Stay Lean: Your Startup ToolkitPaul Walsh

CogniDoxhttp://www.cognidox.com

Presentation to Cambridge Startup Masterclass 11th March 2013

BACKGROUNDWhy I got into Startup Tools as a topic

Lots of tools advice out there

Start-up Tools – the Wiki

Songkick started a Wiki around April 2009 - "As a Startup, what tools do you find useful“?

I added my list and have followed the Wiki ever since

http://startuptools.pbworks.com/w/page/17974963/FrontPage

The list grew very long…

Arbitrary category structure / no framework makes it hard to find anything

A list is not “actionable advice”

How would it work as a Mindmap?

My Scope is Tools

My focus is technology Startups(who are just starting out, don't have enough people, time or money and are bootstrapping like crazy)

THE SIX ABILITIES FRAMEWORKWhat skills do Startups need to prosper?

Startups require many skills

http://www.wordle.net/

“In a Startup, everybody does everything”

Let’s go back to the basics…

So, what abilities do you need in a successful Startup?

I think I’ve got a good idea

I need to test my idea

I need to build it to prove I’m right

What if someone copies my idea?

I need to tell the world!

Will you buy it?

I need to get paid

ValueProposition

Forming

Transforming

Protecting

Projecting

Persuading

Collecting

Um - isn't that like a ... snail?

Startups need protection“The snail's shell structure can inspire new and better designs for human protective equipment”

Startup growth is only relatively fast. Be patient.

Funding

A very cheap shot at the venture capital industry ;-)

Abilities are built iteratively

Startup will pass through different phases in cycles

The order isn’t rigid

• Only the forming stage has a fixed slot

• There’s nothing wrong with testing the market demand before you build anything

• You’re unlikely to persuade before you project, or collect before you persuade

• Protecting in particular may come early or right at the end of the process

Individual profiles will exist Projecting

Persuading

Collecting

Forming

Transforming

Protecting

0

5

10

ActualIdeal

Summary of Six Abilities

• In the course of any Startup journey there are six types or groups of ability needed

• You won’t have/need them all to begin with

• Abilities are added in small chunks, not in total blocks

• Different companies (even established ones) will have individual ability profiles

What’s it got to do with tools?

• Tools enable more rapid and effective cycles

• Good tools:–work like checklists or an ideal To-do list– accelerate a customer development plan– are more actionable than general advice–don’t need to cost a lot of money

Next up…

• We’re going to go through each of the Six Abilities and look in more detail at the activities done in them

• We’re going to consider examples of tools that will help with those activities

• First, a quick consideration of the Ideas part

IDEATIONHow to form and express ideas or concepts

Customer value creation

Newness

Performance

CustomizationGetting the Job

Done

Design

Brand or Status

PriceCost Reduction

Risk Reduction

Convenience or Usability

An idea may improve one of these existing product or service characteristics

Accessibility

From "Business Model Generation" (Osterwalder & Pigneur)

Writing an Elevator Pitch

[most important market segment]

is a/an

[your product name] [non-clichéd adjective] [software genre]

that

[active verb]

to/for

[most important benefit]

Based on Marcia Yudkin 'How to Create Killer Blurbs That Sell Software' (2007) http://www.namedatlast.com/naming7.htm

Writing an Elevator Pitch

[most important market segment]

is a/an

[your product name] [non-clichéd adjective] [software genre]

that

[active verb]

to/for

[most important benefit]

SysAlert™easy to use

protects

monitoring tool

Server uptime

Financial

services

Based on Marcia Yudkin 'How to Create Killer Blurbs That Sell Software' (2007) http://www.namedatlast.com/naming7.htm

My Product / Service is…

(Adjective) (Genre)

Enables you to (meet a need)

Delivers (key benefit)

that

which

a

One paragraph approach

What we do

Who we do it to

Why you should care

+

+

http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2012/10/if-you-cant-explain-what-you-do-in-a-paragraph-youve-got-a-problem.html

after Brad Feld

The Story Spine

Once upon a time, [fill in the blank]

Every day, [fill in the blank]

But one day, [fill in the blank]

Because of that, [fill in the blank]

Because of that, [fill in the blank]

Until finally [fill in the blank]

Ever since then, [fill in the blank]

And the moral is [fill in the blank]

Based on The Story Spine as created by Kenn Adams (playwright and actor) as a way of understanding dramatic structure. Also referenced by Dan Pink as The Pixar Pitch in his book "To Sell is Human"

But don’t write in formulas!

