Presentation to undergraduate Entrepreneurship class in Santa Clara university Leavey School of Business

1. “The first thing you should learn
in a course on entrepreneurship
is how to make yourself
valuable.”
• Combine Skills
• Fail Forward
• Find the action
• Attract Luck
• Conquer Fear
• Write simply
• Learn Persuasion
Scott Adams WSJ 4/9/11

2. Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned
By Sam W. Beal
SCU Apr 11, 2012
Linkedin/in/SamWBeal
@sambeal
Sambeal.com

3. “The first thing you should learn in
a course on entrepreneurship is
how to make yourself valuable.”
• Combine Skills
• Fail Forward
• Find the Action
• Attract Luck
• Conquer Fear
• Write Simply
• Learn Persuasion
Scott Adams WSJ 4/9/11

4. Catch a paradigm shift, if you can
People tend to over estimate near-term change
And under estimate long-term change
reality
exit
expectation
entry

5. What business are you in?
Technology Products Solutions
antifuse Bigger Time to Market
Faster
Cheaper

6. Plan on needing a Plan B
Don’t bet all your capital on Plan A
Conserve funding until you validate
assumptions with real users.

7. Validation is tricky

8. Validation is tricky
People tend to “see” evidence that confirms
beliefs but overlook what doesn’t.
Does the customer refer the product to friends?
Is she still using it 3 or 6 months later?
Anything that takes money or attention away
from your target customer is competitive.

9. Plan B examples
AOL Yahoo Google Facebook
ISP Search Search edu directory A
walled display ad adwords walled garden
garden Portal search B
+ Netscape verticals + video the future web
sold - $$$ + mobile C
+ social
yahoo 2.0 ? Plan D?

10. Can’t do Plan B, our patent is on Plan A
Xilinx 2010
1998
A patent doesn’t mean you
can make it or sell it

11. Right idea – Wrong time
You can be too early

12. If you are too early, you need
Deep pockets
Partners – Alliances, Evangelists
Patience
Patent filed in 2007 issued on 2/21/12

13. Build a
team,
don’t be
the team.

14. Summary
Good ideas aren’t enough
Find a mensch
Be a Samurai

15. Ideas, people and $$$ are not enough.

16. Find a mensch

17. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom
@kevin was
an intern
under @Jack
– the founder
of Twitter and
Square

18. Jason Calacanis*