2. Entrepreneurship What Do You What to Know? A Bit About Me A Bit About Veechi How Startups Really Work Why You? The Downside The Upside Ten Things You Must Know About Your Business Three Things I Would Have Done The Same Three Things I Would Have Done Differently My Advice Any Questions?
4. A Bit About Me Stanford (Social) Class of ’09 – Studied Economics and Mathematical and Computational Sciences Worked for Overstock.com and Aggregate Knowledge, doing analytics, “science”, and development Overstock – large retail site Aggregate Knowledge – plug-and-play “discovery” engine turned ad-optimizer I’m passionate about Startups (duh) Statistics/Machine Learning Poker
5. A Bit About Veechi Started working on “ReviewU” in Summer ’07 with Abraham Shafi Founded company in March ’08 Recruited veteran CEO, Peter Levy, in June ‘08 Abe and I stopped out of college in June ’08 Veechi Classes launched October ’08 Series A raised December ’09 Job Genius launched March ’10 Exciting products coming soon!
25. You Learn a Lot Drinking from a firehose You do things that no big company would ever let you do Succeed or fail, you’ll have an experience and a skill-set that few others have
26. You Could Make a Lot of Money “Live like others won’t, so that you can live like others can’t”
27. It’s Fun IF: You like hard work You like stress You like risk
29. Know Your Market Q: What’s the need, what’s the market with the need, and how do I let the market know that I’m solving the need? Know market size, demographics, early adopters Learn from competitors, similar past efforts, market research
30. Know Your Competition Q: Who else is solving the same problem and why is my solution better? Know your competitors, what they do well, and your competitive advantage over them Know any similar businesses that failed, and what you will do to overcome the obstacles they faced
31. Know Your Strengths Q: Why is this the right team to solve this problem? Put each person on your team in the best role for him/her Know why each team member’s unique abilities and experience makes him/her the best for his/her role
32. Know Your Revenue Model Q: How are we going to make money, when are we going to make money, and how much money can we make? Know how you plan to make money, how much money you plan to make, when and how Use spreadsheets and graphs to model revenue and costs – do research, make reasonable assumptions, and be precise!
33. Know Your Timeline Q: How quickly can we expect success? Have a precise strategy for creating, marketing, and iterating your product Set clear benchmarks that you can be held accountable for
34. Have Strong Advisors Q: Who can help us? Recruit advisors whose experience and expertise will enable your business to excel Leverage the wisdom of those you know: formal advisors, friends, family, etc.
35. Know Your Expenditures Q: What’s the minimum amount of money we need to get this off the ground? Know how much money you are asking for Know exactly what it will be spent on, and why
36. Know Your Contingency Plans Q: What can, and probably will, go wrong? Know your company’s greatest potential pitfalls, and how you will address these hurdles Take these plans into account when evaluating revenue and expenditures
37. Know Your Growth Strategy Q: How do we become the next big thing? Know how you will expand your business, address market expansion and scalability Know your exit strategies – acquisition (by who?) or IPO (when?)
38. Know Your Audience Q: How do I get my audience to put down their iPhones and Blackberrys? Research the backgrounds of the people you are presenting to Cater your presentation to the knowledge and familiarity of your audience
40. Just Do It http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZKZSiCmXLQ “You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back.” – Vincent in Gattaca
41. Just Do It If you’re passionate about an idea or about entrepreneurship, start working on something now Trial by fire, learn by doing, don’t be afraid to fail
42. Talk to Everyone Ideas are worthless Ask questions, get feedback, iterate and refine until you have a great vision or you realize that you need start over Network, network, network
43. Pivot Common problems: Right product/technology, wrong market Great product, no money Great team, wrong product
44. Pivot The solution: Pivot Leverage what you’ve already done and learned to do something else
46. MVP MVP => Minimum Viable Product Build the simplest product that will allow you to test your hypotheses Test and iterate until you’ve got something awesome THEN scale Features are worthless Take the number of features you think you need and cut that list in half
47. Revenue on Day 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YaVVpK1G4&feature=player_embedded “I knew I needed revenues right f***ing now… I did every horrible thing in the book to just get revenues right away… We did anything possible to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business… Control your destiny… I control my company today.” – Mark Pincus, CEO - Zynga
48. Revenue on Day 1 Without Revenue Company valued arbitrarily You ask investors for meetings You’re desperate to raise funds to stay alive With Revenue Company valued based on real metrics that you control VCs want to talk to you You don’t need investor money, and that makes you much more attractive to investors
49. It’s a Grind Be ready to live with little to no income for 1-2 years Be ready to invest most of your energy and emotional bandwidth “Don’t get too high from the highs, or too low from the lows.” Your startup is your baby, and no one else cares if it succeeds or fails
51. Find a Great Partner You want to work with someone who: Shares your vision, your excitement, and your work ethic You get along with really well Can do all the stuff that you can’t do
52. Get Started Now You’re young, you’re naïve, and you’re full of energy – there’s no better time to get going So, start brainstorming What’s a problem that needs to be solved? Whose problem is it? (What’s the market?) How do you solve that problem, and how do you make money doing it? What’s the minimum viable product to address 1) and 2)? Why am I the right person to solve this problem? Keep brainstorming until you have an idea with great answers to all four questions MAKE IT HAPPEN!
53. Have Fun! Always remember that, while you’re working on the next big thing, everyone else is stuck doing something less interesting, with less impact, and less potential for great rewards. It’s a long and wild ride, so don’t forget to smell the roses, see the sights, and have fun!