…when you use formulas to write

Startup Wizards

Checklist for Forming

How to start (form) a company Where to look for co-founders How to capture a business model Where to find funding Where to find a development team How to research your contacts How to research your market How to research your competitors How to price your product

Checklist for Forming

How to start (form) a company Where to look for co-founders How to capture a business model Where to find funding Where to find a development team How to research your contacts How to research your market How to research your competitors How to price your product

Business Model Canvas Lean CanvasStartup Canvas

Deep Dive – The Canvas

• Alex Osterwalder @AlexOsterwalder – Business Model Generation #bmgen – Strategyzer

• Rob Fitzpatrick @robfitz – Startup Toolkit: a canvas aimed at startups

• Ash Maurya @ashmaurya– Lean Canvas: a canvas aimed at lean startups

• Salim Viranim @SaintSal– Business Model Trigger Cards

• Business Model Hub– http://businessmodelhub.com/

Business Model Canvas

Poster, iPad or Web-based?

Lean Canvas

Subtle differences in models

Business Model Canvas Startup Canvas Lean Canvas

Value Proposition Value Proposition Value Proposition

Customer Segments Customer Segments Customer Segments

Customer Relationship Unfair Advantage Unfair Advantage

Revenue Streams Revenue Streams Revenue Streams

Key Activities Key Activities Key Metrics

Cost Structure Cost Structure Cost Structure

Partners Problem Problem

Key Resources Solution Solution

Channels Channels Channels

Complete canvas in this order

1. Value Proposition - why you are different / what user need you address / why your product or service is worth buying

2. Customer Segment - who you are selling to / which are most important

3. Customer Relationship - how you contact and inform buyers

4. Revenue Streams - how you collect revenue5. Key Activities - how you maximise revenue6. Cost - what you need to spend money on7. Partners - who can help you8. Key Resources - assets you need to deliver the value

proposition9. Channels – how you fulfil your orders / path to customer

A simple alternative

2. Problem 3. Value Proposition

4. Profit Formula 5. Your Capabilities

1. Buyer Profile

Don’t build ideas, solve problems

What makes you special?

Price – Cost X

Big Number

May need to start with user,

then buyer

Need / Benefit Statements

Who is it for?

Forming & the Lean Startup

• Invent a succession of short customer pitches. For each pitch, do a Business Model Canvas

• Build your MVP plan – treat it as a Product Backlog, look at Agile PM tools to assist

• How do you research your competition? – Research is the precursor to Experiment. Look at

company and market data using tools

Startup Wizards

Checklist for Transforming

How to plan a software release Choosing right development method Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and Backlog Managing your code base Tracking change requests Lean build, test & deploy process Communications in the dev team Design for good user experience Where to turn for help

Software Development Blueprint

The lean Startup needs a lean development model

Deep Dive – Project Planning

Trello project collaboration

Agile Zen lean project management

Checklist for Transforming

How to plan a software release Choosing right development method Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and Backlog Managing your code base Tracking change requests Lean build, test & deploy process Communications in the dev team Design for good user experience Where to turn for help

Automated testing: Selenium

Continuous Integration: Jenkins

Continuous Deployment: Heroku

Deep Dive – Automated Test

Selenium web browser automation

WebDriver & Selenium ServerBrowser recording

Transforming & the Lean Startup

• Build User Personas and devise a strategy for continuous UX testing

• Lean teams choose tools to support Agile, Scrum or Kanban process

• Develop around Continuous Integration (CI) and Automated Testing tools

• What does Continuous Deployment mean for your product? Implement the answer

Startup Wizards

Checklist for Protecting

Where to find contracts, legal agreements How to research and create patents How to register your trademark Find and register your web domain name Compliance, governance and regulations Data security and user privacy How to avoid “We’ve been hacked” Ways to ensure business continuity How (not) to protect your reputation

Checklist for Protecting

Where to find contracts, legal agreements How to research and create patents How to register your trademark Find and register your web domain name Compliance, governance and regulations Data security and user privacy How to avoid “We’ve been hacked” Ways to ensure business continuity How (not) to protect your reputation

Writing an agreement helps you better understand the issues and communicate with lawyers

It can also save money

Top 10 Contracts to look for…

Shareholder Agreement

Contract of Employment

End User License

Agreement

Subscriptions

Agreement

Evaluation License

Sales Referral

Agreement

Sales Partner

Agreement

Terms of Service

Share Option

Agreement

Developer Services

Agreement

Examples are out there

• Let’s go back to the basics…Patents are good for entrepreneurial StartupsPatent trolls don't come after SMEs

Companies with less than $100M annual revenue made up 66% of unique defendants and at least 55% of unique defendants in these cases make under $10M per year (Chien, 2012)

The Curious Case of Python

• Open source programming language since 1991• Domain python.org registered 27-Mar-1995 by Python

Software Foundation• Domain python.co.uk registered 29-Oct-1997 by UK

company (Our Holdings Ltd / Pobox Internet Ltd)– EU community trademark application; exclusive right to use

"Python" for software, servers, and web services in Europe• Unrelated company pobox.com gets flamed on twitter and

has to deny links with pobox.co.uk• Costs of a trademark opposition by PSF will be "tens of

thousands of dollars"• One of the Python principles:

