1. The Voice of the Customer:
Lessons from the Field
Chris Burry, SVP Strategy
US Market Access Center

2. The Voice of the Customer: Where does it fit?
Leveraging the Business Model Canvas
• Value Proposition
 What value do we deliver to the customer?
 Which one of our customer’s problems are we helping to
solve?
 What bundles of products and services are we offering to
each Customer Segment?
 Which customer needs are we satisfying?
• Customer Segments / Channels
It seems so obvious… but it is HARD to do right

3. A quick introduction: Who is Chris Burry?
Serial Entrepreneur
 1st Company founded when I was 13 years old. Sold when I
was 18 for $1,000 USD (which seemed like a lot…)
 2nd Company founded in 1982 – Application development
for the Apple IIe and IBM PC. Sold in 1984
 3rd Company co-founded in 1991 – Early CRM company.
Sold in 1993 to EDS
 4th Company co-founded in 1999 – Today has 10,000+
people; $1B+ in annual revenue
 5th Company co-founded in 2010 – Stay tuned….

4. A quick introduction: Who is Chris Burry?
A Consultant
 10 years in national politics working for Al Gore and others
(political campaigns are the ultimate startup)
 5 years at EDS
 4 years at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture)
 9 years at Avanade (1st on the ground in multiple countries)
 2 years with the US Market Access Center
Global Citizen
 Lived in the US, UK, France and Finland
 Projects in more than 20 countries

5. A quick introduction: What is the USMAC?
The US Market Access Center
 Founded in 1995 by San Jose State University
 Non-profit that helps non-US companies expand globally
with a focus on Silicon Valley
 800+ companies helped in the last 17 years
 60+ current resident entrepreneurs
 40+ non-resident clients
 90+ mentors in ICT/Web/Cleantech
 Active programs in Asia, Europe and Latin America

6. The Voice of the Customer: Why?
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far way….
• When I was “the new kid” with Andersen Consulting, I was
assigned to a customer with Vic Riden, one of the most
successful partners in the firm. He became my coach, my
teacher, my mentor, my sensei.
• I learned an amazing amount of things from Vic.
Lesson # 1 – If you don’t already have
a mentor, get one right now

7. A side note on Mentors: They really matter
In 2011, researchers at Stanford and
UC Berkeley released the Startup
Genome Report
• Data from 650+ startups was analyzed,
including 160 funded companies
• Fundraising across the four stages of
development in their model was
examined
• The role of mentors was one factor examined and the message is
clear…
No mentors = no money raised when needed to scale

8. The Voice of the Customer: Why?
Learning from the master
• I worked with Vic as he convinced a major bank that they
needed to undertake a $100m project (which we won). At a
dinner, I asked Vic to share with me the secret of his success.
• Vic’s response surprised me with its total simplicity.
Lesson # 2 – Just remember, they
have lots of money and we want it…
Entrepreneurs need to be about making money!

9. The Voice of the Customer: Why?
Vic went on to add…
Lesson #3: … but just because we want it
doesn’t mean they have to give it to us.
Lesson # 4: Our job is to make them want to give
it to us…
Lesson #5: … and be really happy they did…
Lesson # 6: … because we let them define value,
not us.

10. The Voice of the Customer: Reality Check
• Entrepreneurs have a unique
ability to create their own
reality
• I like to call this a “Reality
Distortion Field” (RDF)
• There is a real risk that
your personal RDF makes
you believe that your
customers value what you
are selling more than they do

11. The Voice of the Customer: Reality Check
• We have all seen the Reality Distortion Field in Action
 We are going to be bigger than Google in 2 years
 The size of the market is HUGE… we will only capture .05%
of the market and make $1B
 And my all time favorite…. We are losing $.02 on every
transaction but we will make it up on volume
Lesson #7: Your Business Model, won’t work if it is
not grounded in reality

12. The Voice of the Customer: Beating the RDF
• Russ Fraden, CEO of Social Shield ($2m seed round and $10m ‘A’
round) says “You don’t have a business unless”
 There are real people
 With real money
 Who have a real problem (need, or want)
 And they are willing to pay you to make their problem go
away
Lesson # 8: The Customer, not you
decides if you have a business

13. The Voice of the Customer: Beating the RDF
• How do YOU know? For your product or service?
 Are there are real people?
 With real money?
 Who have a real problem (need, or want)?
 Are they are willing to pay you to make their problem go
away?
Lesson # 9: If customers won’t pay
to make their problem go away,
you don’t have a business

14. The Voice of the Customer: Beating the RDF
• But wait! What about advertising supported
applications, websites and the like?
 You CUSTOMER is not the end-user, your customers are
buying the advertising.
 You are finding ways to get people to watch the advertising
 If you have a “freemium” model, then you have two
customers, the advertisers and the end-users
Lesson #10: Be clear on who is your customer and
Lesson #11: how they define value (not you)

15. The Voice of the Customer: Going Lean
• Applying the principles
of the Lean Startup, you
can bring the voice of
the customer into the
process
• The “Measure” and
“Learn” phases of the
cycle create natural
points for inclusion of
input from the customer
But be careful you don’t bring in your own RDF

16. The Voice of the Customer: A Great Example
• Mobile Gaming Company Business Model
 Attract very larger number of users
 Relatively low Average Revenue per User and lower lifetime
value of user
 Requires them to capture and hold the user’s attention to
keep them in the app
• What was needed
 Needed to find a way to limit investment in games that
won’t hold attention
 Focus resources on the ones that will

17. The Voice of the Customer: A Great Example
• Finding a new way of thinking about mobile gaming
 Pattern analysis shows that games go viral in the first 14
days, or they don’t go viral at all
 “Fast to Die” – if a game doesn’t show signs that it is going
viral during the beta… pull the plug. Don’t waste any more
time on the product.
 The customer is telling you that they don’t like it
• Does it work?
 $5m+ raised
 50m+ downloads since in less than 3 years

18. The Voice of the Customer: Our Results
• In 2011 we piloted a new program that creates opportunity for
direct feedback from customers and partners in Silicon Valley
 54 startups from Singapore, Korea, Spain & Russia
participated went through education and qualification
 Total of 16 moved on go through a structured process of
aligning to customer defined value
 The 13 startups are doing business with, or have terms
sheets with:

19. The Voice of the Customer: Our Results
• Questions?
• Comments?
• Care to share your own experiences? (Good and bad)
• Happy to talk one-on-one with anyone

20. San Francisco
Palo Alto
Let’s Connect
San Jose
Our Headquarters
US Market Access Center
facebook.com/usmarketaccess 10 South Third Street, 3rd Floor
San Jose, CA 95113
@usmarketaccess Contact for the Nordic Region
Adiba Cremonini
linkedin.com Vice President International Relations
Groups – US Market Access Center Phone
+1 (917) 767 0077
www.usmarketaccess.com
Email
adiba@usmarketaccess.com