IDEATION, BUSINESS MODELS AND

WHERE TO START

By Saberi Marais, Business Developer, Innovus

• Innovus

• Me

◦ About.me/saberi

◦ I know my strengths

INTRODUCTIONS

www.strengthsfinder.com http://sf1.strengthsfinder.com/HomePage.aspx

Fact: Entrepreneurship is about you and your team! It is not about: • Your idea/ technology/ opportunity • How much money you have, will raise,

what car you will eventually drive • Your business model/ Business plan

It is about: • How you

• Make/ source • Take advantage of • Execute • Handle risk Regarding your opportunity/ place of work/ idea/ technology Therefore a fair deal of introspection is needed.

• Introduction: Background and rationale

• Idea and customer development process

◦ Customer discovery

Business model canvas

◦ Customer validation

◦ Customer creation

◦ Company building

OUTLINE

• Steve Blank and Bob Dorf’s: The Startup Owner’s

Manual: The step-by-step guide for building a great

company

REFERENCES

• Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur’s: Business

model generation

REFERENCES

• Eric Ries’: The lean startup

REFERENCES

• Harvard Business review articles:

◦ “Why the Lean Startup changes everything” by Steve

Blank

◦ “What entrepreneurs get wrong” by Onyemah, Pasquera

and Ali

REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION:

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

TRADITIONAL STARTUP PROCESS

Identify idea/

opportunity

Write a business

plan

Raise funding

Receive funding and execute

• Assemble a team

• Develop product

Introduce the product

to the market &

start selling

Success? Failure?

TRADITIONAL PROCESS

Identify idea/

opportunity

Write a business

plan

Raise funding

Receive funding and execute

• Assemble a team

• Develop product

Introduce the product

to the market &

start selling

Success? Failure?

Right place at the right time OR Informed by research & development OR Trying to solve a call for proposals

TRADITIONAL PROCESS

Identify idea/

opportunity

Write a business

plan

Raise funding

Receive funding and execute

• Assemble a team

• Develop product

Introduce the product

to the market &

start selling

Success? Failure?

Static plan that captures your idea and untested assumptions. Excel model IS BRILLIANT! Magic because it makes you an overnight millionaire.

TRADITIONAL PROCESS

Identify idea/

opportunity

Write a business

plan

Raise funding

Receive funding and execute

• Assemble a team

• Develop product

Introduce the product

to the market &

start selling

Success? Failure?

Assemble a team of designers, sales, marketing. Developers write many lines of code. Factories run overtime building you prototype.

TRADITIONAL PROCESS

Identify idea/

opportunity

Write a business

plan

Raise funding

Receive funding and execute

• Assemble a team

• Develop product

Introduce the product

to the market &

start selling

Success? Failure?

Introduce the product to market. Secure supply agreements with retailers or distribution companies and watch the volume sales.

TRADITIONAL PROCESS

Identify idea/

opportunity

Write a business

plan

Raise funding

Receive funding and execute

• Assemble a team

• Develop product

Introduce the product

to the market &

start selling

Success? Failure?

Depending on how the market reacts, you either make a success or failure… What happens when you fail? How do you know what went wrong? Which of your assumptions are invalid? Obligations to funders and shareholders?

TRADITIONAL PROCESS

Identify idea/

opportunity

Write a business

plan

Raise funding

Receive funding and execute

• Assemble a team

• Develop product

Introduce the product

to the market &

start selling

Success? Failure?

Research by Shikar Gosh (HBS): Failure rate of startups is 75%!!! Does the model meet our needs?

• High cost for first customer acquisition and getting a product wrong

• Long technology development cycles

• Few people with appropriate risk appetite to form and execute a startup

• Structure of funding industry

◦ Innovation chasm

◦ Access to appropriate funding schemes

◦ Knowledge and experience of the funders

• Number of people capable of building startups and lack of entrepreneurial ecosystems to sustain the companies

CONSTRAINING FACTORS FOR STARTUP GROWTH

1. Startups are smaller versions of larger companies

1. Existing companies execute established business

models, and innovate them from time to time to remain

competitive

2. Startups explore suitable business models to take

advantage

3. Existing companies have management structures and

roles that are limiting to startups

WRONG ASSUMPTIONS LINKED TO THE TRADITIONAL

PROCESS:

