 9: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Most new business ideas suck!
Including the initial ideas within many companies that are successful overtime.
![Page 10: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Great entrepreneurs are comfortable with “killing their babies”…
And pivoting to new ideas….
![Page 11: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
![Page 12: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Startups also fail because they try to act like a large company too early.
![Page 13: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Startups are not smaller versions of
big companies! (Steve Blank & Bob Dorf, 2012)
![Page 14: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Startups are more like frogs than fish.
Rob Fitzpatrick and Salim Virani
(2012)
![Page 15: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
No two startup situations are the same…(Even in the same market as another company)
![Page 16: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
![Page 17: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
![Page 18: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
What do you do, when you are in a cargo cult:
And the plane lands?!
![Page 19: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Rob Fitzpatrick and Salim Virani (2012)http://www.foundercentric.com/
![Page 20: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Each startup situation has its own topography….
And it’s a great challenge to business plan for that…
![Page 21: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
A Startup is A Thesis
![Page 22: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
A Path for Searching:
For a sustainable and profitable business model…
![Page 23: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
A Startup is a Research Project:
So we don’t write a business plan, we should write a research proposal…
![Page 24: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
The Startup Team is a Research Team:
All hands on deck, to learn what customers want…
And a sustainable/profitable way to deliver that value to them….
![Page 25: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
A Significant Contribution:
The significant contribution of a startup is building something people want…
Upon achieving product-market fit, a startup graduates…
![Page 26: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
The Lean Startup approach is not anti-planning!
But the plan is to learn…
And use tools that allow us to learn from customers quickly…
.
![Page 27: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Eric Ries (2011) The Lean Startup
http://lean.st
![Page 28: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
This is not the same as market research or focus groups!
![Page 29: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Introspection
◦Market research methods are based on one major premise: If you want people to tell you
what they think, just ask them!
![Page 30: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Introspection
◦This premise is based on one major problematic assumption: People are able to introspect
and gain access into how they feel and communicate it to researchers.
![Page 31: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Introspection
People often don’t know what drives their thoughts and actions.
◦ But if you ask them, they often have something to say.
◦ Psychologists call this confabulation.
![Page 32: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
32
![Page 33: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
To Fully Understand Your Customers You Have to
GoBeyond the Focus Group
![Page 34: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Running Successful Experiments
Document your Plan A Who are the customers? What problems do they have? What solution are you
proposing?
Ash Maurya (2012)Running Lean
http://www.runningleanhq.com/
![Page 35: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Alexander Osterwalder (2012)http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/
![Page 36: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Identify your riskiest assumptions. Transform these into falsifiable
hypotheses. This means you have to
operationalize your assumptions.◦Say what exact behaviour you are
assuming your customer will show.
Running Successful Experiments
![Page 37: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
![Page 38: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
In science, the power of an experiment is that:
It controls for potentially confounding factors and variables.
![Page 39: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Specify who you are going to be talking to from the beginning.◦Be specific about your target sample.
If you talk to anyone who will talk to you: ◦It becomes hard to distinguish signal from
noise.
Running Successful Experiments
![Page 40: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Specify exactly what you would expect to find if your assumptions are correct.
◦Set minimum success criteria
Otherwise, there is no way to know if you have learned anything.
Running Successful Experiments
![Page 41: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
Capture reliable data. Do not try to fudge the data.Avoid the confirmation bias.
Running Successful Experiments
![Page 42: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
The hypothesis/objective you are trying to learn.
from the target market segment you are trying to learn about
and the form it takes to achieve that learning.
Patrick Vlaskovitz (2012)
http://vlaskovits.com/2012/09/apple-maps-debacle-and-minimum-viable-products/
A Great MVP
![Page 43: A Startup is a Thesis](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022062318/5549aacfb4c905fa728b544d/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
THANK YOU