An Introduction and WELCOME!
BOB DORF
allegedly retired serial entrepreneur
bob@kandsranch.com
www.steveblank.com
1

WELCOME to our journey…
• To help you try to build strong, profitable new businesses
• NOT to guarantee success, but to minimize risk of failure
• …to teach you how to use “startup tools” on YOUR startup
• …get YOU “out of the building” to gain/use customer feedback
• …and to do all we can to help you WIN!
2

This is
Damn Hard…
• Long term success rate in startups is very, very low
• It’s all about “traction…”- very hard to achieve
• Competition, investment both extremely challenging
• You will be outspent, out-engineered, outrun
• YOUR TEAM AND I will do all we can to help…
• But most of the success is on your shoulders
3

Why are we here??
• The odds are very much against your success
• We want to reduce the risk of failure
• And provide support to help you and your team
build a strong, enduring company!
…What really matters most:
• GREAT companies with long-term potential
• Excited CUSTOMERS who tell their friends
4

This is NOT a test…
• Customer Development is in use worldwide
• Thousands of startups use all or part of the process
• Adopted by 50+ leading Universities
• …but this is NOT a class…
• …the ONLY grade is how successful YOU are!
5

More startups fail from
a lack of customers than from a
failure of product development
6

Our focus is finding customers
for your product even before
you have built the product!
7

Very simple business math:
0 customers= 0 business!
8

A bit about me…
• “Unemployable” since age 22, 4 decades ago(!!)
• 7 startups: 2 homeruns, 2 base hits, 3 tax losses
• >20x startups Investor/coach: 7 IPO’s, 6 disasters
• 3 years almost living with Steve, writing, teaching
• Adjunct Professor, Columbia Business School
• 1 great kid, PhD, mom, proudest startup of all!
9

The best “tuition” of all…
10

500 startup misteaks in 608 pages….
11

A bit about you…
• First-time entrepreneurs?
• Engineers?
• Marketeers?
• Third startup?
• Cloners?
• “Keeping my Day Job” for now
• Ready to work 80 hours a week?
• ..for the glory?
• …for the $?
12

Questions?
13

We’ve learned a lot about
entrepreneurship
14

15

Part 1
What We Used to Believe
What We Now Know
16

What We Used to Believe
17

There is one type of startup and
one type of entrepreneur
18

What We Now Know:
There are many types of startups
19

Scalable Startup
Why most of you are here today!
Search Execute
Scalable Large
Startup Company
Goal is to solve for:
unknown customer and
unknown features
20

Scalable Startup
Search Execute
Scalable Large
Startup Company
Goal is to solve for: Exit Criteria
unknown customer and - Business model found
unknown features - Total Available Market > $500m
- Can grow to >$100m/year
- Can be Venture capital funded
21

But startups may be…
22

Lifestyle Startups
Work to Live your Passion
Startup
• Serve known customer with known product
• Work for their passion
• NOT “Mark Zuckerberg”
• YET can employ many in a very profitable
long-term enterprise
23

Small Business Startups
Work to Feed the Family
Small
Startup
Business
• Serve known customer with
known product
• Feed the family
24

Small Business Startups
Work to Feed the Family
Small
Startup
Business
Exit Criteria
• known customer - Business Model found
known product
- Profitable business
• Feed the family
- Existing team
< $500K in revenue
- Not venture-backable
25

Social Entrepreneurship Startups
Social Large
Startup Non-Profit
• Solve pressing social problems
• Social Enterprise: Profitable
• Social Innovation: New Strategies
• Not venture-backable
26

Buyable Startup
Search Sell
Scalable $2 to $50M
Startup Acquisition
Goal is to solve for: - Sell to larger company
Internet, Mobile, Gaming Apps - Angel or early stage VC
27

:
what matters most
KNOW your GOAL at the start
SHARE it with coaches, team, investors
(it’s always easier to make it bigger later)
28

Teaching Entrepreneurs:
What We Used to Believe
29

What a Startup Really Looks Like
30

Startups are About Vision &
Ideas, sweat and luck
31

What We Now Know
32

Most visions are very blurry at best
33

What We Used to Believe
34

Startups are a Smaller Version
of a Large Company
35

What We Now Know
36

Startups Search
Companies Execute
37

What We Used to Believe
Strategy
38

Start With a Business Plan
and a Financial Model
39

All You Need to Do is Execute the Plan
40

And You Need to Make the Forecast
41

All You Need to Do: Execute the Plan
42

What We Now Know
Strategy
43

No Business Plan survives
first contact with customers
44

Planning comes before the
plan
45

Some Ground Rules
• Interrupt me ANYTIME
• This is HARD
– Unpredictable
– Accept and learn from failure
– All must agree we’re on a “search”
• YOU will customize our agenda as we go…using the
“Customer Development” process
• Try to generalize your issues/questions
• Please say “go faster,” “go slower,” or “wait a minute!”
• …and feel free to throw things if I don’t hear you!
46

What’s A Startup?
Search Execute
Scalable Large
Startup Company
- Business Model found
- i.e. Product/Market fit
- Repeatable sales model
- Managers hired
A Startup is a temporary organization used to
search for a repeatable and scalable business
model
47

Scalable Startup
Search
Scalable Large
Startup Company
Goal is to solve for:
unknown customer and unknown features
…New customers unknown in many markets
…Desired features unknown in many markets
48

Scalable Startup
Search Execute
Scalable Large
Startup Company
Exit Criteria
- Business model found
- Total Available Market > $500m -$1B
- Can grow to $100m/year
Criteria: can it get BIG??
…not quite today…but is it on the path?
49

Why 95+% of startups die?
• All product, no customers
• No problem
• The “lock step”
• Premature scaling
• No product/market fit
• No more dough
• …some of us will fail. Certainly it’s not YOU!
50

Questions?
51