2. The numbers and strategy in my business plan

is the only means of conveying the underlying

value in my business to raise funding

1. A plan is an untested series of hypotheses that need

validation

2. Need to demonstrate that your solution is needed,

then need to quantify that need to demonstrate that

you are delivering value

WRONG ASSUMPTIONS LINKED TO THE TRADITIONAL

PROCESS:

3. The only means of determining the success of a startup

is if the financials look good and deal terms meet

investors’ requirements

1. Need to start with validated hypotheses and sound,

executable business model

2. Need an informed plan to execute resulting strategy

3. Need to prove that you are delivering value to your

customer, staff and eventually shareholders

WRONG ASSUMPTIONS LINKED TO THE TRADITIONAL

PROCESS:

• To help Founders validate their vision and take advantage of ideas/

opportunities

◦ In a structured, iterative process

◦ Validation of real customer problems and needs

◦ Confirmation of assumptions of features

• To reduce wasting resources in the execution of your plan:

◦ Time: founders, investors, suppliers and customers

◦ Energy and pain: Founder’s and your investors

◦ Money: Founder’s, FFF and those of your investors

◦ Resources: material, customers, suppliers

• To reduce the number of unknown risks and reduce the impact of

known and unknown risks

WE NEED AN ALTERNATIVE

MODEL/ PROCESS

• Cash flow

Assumptions:

◦ You are selling whatever your service or product offering

is to customers

You have met someone’s need or solved a problem

You know how to reach your customer: marketing, channels

and promotion

◦ Your variable costs (materials, marketing etc) are lower

than your sales price, and therefore you are making a

profit

◦ Your total costs are less than you revenue so that you

are making a profit

CASH IS KING TO STARTUPS

The Lean Startup

It favors:

1. Experimentation over elaborate planning

2. Early customer feedback over intuition

3. Iterative design and development over big design

upfront

It allows you to focus on developing solutions and problems

that are needed.

THE ALTERNATIVE:

1. State your hypotheses in a model (Business Model Canvas)

2. Test your hypotheses by getting out of the building/ making the

appropriate effort

1. Engage potential users, customers, partners to build rapport and

obtain feedback on

1. Elements of your business model: features, pricing, distribution channels,

resources, revenue

2. Focus on nimbleness and speed

3. Determine what your minimum viable product is with your immediate

customer feedback

3. Agile development (from software development)

1. An iterative and incremental product development process that

eliminates wasted time and resources

THE PRINCIPLES AND PROCESS OF LEAN

• People often recommend back-tracking from the end

point to know what you should do to start

• What if you actually need to validate whether you should

head in that direction at all?

• You need to determine : If the end that you have envisaged is relevant. Does anyone care

about your solution?

If the plan you have mapped to reach your vision can be achieved.

Can you do it alone? Who else do you need?

• You may gather some valuable information throughout

the validation process that adds to the feasibility of your

plan

STARTING WITH THE END IN MIND IS GREAT, HOWEVER…

ALTERNATIVE MODEL INCORPORATING CUSTOMER

DEVELOPMENT

Identified idea/

opportunity

Customer discovery

Customer validation

Customer creation

Company building

Pivot

Search, Learn, Build and refine BM

Execute, ramp up BM. What:

Gains Gains

Pivot Pivot

Transition

Gains

Pivot

Gains

Pivot

Purpose: Reduce cost and wasted

resources Take advantage of validated

business model

ALTERNATIVE MODEL INCORPORATING CUSTOMER

DEVELOPMENT

Identified idea/

opportunity

Customer discovery

Customer validation

Customer creation

Company building

Pivot

Proof of concept/ early stage funding/ grant-type funding

Growth/ ramp-up funding. More “traditional” funding sources

Funding:

Gains Gains

Pivot Pivot

Transition

Gains

Pivot

Gains

Pivot

Customer discovery

• Based on Founders’ vision and business model hypotheses

• Validate business model hypotheses, value proposition

Customer validation

• Research and validate the proposed VP

• Verify the business model is repeatable & scalable

• Min viable product

• Introduce to select few/ specific customers

• Pivot or proceed?

Customer creation

• Start of execution

• Building end-user demand & drives it into identified sale channels

• Scale sales

Build a company

• Transition the organization from startup to a company

• Executes a validated, scalable business model

CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

• Goal 1: Converting the founders’ initial hypothesis

about the market and customers into facts.

• Goal 2: Test your understanding of the customer’s

problem and determine if your proposed solution is

relevant. > Establish proof of concept.

Build a relationship with customer segments: gain

insights from their feedback.

