Startup fundamentals. Finding the right idea. Building the team. Customer development. Finding funding. Not failing. Video of the talk: https://vimeo.com/73662626

1. SO YOU
WANT TO “DO”
A STARTUP
SEPTEMBER 2013
VITALY M. GOLOMB
@VITALYG

2. 367 Addison avenue
Palo Alto, California

3. hewlett-packard
garage

4. award-winning ecommerce
platform - $640B print industry
largest startup conference in
central and eastern Europe
VITALY M. GOLOMB
www.golomb.net | @VITALYG

5. so what THE F***
is a startup?

6. A STARTUP IS...
an experiment in search
of a business model- steve blank

7. SCALABLE
STARTUP
transition company
business model found
product/market fit
repeatable sales model
managers hired
break-even
profitable
rapid scale
new senior management
~150 people
“a startup is not a smaller
version of a large company”- steve blank

8. A STARTUP IS A COMPANY
THAT IS CONFUSED ABOUT:
1. WHAT ITS PRODUCT IS,
2. WHO ITS CUSTOMERS ARE,
3. HOW TO MAKE MONEY
- DAVE MCCLURE

9. “A STARTUP’s default
state is #failure. as a
founder, you have to
work to unfail it.”- VITALY M. GOLOMB

10. so what’s a goodstartup?

11. solves a painful problem
for a specific customer

12. how can you be sure you’re
solving a problem?

13. stop coding
get out of the building
talk to your customers
face your fears
validate assumptions

14. Jared Spool @jmspool
Unintentional self genius
activity-
focused
design paradigms
SWEET
SPOT

15. why would you want to
start a company?

16. get good grades
go to a good college
get in a good company
get regular promotions
retire, play golf, die
normal career

17. startup career
-if successful-
what people think
it looks like
what it really
looks like

18. entrepreneurship
is a mental disorder

19. but it takes a
little crazy...
to change
the world

20. so, why are youdoing it?

21. for the
money?

22. for the IPO money?

23. 50
100
150
200
250
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
number of tech
ipos since 1999
17

24. funded startup
success rate
30% fail
30%
unprofitable
30%
somewhat
profitable
10% big
success

25. by the way...
#failure in
startups is
overgloried

26. failure is for
losers
- Beck

27. 1st time founder 18%
repeat failed founder 20%
repeat successful founder 30%
the odds are against you

28. you’ll get acquired if
you are lucky and good

29. freedom?

30. normal job:
one boss

31. startup:
every user
is your boss

32. have a family?
they will suffer

33. “as a startup ceo, i slept
like a baby. i woke up
every 2 hours and cried.”
- ben horowitz

34. feeling
defeated
yet?

35. good news:
you can improve
your chances

36. find a problem
you can’t live
without
solving

37. don’t build technology looking
for a problem to solve
solve a painful problem

38. how is it currently
being solved?

39. no competitors
=
no problem
=
no market

40. choose a
BIGproblem

41. lifestyle businesses
are those that don’t scale

42. what do you mean scale?

43. $1,000,000
$2,000,000
$3,000,000
$4,000,000
Craigslist Apple Google Facebook Amazon McDonalds
revenue
per employee$3.6M
$2.15M
$1.25M
$1.1M
$691K
$64K

44. venture capital
business model
90% of investments fail
10% return entire fund
+ profit

45. for example: a $100M VC fund
invests for 5 years + harvests for 5 years
$500k-$2M
20-30 initial
investments
$2M-$6M
5-10 follow-on
investments

46. angel investors
invest $25K-$250K
5-20+ investments per year
get in earlier
at lower valuations
exit earlier
profitable at
lower exit values

47. main ingredient: team

48. BUSINESS
DESIGN ENGINEERING
balanced startup team

49. corporate
people
startup
people
P experts in one area
P years climbing ladder
P stable lifestyle
P real responsibilities
P life balance
P generalists
P early start
P cheap lifestyle
P nothing to lose
P nothing else matters

50. hiring is hard

51. O much money
O stability
O support structure
O a long-term plan
P stock
P flexibility
P chance to make
a difference
what you
don’t have
what you
do have

52. founder and team morale
jess lee - “why startup founders are always unhappy”

53. a little distraction

54. THE Ballmer peak

55. advisors
help you
avoid mistakes
& make connections
for a little equity

56. silicon valley ukraine
P six generations of
tech entrepreneurs
P complete ecosystem
P 50%+ of total VC money
P 25% of world GDP
P 15,500 new c.s.
graduates yearly
P lower cost of living
P virgin market
P less competition

57. funding

58. bootstrapping

59. friends, family, and foOls

60. angel investors

61. accelerators

62. venture capitalists

63. don’t forget:
you are building a
repeatable business

64. measure everything

65. what’s your business model?

66. symmetric
customer pays
for experience

67. asymmetric
3rd party pays
for customer

68. internet-driven
customer acquisition

69. nothinG matters
more than traction

70. get to customers asap

71. what is all this lean bullshit?

72. lean = quick iterations

73. more chances to
solve the problem

74. more chances to #unfail

75. - mark zuckerberg

76. want the slides?
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