I've got a great idea for a tech startup. Now what?

transcript

I’VE GOT THIS GREAT IDEA FOR A TECH STARTUP. NOW WHAT?

by Amit Klein @amitklein startupgiraffe.com

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

YOU?Me...

WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE HAVE IN COMMON?

BirchboxLinkedInZynga

AirBNBGrouponAlibaba

NON-ENGINEERS WHO STARTED GREAT TECH COMPANIES

IF ONLY I COULD FIND A TECH CO-FOUNDER...

INVESTMENT (TIME AND MONEY) IS

EARNED

...NOT GIVEN

VALIDATE YOUR IDEAS & DEMONSTRATE TRACTION

How do you attract tech talent and investment?

YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE WILL NOT BE TECHNICAL.

IT WILL BE DEFINING A PRODUCT THAT PEOPLE WANT TO USE.

AGENDA

๏ Ideas

๏ Minimal Viable Products (MVPs)

๏ Launching

๏ Q&A

๏ Group Activity

PassionGood MarketDomain Experience

PICKING THE RIGHT IDEA

AN IDEA IS AN ASSUMPTION

Break it down into testable questions

Develop new hypothesis(iterate)

Set goals &Measure results

Define and launch experiments

VALIDATING IDEAS

EXAMPLES

After we had been doing that for about nine weeks, I missed the 9 a.m. Monday deadline... At around 9:10 I started getting e-mails from people asking where the newsletters were. Those e-mails kept coming. That’s when I really knew I was onto something. That was the moment of validation.

~Marc Cenedella, Founder - TheLadders

TALK TO PEOPLERESEARCH THE PROBLEM(NOT YOUR SOLUTION!)

MOST STARTUPS FAIL BECAUSE OF PREMATURE SCALING

~ STARTUP GENOME

FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT!

DELAY COMPLEXITY

WIZARD OF OZ TESTING

GHETTO TESTING

DEFINING AN MVP

Will people use it? Will they tell people about it?Will people pay for it?

What are the biggest risks?

LAUNCH EARLY

EARLY CUSTOMERSFind people who feel the problem most acutelyMake them feel like they have skin in the game

Communicate openly and honestly

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN PRODUCT-MARKET FIT ISN’T HAPPENING?

SUMMARY

๏ Break ideas down into questions

๏ Focus on the riskiest question first

๏ Set realistic goals

๏ Launch experiments with least amount effort

๏ Celebrate

๏ Measure results

๏ Learn & Repeat

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

๏ Creating a strong online presence

๏ Tech - HTML/CSS, Hosting/DNS

๏ Marketing - SEM

๏ Analytics - Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik

๏ Lean Startup - The Lean Startup by Eric Reis

๏ Networking/Events - Ohours, Skillshare, Meetup

GROUP ACTIVITY

THANK YOU!!!!!!

AMIT@STARTUPGIRAFFE.COM@AMITKLEIN

I've got a great idea for a tech startup. Now what?

Technology