– "Complex is better than complicated"

Protecting & the Lean Startup

• Draft your legal agreements, it’s good for you

• Trademarks and domain are part of your MVP

• Learn some anti-Troll tactics

• Worry about data & security vulnerabilities

• Don’t @*&^ with your Startup reputation

Startup Wizards

Checklist for Projecting

How to design the company image Using a launch page Building and optimizing a web site Listing in product directories How to do Content Marketing Making videos and screencasts Using social media for marketing How to do a press release Manage your Blog

Checklist for Projecting

How to design the company image Using a launch page Building and optimizing a web site Listing in product directories How to do Content Marketing Making videos and screencasts Using social media for marketing How to do a press release Manage your Blog

Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, etc.Hubspot Market GraderSEOMoz Open Site ExplorerAhrefs Backlinks reportAnalytics (Google, Piwik, etc.)

Deep Dive – Website Grader

e.g. Increase our blogging frequency

Deep Dive – Site Explorer

Domain Authority/100

SEOMoz Site Explorer

Deep Dive – Backlinks

Projection is never easy

16% think Infrastructure as a Service is a new road project

22% think Platform as a Service is a new philosophy in railway management

15% think cloud computing is a free WiFi service for Internet access in public places

83% of IT decision makers have a broad understanding of the concept of cloud computing

Source: Six Degrees Group "Up to the Cloud"

But…

Projecting & the Lean Startup

• Build a Lean Marketing Plan – it should contain a market launch plan

• Are you SEO-ready?• Plan ahead by preparing marketing content• Streamline the content publishing process• Be media-savvy

Startup Wizards

Checklist for Persuading

Customer queries and help desk How to track customer relationships Collecting user feedback Automating your marketing Setting up user forums Running a user survey Sales calls, screen share and webinars Email marketing and newsletters

Checklist for Persuading

Customer queries and help desk How to track customer relationships Collecting user feedback Automating your marketing Setting up user forums Running a user survey Sales calls, screen share and webinars Email marketing and newsletters

Issue Tracking e.g. OTRSSelf-service Answers e.g. Q2A

Deep Dive – Q2A

Q2A (Questions to Answers)

Checklist for Persuading

Customer queries and help desk How to track customer relationships Collecting user feedback Automating your marketing Setting up user forums Running a user survey Sales calls, screen share and webinars Email marketing and newsletters

From CRM (Relationship)To CXM (eXperience)Don’t confuse with Salesforce Automation

Deep Dive - CRM

SugarCRM Community Edition

Sales pipeline

• Building a sales pipeline model is one of the most under-rated steps in Lean Sales

• Remove friction & waste = easier sales

• Useful only if (a) bespoke and (b) validated

Persuading & the Lean Startup

• Keep track of everything customer-related• Refine Buyer Persona(s) when necessary• Plan a Conversion Rate Optimization process

and test it• Decide your Technical Support methodology• How much of a Knowledge Base can you build

as early as possible?• Integrate user voice tools into your testing

Startup Wizards

Checklist for Collecting

Keep track of accounts Invoice professionally Ensure payments are made on time Tracking billable hours Manage your payroll Choosing an e-commerce system Subscription or membership billing Changing your price or pricing

Checklist for Collecting

Keep track of accounts Invoice professionally Ensure payments are made on time Tracking billable hours Manage your payroll Choosing an e-commerce system Subscription or membership billing Changing your price or pricing

QuickBooks OnlineKashflowFreshbooksBrightPearl

Deep Dive - Accounting

QuickBooks Online

Nothing can help you get paid on time

Changing the business model

Getting Users vs Customers

Free / Premium pricing can cause more fallout than any other topic

TOOLS & THE FRAMEWORKA resource for Lean Startups

A Startup Toolkit Resource

http://www.cognidox.com/toolkit

CLICK HERE

The Startup Tools Mind Map

Links to over 450 Tools

How to use the Mind Map

Click on a title to expand / contract

Click on a link to open tool website

Hold down mouse to drag image

Built with:

Other Startup Tool Lists

• Startup tools and blogs for entrepreneurs (Steve Blank)– http://steveblank.com/tools-and-blogs-for-entrepreneurs/#startup-tools

– Resources and tools with emphasis on customer development

• Seedcamp list for business tools– http://biztools.pbworks.com/w/page/11120547/FrontPage

– Good on Resources (business philosophy and tips), but light on business tasks / tools

• Lean Startup Wiki– http://leanstartup.pbworks.com/w/page/15765221/FrontPage

– Good place to discuss Lean Startup concepts, but only tools are Business Model Canvas (explained later)

Contacts

Cognidox LimitedSt. John's Innovation CentreCowley RoadCambridge CB4 0WSUnited Kingdom

salesinfo@cognidox.com www.cognidox.com