starting up: the first 30 days

Starting Up The First 30 Days

Hi, I’m Devon. • Georgetown Class of 2001 • Early Startup Employee • StartupHoyas Advocate - On &

Off Campus • Mobile Startups Through Prolific • Living/Loving NYC & Brooklyn

Is Starting Up For You?

Know Yourself

Personality • How do you react to failure? • Are you ever satisfied? • Take an Entrepreneur Personality Test (Appendix)

Resources • Professional Experience • Your Network • Financial Security

Don’t quit your day job unless you can afford not to be paid for a long time.

Vision/Idea

Why this industry & business concept? • Solving a problem? • Enough demand & margin in your product? • Competition?

Name it something simple (don’t waste time on this) • Initial branding is changeable • You need something real/tangible.

Initial value statement and elevator pitch • You’re selling yourself. Be confident & humble

Learn Quickly

Signup for newsletters (Appendix) Log on to potential competitors and winners/losers in

your industry Start a business plan - If you write a good business

plan, there are two likely results: • You plan ahead - Your anticipate potential marketing,

management and financial problems. In doing this, you decrease your likelihood of failure.

• You opt out - In writing the business plan, you’ve determined that your business idea isn’t profitable. Businesses that fail at the planning stage are the most cost effective.

Network Like Mad

Get out there, meet & share with • Industry Peers • Partners • Employees • Mentors (Industry & Founders Experience)

Meetups, Panels, Conferences & Georgetown Events • Meetup.com is a must • Find Georgetown Groups

Gracefully Ravage LinkedIn • Find valuable connections • Why would they want to connect with you? • I’m on LinkedIn – Now What?

Setup Your Initial Image

Buy a domain name and post a landing page with a short dscription of your vision - GoDaddy $12-24 for URL & 1 year simple site.

Google For Business - $70/year for email, docs, etc... Business Cards – VistaPrint 250 cards for $10 Practice explaining the vision so you can talk the talk.

Helpful Tools

Communications (Gmail) • Email Reminders - Boomerang • Sales CRM Tool - YesWare • Connect with Social - Rapportive • Auto-manage Contacts - Write That Name • Scheduling Meetings - ScheduleOnce

Content Management • Wordpress

Customer Communication • MailChimp

Lean Startup & Customer Development

Customer Development is a scientific approach that can be applied by startups and entrepreneurs to improve their products success by developing a better understanding of their consumers - Steve Blank -

Lean Startup is an approach that relies on validated learning, scientific experimentation, and iterative product releases to shorten product development cycles, measure progress, and gain valuable customer feedback. - Eric Ries -

See Appendix

Prepare Some Docs

Pitch Deck Financial Projections Continue Work on Business Plan Documents & Info Requested By - customers, partners,

friends, family, etc…

Talk to the Legal Pros

Ask for references to find a lawyer - your friends, family and results of networking in industry

A lawyer who knows your industry can be HUGE help (ask for referrals).

Legal Tips Article

Understand Fundraising

Understand YOU ARE NOT READY TO RAISE MONEY Learn from previous founders - Founder of Angel List SBA (Grants & Loans), Debt, Friends & Family, Angels

& VCs Is your type of company or industry being funded?

Taking Account

Feedback - what has it been and has it been helpful? Network - who have you met and have they been

helpful? Are you keeping track of your progress? Happiness - are you happy/satisfied?

Prepare for what’s next

Accounting - Start with Quickbooks then move to professional services

Prepare to hire - make sure you get along with your first hires and do not issue them too much equity unless you would consider them a cofounder

Make sure you’re legal - Business Startup Checklist Fundraising

Questions

Connect With StartupHoyas

Linkedin Georgetown Entrepreneurship Alliance

Facebook Georgetown Entrepreneurship Alliance

On Campus Initiative http://startuphoyas.com/

Twitter http://twitter.com/search?q=startuphoyas

Appendix Entrepreneur Personality Test – • http://www.forbes.com/sites/aileron/2012/06/04/the-only-entrepreneur-test-you-will-ever-

need/ Tools & Software – • http://thestartupfoundry.com/2011/02/18/startup-toolbox-a-resource-for-startups/ General guidance • http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-

business Learn & Signup • http://www.businessinsider.com/24-must-read-blogs-for-entrepreneurs-2012-6?op=1 • http://www.alleywatch.com • Industry related journals and blogs • Meetup groups - http://www.meetup.com • Quora Product Development & Lean Startup • http://www.udemy.com/rethinking-the-product-development-process/ • http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-ebook/dp/B009UMTMKS • http://www.udemy.com/lean-startup-sxsw-2012-videos-and-presentations • http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/what-is-customer-development.html