Startups 101Danny Boice, Co-Founder & President

Speek

Startups are the #1 tool for new wealth generation in the World.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Born to middle class parents in upstate NY

Founded Facebook in his dorm room when he was 19

Facebook is currently valued at nearly $150 billion

52nd richest person in the World

29 years old

Sergey Brin, Google

Immigrated to the US from the Soviet Union at the age of 6

Founded Google in dorm room when he was 23

Took Google public 6 years later

Estimated net worth of $30 billion

Elon Musk, Tesla & SpaceX

Fled South Africa at the age of 17 - Became US Citizen in 2002

Exited Zip2 in 1999 making himself $22 million personally. He was 28.

Exited PayPal in 2002 making himself $165 million personally. He was 31.

Currently the Founder & CEO of TWO publicly traded companies: Tesla and SpaceX.

Net worth is over $12 billion

Jessica Herrin, Stella & Dot

Founded WeddingChannel at age of 24 and sold for $65 million

Founded Stella & Dot in 2004

Stella & Dot recently valued at $1 billion

Aaron Patzer, Mint

Founded mint.com in 2007

2 years later Mint was acquired by Intuit for $170 million

He was 28 years old

Max Levchin, PayPal

Founded PayPal in 1998

4 years later PayPal went public making Max a millionaire

eBay later bought PayPal making Max another $34 million

He was 27 years old

Jeff Arnold, WebMD

Founded WebMD when he was 20

Within 1 year the company was valued at $20 billion

Retired in 2000 from WebMD

He was 30 years old

Jared Hecht, GroupMe

Founded GroupMe when he was 23

Within 1 year the company acquired for $100 million

He was 24 years old

I founded Speek 2 years ago.

Speek recently received an 8 figure valuation.

About Me

Speek Co-Founder & President

Harvard & MIT

Exited First Startup in 2006

Georgetown Professor

Forbes Columnist@DannyBoice

About Speek

$6 Million In Venture Capital

2 Years Old

Hundreds Of Thousands Of Users

Millions Of Calls

Exponential Growth @SpeekApp www.Speek.com

Speek Press

What have I learned so far?

Small Businesses Are NOT Startups

Startups vs Small Businesses

A Restaurant, Barber Shop, Bookstore, Consulting Company, Etc. Is Not A Startup!

Different DNA (Exponential Growth)

Staff Size Does Not Equate To Revenue

Technology (Web & Mobile) Not Physical Locations

Fail Fast

The “Trough of Sorrows”

Startup Success Is Simple (In Theory)

A (Successful) Startup Requires 3 Things

Product

Users

Money

Product

Web and Mobile Apps

Most Startups Fail Because They Build Something Nobody Wants

Startup Success Is Science Not Art

Fail Fast / Scientific Method

The Lean Startup

Most Startups Fail Because They Build Something Nobody Wants

Startup Success Is Science Not Art

Fail / Learn / Evolve

Get It Right And You See This

Users

User Acquisition 101

Acquisition

Activation

Retention

Referral

Revenue

AARRR, cap'n!

Get to know your subscribers.

Tactics

Viral Loop

Word of Mouth

Freemium

Referrals

Content

SEO / Google / Bing

Social Media

Press

Paid / Ads

Get It Right And You See This

Money

Revenue 101

Common Revenue Models

Subscriptions

Freemium

Ads

Pay As You Go

License

Get It Right And You See This

If You’re Gonna Fail, Fail Fast

Lead Through Example

Create A Culture Of Excellence

Make A Lot Of Noise - BE LOUD

Enjoy The Journey

Let’s Discuss