“Customers don’t behave like your business plan.”

CUSTOMER DISCOVERY: GOALS Customer discovery

• Step 1: State the hypothesis

◦ 9 parts of business model canvas

◦ Write 1 pager briefs of each of them

• Step 2: Test the problem

◦ How important is the problem? How big can it

become?

◦ Testing the components of the business model as well

◦ Gain deep insight into the customer’s workflow,

organization, product needs and update your canvas.

STEPS Customer discovery

Get out of the building! Make an

effort!

• insight into the customer’s workflow, organization, product needs and update your canvas.

• Step3: Test the solution ◦ Present your value proposition (product, pricing, features) and

minimum viable product to customers

• Step 4: Pivot or proceed? ◦ Stop and assess the results:

Customer’s problems or needs and their reaction

Confirm that the VP solves problems, passions or needs

Determine the sizeable volume of customers

Learned what customers are prepared to pay

What the expected revenues should be and what sort of return you could get

Go / No go decision

STEPS Customer discovery

• Alexander Osterwalder

• Definition of a business model:

◦ “It describes the rationale of how an organization

creates, delivers and captures value.” Osterwalder

• To sketch out your hypotheses across 9

components of your business model

• Based in design thinking. The canvas facilitates

planning, collaboration and discussion.

• www.businessmodelgeneration.com

BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS Customer discovery

Customer discovery

How to use it:

• Use it as a customer discovery scorecard to track

progress in developing a viable business model

• It’s a static snapshot of the business at a point in time

• As a result, you will have many versions as you learn

and pivot, so keep track of them

• Look for insights and emerging strategies

• As you develop hypothesis, your business model

becomes multi-dimensional

BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS Customer discovery

How to use it:

• Read it from right to left

• It is suppose to be a macro-level snapshot of your

business, the finer detail &/ questions &/ leads will follow

through using the canvas

• Use post-it notes. Color pens. Tell stories about your

hypotheses.

• Describe your organization, your competitors and

enterprises with separate canvases.

BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS Customer discovery

• Defines for whom you are going to create value, reach and serve

• Customers must want or need your product or service

• A company cannot survive without profitable customers for long

• Look for common needs, behaviors & attributes

◦ They need different offers

◦ They are reached through different distribution channels

◦ They need different types of relationships

◦ They have significantly different profitabilities

◦ They will pay for different aspects of your offering

• Make a conscious decision about which customer segment to serve,

which to ignore and why

BMC: CUSTOMER SEGMENTS Customer discovery

• The bundle of products and services that create value for

a specific Customer Segment

• The VP is why the customer selects you over your

competition

• It solves a customer problem or satisfies a need. Which

are those needs?

• Compete on • Newness

• Performance

• Customization

• You “get the job done”

• Design

• What is the minimum viable product that the customer

will be interested in?

BMC: VALUE PROPOSITION Customer discovery

• Brand/ status • Price • Cost reduction • Risk reduction • Accessibility • Convenience

DESIGN YOUR VP AND YOUR CS

HYPOTHESES Customer discovery

Source: www.businessmodelalchemist.com

DESIGN YOUR VP AND YOUR CS

HYPOTHESES Customer discovery

http://bit.ly/10TenJ7 Source: www.businessmodelalchemist.com

• How do you communicate and reach your Customer

Segment?

• Through which channels do they expect to be reached?

Which ones work best? Which ones are the most cost

efficient?

• How do your competitors reach their CS?

• There is no point in having a Value Proposition if your

customer doesn’t know about it.

BMC: CHANNELS Customer discovery

• Communication, distribution and sales channels are a

company’s interface with their customer.

• These are points of contact that play a role in your

customer experience.

• 5 Phases of Channels

◦ Awareness

◦ Evaluation

◦ Purchase

◦ Delivery

◦ After sales

BMC: CHANNELS Customer discovery

• How do we acquire, keep and grow customers?

• Clarify the types of relationships you want/ have to

establish with specific customer segments

• Personal, Automated, self service?

• What does your customer segment expect???

• Motivated by ◦ Acquiring customers

◦ Retaining them

◦ Growing customer segments

◦ Boosting sales by upselling to them

• What costs are involved in acquiring, retaining and

growing customer segments?

BMC: CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP Customer discovery

• The cash you make from each customer segment

• For which value are customers willing to pay?

• For what do they currently pay?

• Profit= revenues- costs

• What is the revenue model?

