october.2003 michigan state university
DESCRIPTION
October.2003 Michigan State University. Behind the Music: Real Life in a Startup. William M. Seifert General Partner Prism Venture Partners. “Nothing happens. ..unless first a dream” - Carl Sandburg ..until somebody sells something” - William McGowan. 2. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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1©2003 Prism Venture Partners
October.2003Michigan State University
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2©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Behind the Music:Real Life in a Startup
William M. Seifert
General Partner
Prism Venture Partners
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3©2003 Prism Venture Partners
“Nothing happens..
..unless first a dream”
- Carl Sandburg
..until somebody sells something”
- William McGowan
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4©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Who is this guy, Seifert?
• Graduate of Michigan State University, BSEE ‘71, MSEE ‘75
• Military Service, U. S. Army Signal Corps officer, 1971-1979
• Microprocessor systems engineer, Los Alamos National Lab, 1975-1979
• Systems Engineer, Digital Equipment Corp., 1979-1981
• Founder, Utility Infielder, Interlan, Inc., 1981-1985
• Founder, Chief Technical Officer, Wellfleet Communications, 1986-1991
• Founder, CEO, Agile Networks, 1991-1997 (acquired by Lucent, 1996)
• General Partner, Prism Venture Partners, 1998-present
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5©2003 Prism Venture Partners
What I have to say..
• Organizing a Startup
• Challenges and Opportunities
• What To Do Before the Money
• Getting Funded
• Now What?
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6©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Organizing a Startup
• The team..people, people, people
• What’s the problem?
• Who is the customer?
• How are you going to make (me) money?
• “The first casualty in war is the plan..”- General George S. Patton
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7©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Building a Team
• Focus - Customer Problems• Management Priorities
• Customers• Employees• Investors
• Share the equity, share the wealth-creation• Incentives work!
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8©2003 Prism Venture Partners
People, people, people
• Intellectual assets – what technology startups rely on
• Experience matters
• Attitude – doing whatever it takes
• Who are we doing this for?
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9©2003 Prism Venture Partners
What’s the Problem?
• Concepts don’t sell - products do
• Products need concepts..• Understandable
• Compelling
• Nice-to-have or Need-to-have?
• Successive refinement – The road to quality, customer satisfaction
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10©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Who is the Customer?
• Getting to the right people• Decision-makers vs. recommenders
• Sell high, sell low
• Listen, spec, implement, repeat
• Understanding the market – one customer at a time…
• Disruptive technologies, disruptive economics
• First product success is critical – follow-on products can be incremental
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11©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Challenges and Opportunities
• Good people are essential – spread the risk!
• Solutions are yours, problems are your customers
• Competition – makes you better!
• Investors – essential business partners
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12©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Before the Money
• Assemble the core team
• Understand the customer benefits of using your product
• Communicate with your constituents• Customers
• Employees
• Investors
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13©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Getting Funded
• Selling to your investors
• Eyes on the prize – make your objectives clear
• Execution matters!
• Make your plan – and exceed it when possible
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14©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Now What?
• “You or your successors will be successful”
• “There are only three possible outcomes to a startup situation.. two of them are acceptable, the third is not”
• “Sales covers up a multitude of sins”
• “Startups are about only two things: products and sales”
• “Valuation doesn’t matter..so let’s use mine”
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15©2003 Prism Venture Partners
Thank You!
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16©2003 Prism Venture Partners
October.2003Michigan State University