startup advice: from silicon valley to sydney
DESCRIPTION
Drew Sing talks about his experiences with startups in the US and Australia. Presented for a Incubate summer workshop 2013.TRANSCRIPT
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I’ll be chatting about:My ExperienceProduct FitCustomer DiscoverySilicon Valley
Hi, my name is Drew Sing
Interrupt me whenever! Don’t let this be another death by pp presentation…
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The Four Steps to the EpiphanySteve Blank
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Wise words from Steve Blank
The greatest cause of failure—in startups is not in the development of a new product but in the development of customers and markets.
1 out of 10 startups succeed, so play the game hard and smart.
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Just because it makes logical sense doesn’t mean it will work.
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Product Development Diagram
SKETCHY for early stage
startups
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Sales Perspective
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Marketing Perspective
Example:
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Don’t waste your precious youth building something people don’t give a shit about.
Example:
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Where product development is focused on first customer ship, the customer development model moves learning about customers and their problems as early in the development process as possible.
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Who are you selling to and why
Do not skip Customer Discovery – often the fatal error.
Does the problem you’re solving make your product a must have?
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Customer Development Model
BETTER YAY!
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It’s natural to go backwards. It’s a valuable part of learning and discovery.
Keep cycling until you achieve “escape velocity” – where you generate enough success to carry you out into customer creation.
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Speed at which a company moves through Customer Development depends on market type.
Startup in an existing market should be able to accomplish customer validation sooner.
Company creating a new market has an open-ended set of questions that may take a year or even longer.
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Important: It is the founders that then define the first product. The job of customer development is to see where there are customers and a market for that vision.
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If you know the answers
If you really do know the answers to the customer development process, it will go quickly and reaffirm your understanding.
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Startups don’t fail because they lack a product; they fail because they lack customers and a proven financial model.
Conclusion
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BREAK?
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YC Experience
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You can do everything they do in Silicon Valley here in Sydney.
• As long as you have a startup support group and driven community. • Surround yourself with smart and
experienced people.
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My tips
• Never work on more than 1 startup• The Weekend rule• The Friday night rule• Learn to code if you’re non-technical
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Team Chemistry is HUGE!
• Paul Graham stated 25% of companies that go through YC lose a co-founder.
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Work your ass off
And don’t get tunnel vision!!!
Constantly pivot your product
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THANK YOU. Questions?
Learning front-end and looking for a mentor!