• Generate revenue streams with their own pricing,

auctioning, market dependent factors, volume factors or

yield management factors

• 1s off transaction or recurring revenue from the same

customer?

• What are your pricing tactics?

BMC: REVENUE STREAMS Customer discovery

• The cash you make from each customer

segment

• For which value are customers willing to pay?

• For what do they currently pay?

• Profit= revenues- costs

• What is the revenue model?

• What are your pricing tactics?

BMC: REVENUE STREAMS Customer discovery

• Options:

◦ Asset sales

◦ Usage fee

◦ Subscription fee

◦ Lending/ renting/ leasing

◦ Licensing

◦ Brokerage fees

◦ Advertising

BMC: REVENUE STREAMS Customer discovery

• What assets do you need to make your VP and business

model work?

• Enables you to ◦ Create and offer your VP

◦ Reach customers through channels

◦ Maintain relationships with CSs

◦ Earn revenues

• Can be a combination of

◦ Physical

◦ Financial

◦ Intellectual

◦ Human

BMC: KEY RESOURCES Customer discovery

• The network of suppliers and partners to make a

business model work

• Partnerships to optimize business models, reduce risk,

acquire resources

• Types

◦ Strategic alliances between non-competitors

◦ Cooperation: strategic partnerships btw competitors

◦ JVs to develop new business

◦ Buyer- supplier relationships to assure reliable supplies

BMC: KEY PARTNERSHIPS Customer discovery

• Ask:

◦ Who are your partners?

◦ Who are your key suppliers?

◦ Which KR are you acquiring from partners?

◦ Which KA do partners perform?

BMC: KEY PARTNERSHIPS Customer discovery

• What are the most important costs of your business

model?

• Which key resources are most expensive?

• Which key activities are most expensive?

• Is your model ◦ Cost driven

◦ Value –driven

• With the following characteristics: ◦ Fixed costs

◦ Variable costs

◦ Economies of scale

◦ Economies of scope

BMC: COST STRUCTURE Customer discovery

EXAMPLE BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS Customer discovery

• Un-bundling business models

• The long tail

• Multi-sided platforms

• Free as a business model

• Open business model

BUSINESS MODEL PATTERNS

Unbundling business models 3 core business types:

1. Customer relationship business

2. Product innovation business

3. Infrastructure business

Are driven by differences in economics, competition and culture 3 types may co-exist within a single company, ideally they are “unbundled” into separate entities To avoid conflicts or undesirable trade-offs

Unbundling business models

Product innovation

Customer relationship management

Infrastructure management

Economics Early market entry. Charge premium prices. Speed is key.

High cost of customer acquisition. Economies of scope are key.

High fixed costs. Large volumes are essential to achieve low unit costs.

Competition Battle for talent. Low barrier of entry. Small players thrive.

Battle for scope. Battle for scale.

Culture Employee centered.

Highly service- orientated. Customer comes first mentality.

Cost cutting focused. Predictable. Efficient.

UN-BUNDLING BUSINESS MODEL

The Long Tail

• It’s about selling less of more.

• Offer a large number of niched products, each of which sell relatively infrequently

• They require low inventory costs and strong platforms to provide the niched content to buyers

• Contributors to the growth of Long Tail business models: - Decrease in cost of technology eg. Recording music

- Democratization of distribution. Internet access

- Falling search cost to connect supply with demand. Serach engines, user ratings, communities of interest have added to the easy.

Lego Long tail example

FREE business models

• At least one substantial Customer Segment is able to continuously benefit from a free-of-charge offer

• Non-paying customers are financed by another part of the business model or by another Customer Segment

Relies on certain principles:

• The demand for FREE will always out-number the demand generated from selling items at any price point

• Examples

- The “Bait” and “Hook” model

- The Freemium model

Example of Free business model: Bait and Hook

Free business model: Redhat

Customer discovery

•Based on Founders’ vision and business model hypotheses

•Validate business model hypotheses, value proposition

Customer validation

•Research and validate if customers actually care.

•Research and validate the proposed VP

•Verify the business model is repeatable & scalable

•Min viable product

• Introduce to select few/ specific customers

•What market type are you dealing with?

•Pivot or proceed?

Customer creation

•Start of execution

•Building end-user demand & drives it into identified sale channels

•Scale sales

Build a company

•Transition the organization from startup to a company

•Executes a validated, scalable business model

CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

• A strategy used for fast and quantitative market testing of a product or

product feature, popularized by Eric Ries (author of The Lean Startup)

• Product has sufficient features to allow it to be demonstrated, an no more.

