What you need in order to begin your startup venture along with helpful tips on how to think even before you start!

1. By Dr. George Christou
Associate Professor
Computer Science

2. Associate Professor – Computer Science
Consultant – Software Engineering Projects
Serial Entrepreneur
Start-up Builder since 1999
• First web development company in Cyprus
• First online flight booking company from Cyprus (raised 5
million in capital)
• First start-up from European University Cyprus
• Ascanio Entertainment -> Began at my lab!
Who am I?

3. The Entrepreneurial Path
Ideation Marketing Riches!!!
Construction Sales

4. So many concerns…
• Financial
• Control
• Technology
• First or Best
• Legal
• Resources
• Marketing
• Sales
• And so much more…
Unfortunately…

5. You have an idea… so
what?
•Who cares?
•Why?
•When should they care?
•Competitors? Why your
idea?
So let’s begin…

6. What will your idea do for me?
• The only thing that’s relevant in the ideation stage
JUST SOLVETHE
PROBLEM
I don’t care about your features

7. Once you have enough to support your
problem solution
Who is your customer?
How do you attract the customer?
Create a story!!!
Problem Solving

8. Did you solve a problem lately?

9. “Only the giant pumpkin draws a crowd and lives on holiday
cards, refrigerators and grainyYouTube videos . . . forever.The
giant pumpkin is legend. And when you’ve grown one . . . you
will be a legend, too.”
- Mike Michalowicz,The Pumpkin Plan
Now get my attention

10. So what? Did you convince me?
B2B
•You sell PEACE OF MIND
B2C
•You sell EMOTIONS
Well… you have my attention

11. Your idea MUST solve a problem OR provoke an EMOTION
You need to have a case study
Or a really emotional story
… so that you can make me care enough
… so that I’ll turn my head to see something so irresistible like a
giant pumpkin!!!
BTW this is MARKETING!!!
• Thus you just found out you need a marketeer…
Putting it all together

12. FastER is the new fast
You have the same idea as many people
You must move FASTER than them
You must build it before them
… but you need resources…
From Ideation to Construction in Δt

13. How do you raise capital?
FIGURE IT OUT!
Sell stuff, get a loan, get an investor,
but get this out of the way…
And WHO will be the safekeeper of
your capital?
You just found out you need an
Accountant…
Capital

14. Did you have people that saw your idea sign an NDA
(Non-Disclosure Agreement)?
IT DOESN’T MATTER!!!
No cases were won in court because of an NDA
But still… you need to understand lawyerese…
You just found out you need a Lawyer…
And you pitched your idea…

15. But who will sell for you?
Did you study sales? Great!
If not -You just found out you need a salesman…
And you have a vision…

16. The ONLY resources you need are people
You are the Visionary/Entrepreneur
But you may not be very management oriented…
You just found out you need a Project Manager…
Oh… and another problem…

17. You have the vision and you are also the technician (or
maybe you need one!)
You need an Accountant
You need a Lawyer
You need a Marketeer
You need a Salesman
You need a Project Manager
So let’s put things in perspective

18. You don’t need one person for each role…
But you need people…
If you are in a university environment…
• Everyone is here!
Ask your professors for help
If not, then go out and meet people in meet-ups,
etc.
And always LISTEN!!!
Realistically…

19. So what can you do even at the ideation
stage?
1. Work on building a solid team as much as
you work building your product
2. Use Javelin.com
• Examine your market
• Fine tune your product
• Have customers already in place
3. Read that third point again and again…
OK not that simple then…

20. Unfortunately this is the ONE TRUTH
You need to have customers BEFORE the product
comes out
So through your market analysis, you are already
positioned to sell
Without customers BEFORE the product, I bid you
“good night”…
Customers before product

21. Your customers many times don’t realize
their problems
You need to educate them
See your role as a customer
mentor
Tell them about your solution
Seriously, they don’t care about the
features
Educate your customers

22. Have you created a
company yet?
Create a company and use
ONLY the company to
contact people
I am not a Lawyer, so ask
your Lawyer about
implications (good and bad)
Oh, and something else…

23. What next?
Grow your customer base
Scale up accordingly
Sustain the company
AND ALWAYS HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY!!!
And now you have a company

24. Do you have questions?
(Hint:You should!)
Thank you