Starting up 8 memes. 8 hints. Thousands of reasons.

(if you don’t know what a meme is, you’re in for some pretty weird pictures)

By @fmaertens

The first meme

A bit about my story

10 – 20 years 14 y/o: Turbo Pascal/C++ development ★ Selling my first software to a bank

17 y/o: SysOp BBS, Developer PBNews ★ Selling Software (oops, illegal)

18 y/o: Security research and wrote a lot of exploit code ★ Founded Securax

21 y/o: Dropped out of university ★ Acquisition of Securax by Big Five company

20 – 30 years 24 y/o: Became partner at Cyber Defense Firm w/ Dubai/US Agencies ★ MBO

28 y/o: End of VOIP company Attractel NV (bankruptcy) ★ Failed !

29 y/o: Surveillance & cyber weapons ★ Too big legal exposure (stopped, but still haunts me :p)

And now ?

Recent years Angel investor at VOIP Depot ★ Built mobile banking channel for Fortune 500 bank

Founder of Argus Labs: The contextualization company

Fascinated by machine learning, transhumanism and anti surveillance technology

Opiniewolf ★ TEDx Speaker ★ Founder Institute Mentor

Currently writing a first book “The Age of Dream Machines”

Be committed and on-board 1

1 Beware of the startup cult

✖ I want to be rich !

✖ I want to be powerful !

✖ I am bored …

✖ I want flexible working hours

✔ I am passionate about …

✔ I can solve a problem

✔ I see an opportunity

1 Why a startup ?

Enterpreneur Wanterpreneur

Be committed ✪ It’s a marathon Get rid of all distractions and develop laser-focus

Whatever you do, do it with your heart !

1

ADVICE

Holy shit, my idea sucks 2

2 A story about some ideas

“ Broadcast SMS style messages and limit them to 140 characters ” Twitter is the result of a 2009 internal hackathon at Odeo, 500M daily tweets, now US$ 1B pre-IPO

“ Combine a selfie with every picture you take ” Frontback started as a side-project by CEO of Checkthis, over 200,000 users in 4 months

“ Building the nth better social network in a overcrowded space “ Out of a dorm room, Facebook blew Myspace (and nearly everyone) out of the water with 1,1B users

“ I want to give dogs and dog owners more freedom “ Engineer quit his job and invented the retractable leash, owned by virtually every dog owner globally

2 How is an idea born ?

Serendipity, Confucius and moments of enlightenment Reality check: Ideas most likely come to you because you’re an expert working on some hard problems

The random brainfart (most likely alcohol-induced) Reality check: Your idea will either be an embarrassment or a huge success (small chance, however)

The seek-and-destroy style (I love military precision) Reality check: Call up industry players and figure out what they see as a problem. Then find a solution.

✖ Hey, that was my idea

✖ An incubator will help me

✖ My mom thinks its great

✔ Ideas need to be researched

✔ Test ideas on real people

✔ Validating assumptions

2 Some reflections on ideation

Validate Assume It makes an ass of u and me

✔ Needs to be well executed ✖ Needs to be new

Ideas are nice ✪ Execution is better Ideas without execution are dreams.

A mediocre idea well executed is better than a superb idea badly executed.

2

ADVICE

Only roll with the A-team 3

2 How important is a team ?

✖ Outsourced development

✖ Friends are not colleagues

✖ More than 3 (co)founders

✔ Builder & Seller

✔ A highly diverse skill set

✔ Executers, not executives !

3 Building a great team takes time

A-Team B-Team

✔ Two pizza’s for one team ✖ Teams of > 7 people

3 Hire fast fire fast !

When the team is not invested in the vision Check: A vision rarely changes, a strategy could change and tactics must constantly change

When the team is not agile or is reluctant to change Check: It’s surprising how many people hate change and chaos, however that’s a startup’s playground

When the team is detached from the product Reality check: Every startup must always dogfood its own product, continuously looking to improve

A team defines success ✪ Think about functional responsibilities instead of titles

* Finance and Administration are essential roles

3

ADVICE

Don’t wait for perfection. Ship product! 4

4 Some quotes to pump you up

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✖ Build according to specs

✖ Waterfall project mgmt

✖ Big bang launch

✔ Build on user feedback

✔ Two week Sprints for everyone

✔ Iterate and improve

4 Putting product in the hands of users is hard

Shipped Tanked

✔ Lean methodology

¢ Know what you’re building

The client’s problem ✪ is your problem Build a user-centric product. Keep him in the loop.

* Sometimes the client doesn’t know what he wants

4

ADVICE

Decide if you want to make or raise cash 5

5 A typical story about cash flow

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1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% 11% 12% 13% 14% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19% 20% 21% 22% 23% 24% 25% 26%

FFF   Seed   Series  A   Series  B  …  

?

Crossing the chasm / Buying time “Patience” or “Guts”

Cash-need “Balls”

✖ Cash flow: Angel/VC/IPO

✖ Growth oriented, team centric

✖ Founder: 10% of 1B

✔ Cash flow: Revenue/Loan

✔ Small teams, founder centric

✔ Founder: 100% of 100M

5 How you acquire cash defines you

Lifestyle Equity

✔ Profit driven ✖ Exit driven

5

29,6% owner of US$ 29M income 70,000,000 Google hits

100% owner of EUR 15M profit 72,100 Google hits

Raising money ✪ Making money It defines your business and vice versa

Your priority should be generating turnover!

5

ADVICE

Figure out how you will distribute your product 6

✖ “We are viral, don’t worry”

✖ “Our product sells itself”

✖ We do B2C and B2B and …

✔ Understand CAC & LTV

✔ Understand distribution model

✔ Prioritize your market entry

6 Putting product in the hands of users is hard

Success Failure

✔ Simple marketing mix ✖ Channel conflict

¢ Be your customer/user

An unused product ✪ is called waste Apply general distribution mechanics, to modern means

Web, mobile, internet of things, … many new tools!

6

ADVICE

Failure will happen. Deal with it and move on. 7

✖ Out of cash before traction ✔ You will most likely fail

✔ Keep focused on your business

✔ Understand your runway

7 If you haven’t failed you haven’t tried enough

Win Fail

✔ Monetize immediately

✖ Fail as a team

¢ Be able to kill your idea

✖ Be so scared to fail, you didn’t try

Failure is part of innovation ✪ Separating the boys from the men. It hurts. Get over it.

Makes you become fearless. Not reckless !

7

ADVICE

Learn how to pitch to everyone and everywhere 8

✔ Who are you ?

✔ What does it improve / solve ?

✔ How is it unique ?

Practice makes perfect. Perfect your pitch.

✔ How does it make money ?

✔ What do you do ?

✔ How will you distribute ?

✔ Know your numbers !

8

Don’t waste time on a business plan ✪ Keep your pitch < 10 slides and to the point

Know when to stop pitching !

8

ADVICE

Thank you, But you should’ve been working on your startup