• It is not a minimal product, but a strategy to assist in the eventual sale of the

product

• Released to a subset of customers, e.g. early adopters or industry

• Customer must understand the value and use of the product

• They must give you feedback

• Strategy to:

◦ Avoid building products that customers don’t want

◦ Maximize information about the customer and their needs

• It is part of a customer development methodology

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT Customer discovery

• Demonstrate the value in your technology in the

most tangible form possible, where enable

someone else to see the value in it

◦ Illustrated diagrams or 3D models

◦ Process diagrams

◦ 3D printing of your initial designs

◦ Animations or videos

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT Customer discovery

• When is it sufficiently demonstrated?

◦ Could be caught in a vicious development cycle and never

reach the market

◦ Use of time and money

◦ Limits can be guided by performance metrics or industry

standards

◦ Aim to attract client or

end-user feedback

in the process

Proof of concept/ demonstration

Develop

Validate

Design Test

Re-design

Customer discovery

• Concept coined by Eric Ries

• Are integral to the customer development process and a contributor

toward learning, innovating startups

• Pivoting is when you change a fundamental part of the business

model. For example:

◦ Incorrect pricing strategy

◦ Misunderstood customer needs/ problem

• Pivots are not failures, they are learning opportunities

◦ Embrace that startups fail regularly

◦ Experiments that you design will fail

• Traditional companies were rigid to the prospect of making mistakes

and pivoting resulting in the firing of people!

• Operating in (chaos + speed + pivots) = SUCCESS!

PIVOTS: IT’S THE FOUNDER’S CALL Customer discovery

• Proves existence of a set of customers

• Confirms customers will accept the MVP

• Serious, measurable purchase intent among customers.

How?

◦ Tests sales to convince customers to hand over money

◦ Online software: no. of plays, no. of uses

◦ Letters of intent or demand for a minimum volume

• Aims to prove there is product: market fit

CUSTOMER VALIDATION Customer Validation

• Proves that the business model tested and iterated has a

repeatable , scalable BM that can deliver volume of

customers needed to build a profitable business model

• During Customer validation:

◦ Company tests its ability to scale:

Product

Customer acquisition

Pricing and

Channels

◦ Develop a sales road map for the market it identifies and targets

CUSTOMER VALIDATION Customer Validation

• Sales road map relies on information confirmed in your

business model and builds on it

◦ Value proposition

◦ Customer segments

◦ Customer relationships

◦ Channels

◦ Revenue model

CUSTOMER VALIDATION Customer Validation

• Sales road map answers:

◦ Who influences a sale and who recommends it?

◦ Who is the decision maker?

◦ Who controls the budget for the product you are selling?

◦ Length of a sale? No.’ of sales calls?

◦ What is the profile of the early buyers/ Early evangelists of

a product?

• It is not the same as employing a sales force.

• Test your MVP by asking customers if they’ll place

orders for it

CUSTOMER VALIDATION Customer Validation

1. Prepare to sell

2. Sell to Early Vangelists

3. Develop positioning

4. Pivot or Proceed?

Founders must lead the sales validation team to get further

insights into their choice of business model. Only Founder

can make a call to Pivot or Proceed.

CUSTOMER VALIDATION STEPS Customer Validation

Earlyvangelists or early adopters

• Small subset of users or customers

• Will make a “leap of faith”. They will buy &/ use unfinished, untested

products and give you feedback about it

• Characteristics:

◦ They want to be “the first” for the sake of gaining a competitive edge of

bragging rights

◦ They have or understand the problem or need you want to solve

◦ They are actively searching for a solution

• Will spread the good news, often virally, about your product/ service

to their circle of influence

• One potential mistake is to give heavily discounted alpha or beta

products because then expectations of price are set

CUSTOMER VALIDATION STEPS Customer Validation

• Transition move is when you make the leap from (Customer

discovery + Customer validation) to (Customer creation + Building a

company)

• It is a major move based on:

◦ You have established a profitable business model

◦ Customers give you repeatable business

• It requires honest reflection on whether you have a scalable,

profitable business

• These are the qualifiers for the move onto Customer creation!

• Are you going to spend significant money to sale the business?

