Take a Risk and Start Your Company

From MBA to Entrepreneur:
Take a Risk & Start Your Company!
featuring:
Andrew D’Souza
Chief Revenue Officer of
Caitlin Quan
Evisors Marketing & Operations AssociateHosted by:
Hosted by: Career Advisors on Demand..com/webinars

I. About Andrew
II. What is Entrepreneurship and why should you care?
III. Entrepreneurial roles
IV. Starting your own
V. Tips & Resources
VI. Q&A
Agenda

About Andrew
✗✔

Entrepreneurship
I. About Andrew
II. What is Entrepreneurship and why should
you care?
V. Tips & Resources
VI. Q&A

What is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur:
• Sees an opportunity
• Makes a plan
• Starts the business
• Manages the business
• Receives the profits
- US SBA

Why is this important?
• The concept of a “career” is changing
• Career path transcends employer
• Core skills:
– Continuous learning
– Ambiguous problem solving
– Adaptability
– Networking
– “Seeing around corners”
• Entrepreneurs will win this generation

Entrepreneurship
I. About Andrew
V. Tips & Resources
VI. Q&A

Where to be an Entrepreneur
• Massive company
• Established, but growing startup
• “Hot” startup
• Early-stage startup (seed/series A-funded, )
• Start your own
• Other roles which interface with startups:
– VC
– Corp Dev / Bus Dev for a larger corporation

Roles at a Startup
• Technical Leadership
• Product Management
• Sales
• Marketing
• Finance
• Business Development
EarlystageLaterstage
Hosted by:See the rest at evisors.com/webinars/webinar/47

Technical Leader
The Role
• Lead the engineering/product team
• Prioritize resources across product features
• Ensure deadlines are met and product is reliable
Key Skills
• Software engineering / technical problem-solving
• Organization and prioritization
• Team management
Proving yourself
• Build something awesome
• Run an engineering team

Product Manager
The Role
• Own the product vision / define roadmap
• Understand customer needs, translate to engineering requirements
• Prioritize features based on business needs
Key Skills
• Communication across an organization
• Data-driven, hypothesis-driven
• Design sense
Proving yourself
• Build something awesome
• Create a product brief
• Blog

Sales
The Role
• Find customers
• Close business
• Hire and manage other salespeople
Key Skills
• Organization
• Tenacity and work ethic
• Communication
Proving yourself
• Sell something, have a track-record
• Start “commission-only”
• Follow-through

Marketing
The Role
• Build brand awareness / buzz
• Acquire customers / users
• Manage marketing budget
Key Skills
• Creativity and copywriting skills
• Data-driven
• Design sense
• Social media savvy
Proving yourself
• Blog, establish social media presence
• Learn to build landing pages and run SEO/SEM/Email campaigns
• Offer to work on discrete projects

Finance
The Role
• Own the financial model
• Monitor and report on key business metrics
• Provide input on strategic decisions
• Provide support for fundraising and M&A efforts
Key Skills
• Financial acumen
• Comfort with numbers and modeling
• Strategic thinking
Proving yourself
• Previous experience in finance
• Offer to review a startup’s model / pitch
• Work with VCs

Business Development
The Role
• Establish strategic partnerships
• Develop new revenue streams
Key Skills
• Creativity
• Negotiation
• Networking
• Organization
Proving yourself
• Get referred by a VC, strategic partner or other strong connection
• Present a business development plan
• Set up meetings with prospective partners

Breaking in
• Narrow focus (industry, stage, role, short-list)
• What’s your pitch? Unique advantage over others?
• Have you done it before?
– less experience in industry/role = larger/more established company
• Work with startups/VCs while in school
– THM Business Development Associate (toph.at/about/careers)
– Research projects for VC firms
• Work the network (alumni, friends, family, etc.)

Entrepreneurship
I. About Andrew
V. Tips & Resources
VI. Q&A

Starting your own
• Start with a burning problem
– (“Need dog food NOW, but no time to buy it”… = )
• Identify an opportunity where you have
an unfair advantage
– Unique insight
– Relentless obsession
• Don’t start a company simply “to be an
entrepreneur”

Lean Startup
• Minimum Viable
Product
• “Pivot” based on
customer feedback
• Maximize
learning, minimize
costs

Sources of Funds
• Customers
• Grants / competitions
• Yourself
• Incubators
• Friends / family
• Loans
• Professional angels / seed investors
• VCs
EasiestHardest

What investors care about
In order of importance….
• Traction
• Founders (what makes you special? In general? For this idea?)
• Market Size ($5B+)
– Top-down (TAM)
– Bottom-up (SAM)
– Market growth
• Product differentiation
• Barriers

Hacking fundraising
• Profitable investment = not good enough … need to be the next
Facebook
• Scarcity / competition / FOMO are your friends
• Social proof – get strong referrals
• Control the timing
– Raising $X – round is closing in 2 months
– Only flying in for a few days
• Control the message
– Press
– Product launches
– Intros
• Do your homework before asking for intros… don’t waste your time

Networking Tips
Getting started
• Get to events (StartupDigest, Meetup, Eventbrite, etc.)
• Quality over quantity
Follow-through
• Be specific in the ask (i.e. “I’d love 15 minutes to learn about X opportunity
at Y startup” vs. “I want to get together and chat about the industry”)
Follow-up
• Thank them for their time
• Close the loop on intros

Resources
• Quora.com – ask anything, get great answers
• PaulGraham.com / bhorowitz.com
• Startup of You
• Inbound Marketing
• Spin Selling
• Lean Startup
• VentureHacks.com
• Venture Deals
• Angel.co – follow early-stage startups

Questions & Answers

Questions & Answers
Question 1:
When do you suggest that students start
focusing on a business plan while in school?
Hosted by:See the answer at evisors.com/webinars/webinar/47

Questions & Answers
Question 2:
Do you recommend students get some work
experience first before going into
entrepreneurship?

Questions & Answers
Question 3:
What were the major challenges in raising
money for your business?

Questions & Answers
Question 4:
What is your perspective on holding a job
while starting a company?

Questions & Answers
Question 5:
How important is location when starting your
business?

Questions & Answers
Question 6:
What are your alternate career
recommendations for students in today’s
economy?

Book your session with Andrew at:
www.evisors.com/expert/704
Fundraising advice: how to pitch your idea to investors
Career advice: Compare consulting, operating roles and start-up/entrepreneurial endeavours
Business plan feedback: Interested in starting a company? What does it take?
Connect
Andrew D’Souza
Chief Revenue Officer of

Take a Risk and Start Your Company

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