A slide deck of 10 decisions that will radically improve a startups chance of success. As well as an introduction to a weekend seminar to help entrepreneurs kick-start their businesses. For more visit: www.startupcherry.com

1. 10 decisions to radically improve your startups chance of success

2. Most start-ups fail

3. but there is a small group of start-ups

4. where almost everyone succeeds

5. most of the difference between these startups
vs.

6. can be explained by decisions
10

7. 1 Find a hot opportunity

8. How do the best entrepreneurs/investors choose
Computer and Office Equipment
(1/25)
Eating and Drinking Places
(1/14,550)
Source: Shane (2009)

9. VC backed companies – 25% list
Source: Grompers et al. (2009)

10. 1 Find a hot opportunity

11. 2 Build a strong team

14. 5-year failure rate
13.1%
54.2.%
Source: Bruderl, et al. (1992)
+
>

15. Team size in South Africa
90%
10%
1 founder
2 or more founders
Source: FinScope (2010)

18. 2 Build a strong team

19. 3 Seek good advice

20. The best entrepreneurs are advice seekers

21. 5-year survival rate
45%
80%
No advice
Source: Watson (2007)
Advice from
accountants 3+/yr

22. 3 Seek good advice

23. 4 Test customer interest

24. Expert entrepreneur
“I'd just go sell it. I don't believe in market research.
Somebody once told me the only thing you need is a
customer."
Source: Sarasvathy (2007)

25. Are customers really interested in your product?
1 Not a chance
2 Maybe
3 Yes
4 Take my money NOW!

26. 4 Test customer interest

27. 5 Develop industry knowledge

28. Inc 100 entrepreneurs with industry experience
75%
25%
Source: Fresser and Willard (1990)

29. Inc 100 entrepreneurs with industry experience
Source: Bruderl, et al. (1992)
25.5 %Industry
Experience
No Industry
Experience
54.5 %

30. 5 Develop industry knowledge

31. 6 Test your financial model

32. The number of startups that fail
due to poor financial planning
Source: Lussier (2005)

33. Entrepreneurs forecasting 1st year sales
Source: Cassar (2008)
62%
4%
34%
Overestimated
Underestimate
Correct

34. 6 Test your financial model

35. 7 Test production capacity

36. The number of startups that
fail due to production problems
Source: Lussier (2005)

37. 7 Test production capacity

38. 8 Adopt the startup mindset

39. Failing to plan is planning to fail
Specific result
Begin with the end in mind

40. Source: Sarasarvathy (2011)
3 40 start upsto
$200 million to $6 billion
1IPO

41. Failing to plan is planning to fail
Specific result
Begin with the end in mind

42. People
Knowledge
Resources
Market
GapPlan
Causal Thinking
Market
Research

43. Opportunities
Knowledge
People
Resources
Outcome
Outcome
Outcome
Outcome
Outcome
Outcome
Effectual Thinking
(Imaging a possible new end using a given set of means)

45. Course
Match
Partner
Friends
Customer
Students
FaceMash
Effectual Thinking
Harvard
Connection

46. 8 Adopt the startup mindset

47. 9 Master customer acquisition

48. The percentage of startups that never master
customer acquisition, and, as a result never
make it to R1 million in sales.
Source: Start Up Genome Report(2011)

49. 9 Master customer acquisition

50. 10 Join a community

51. The success rates of startups that
join a top startup community.
(MassChallenge, TechStars, FI, Ycombinator, JDFI, The Mopheus, Endeavor, etc.)

52. 10 Join a community

53. A 2-day workshop to kick-start your business and radically improve it’s chance of success

54. Our Impact To Date

55. Our results
97% of entrepreneurs that attend the training significantly changed
their business model, for the better.
The average entrepreneur spoke to12 experts in their industry and
conducted interviews with 32 potential customers. Giving them the
industry knowledge and customer insight to help their startup succeed.
97%
44
40% 40% of the entrepreneurs who had not started their business prior to event
made their first sale within 10 weeks.
Made their first sale
Improved their business model
Interviews

56. A few of our success stories
Mduduzi Ngomane had for over a year been trying to raise R5 million for
a steel truss machine. Not able to obtain funding he made no real
progress on the business. After learning how to think like an expert
entrepreneur he realised that cash flow is what it is about and that he
could use other people's resources. Within 10 weeks he had signed a
deal with a local manufacturer of steel trusses to be an agent and had
over R1 million in purchase orders from developers.
Xoliswa Moraka had for 2-years dreamed of opening a business. Having
attended a number of courses she had a written business plan, but not
made a sale. Learning in the course that customers not business plans
are what gets a business off the ground, she applied the tools and
techniques learnt to land her first customer and with in a few months of
attending the course had a contract of R150 000.

57. Helped start over 80 businesses

58. Why it works?

59. Learn what best entrepreneurs do and think

60. Learn the best idea from 10 years of research

61. The research
443 books
1234 studies
281 students
100k+ entrepreneurs

62. All activities predict success
 Question and interview customers
 Create legitimacy symbols
 Develop industry knowledge
 Attract partners
 Build social network and contacts
 Run experiments and build prototypes
 Perform lead user interviews
 Perform other tasks correlated with success
The first sale

63. The Schedule

64. Find a hot opportunity
Ah ha! The perfect
opportunity!
 Evaluate lots of ideas (100 +)
 Learn how to evaluate ideas
 Use a proven framework
 Find a hot opportunity

65. Build a strong team
Ah ha! Perfect
partner!
 Find partners
 Set up a smart partnership agreements
 Ensure you will be a cohesive team
 Ensure you will be an effective team

66. Seek good advice
Wow! That advice
was really useful
saved myself millions.
 Seek lots of advice
 Seek advice from industry experts
 Seek advice from business experts

67. Great entrepreneurs test customer interest
Wrong idea. Time to
test a new one.
Not a chance
Maybe
Yes
Take my money
 Speak to 20 customers
 Develop a deep understanding
 Tweak the product until they throw money

68. Develop industry knowledge
An I an expert in my
industry?
 Developing your industry knowledge
 Learn the game
 Meet with industry players

69. Test your financial model
 Work with an accountant
 Develop an assumptions based financial model
 Test the assumptions in your model asap Ah! Now the
number work!

70. Test production capacity
 What do good startup community look like
 The community mindset
 StartupCherry Community meetups
That really helped!

71. Mastering customer acquisition
Wow! That advice was
really useful saved
myself millions.
 Calculate CAC & CLTV
 Develop CA experiments
 Test CA strategies

72. Adopt a startup mindset
 Seek partnerships
 Work with what you have
 Have a growth vision
 Develop your self-efficacy
 Set your affordable loss
 Be flexible
That’s how
entrepreneurs
think! Wow!

73. Join a community
 Startup Cherry Community meetups
 What type of communities are best
 How to contribute to the community
 How to get the most out of community interactions
Wow. This really
works.

74. MIT

75. 25 000 startups > $1.8 trillion annual sales

76. 11 biggest economy in the world

78. Eink paper display

79. 100Million Trees

81. Hagen Stehr

82. Problems?

83. If you are interested in joining in book at:
www.startupcherry.com
Or talk to Justin or Paul:
paul@startupcherry.com
justin@startupcherry.com