◦ Relies on the facts that you have gathered thus far

TRANSITION MOVE/ ESCAPE VELOCITY Customer validation

1. Assemble date

2. Validate business model

3. Validate financial model

4. Re-validate business model

5. Pivot or Proceed?

Metrics that matter in the decision:

1. Value Proposition

2. Customer relationships and the associated costs

3. Market type and attractiveness, number of units sold

4. Cost structure

5. Channel and associated costs of sales

6. Revenue streams and selling prices

7. Burn rate

8. Cash flow positive? Over what time period?

TRANSITION MOVE/ ESCAPE VELOCITY PROCESS Customer validation

Customer discovery

•Based on Founders’ vision and business model hypotheses

•Validate business model hypotheses, value proposition

Customer validation

•Research and validate if customers actually care.

•Research and validate the proposed VP

•Verify the business model is repeatable & scalable

•Min viable product

• Introduce to select few/ specific customers

•What market type are you dealing with?

•Pivot or proceed?

Customer creation

•Start of execution

•Building end-user demand & drives it into identified sale channels

•Scale sales

Build a company

•Transition the organization from startup to a company

•Executes a validated, scalable business model

CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

• After initial sales success, company now accelerates the

production and supply of its product/ service to its

customer

• Increase the monthly spend (burn rate) to create end-

user demand

• Then driving the demand to the sales channels from you

BM

CUSTOMER CREATION Customer creation

• The market type a company decides to address is very important because it influences their strategy

• Different market types have different revenue curves and urn rates.

• Market characteristics and dynamics dictate entry and execution

• Market types 1. New product to an existing market

Marketing relatively easy

Users can describe the market and what matters most to them

New entrant has a significant VP to what is existing out there.

Users, the market and competitors are known

Competition entails comparing the product on features with competing products

CUSTOMER CREATION Customer creation

• Market types

2. New product into a new market

Company involves customers in the creation of the product

Or significant change in costs to create a new segment of

users

Product is probably unknown to users/ customers so getting

feedback is challenging

Key is not competing, but understanding if there is a large

enough customer base and if they can be convinced to buy

your product

Be cautious to spend significantly on marketing and

promotion in this type at first.

CUSTOMER CREATION Customer creation

• Market types

3. New product into an existing market :

Existing companies are missing an opportunity that you can take an advantage of

“Blue Ocean Strategy” by Kim and Mauborgne

Re-segment that market as a low-cost entrant (competing on price)

Are there customers who will buy a “good enough” product at a lower price?

Re-segment the market as a niche entrant

Is there a market segment that will buy a new product designed to address more specific needs?

Is the niche sizeable enough?

CUSTOMER CREATION Customer creation

• Market types

4. Cloning a successful business model in another territory

When an existing business has been proven in one country

but hasn’t been introduced in another

Be careful of Trademark infringement.

CUSTOMER CREATION Customer creation

• Established a validated business

• Delivering to a sizeable customer segment

• Now it looks more like a company and less like a startup

◦ The guesses/ hypotheses have been confirmed and being

taken advantage of

• Might mean a change of management

• Typically have to appoint the traditional roles of a

business

• Business is now more focused on process and

consistency

BUILD A COMPANY Build a

company

• Get out of the building! That is where the facts are. Repetitive

process.

◦ Reality from ZA is that our TAM, SAM and Target Markets are not

necessarily in ZA.

• Strike a balance between your Passion(Vision) and Objectivity

◦ Both can be used to convince others of the opportunity

◦ Passion: pulls you through the challenges

◦ Objectivity: your reality check for decisions

• Decisions must be based on fact, not faith

• Be creative in sourcing solutions to meet customer challenges.

• Don’t be afraid to experiment. Design your experiments well and test

to validate your hypotheses.

CONCLUSION

• Failure is an integral part of the search. If you are afraid

to fail in a startup, you are destined to fail.

• Make continuous iterations and pivots.

• Focus your efforts. Fast decision making. The iron is

HOTTT! Strike!

• Communicate and share learnings.

• Customer development starts with their buy-in.

• Don’t lose the passion. Be comfortable with uncertainty,

chaos and change. Embrace it.

CONCLUSION

• If your funders want a business plan, give it to them. The

customer development process will give you facts to

justify your plan.

• Business models are dynamic, and evolve as you pivot

and make iterations.

• Keep track of your progress. Step back and re-evaluate.

• Preserve cash while searching for a repeatable and

scalable business model. Once these have been

established, spend it!

CONCLUSION

• Twitter: @_saberi

• LinkedIn: Saberi Marais

PLEASE CONNECT WITH ME