Foundation structure of startup assessment is the startup lifecycle. we can Understand where a startup is in their lifecycle allows us to assess their progress. The startup life cycle is made of 6 stages of development, where each stage is made up of levels of sub stages.

1. I. The Startup Lifecycle
Our foundational structure of startupassessmentisthe startuplifecycle.Understandingwhere a startup
is in their lifecycle allows us to assess their progress. The startup lifecycle is made of 6 stages of
development,where eachstage ismade upof levelsof substages.Thiscreates a directed tree structure
and allowsformore granularassessmentbybeingable topinpoint the main drivers of progress at each
stage.We call eachof these stagesthe MarmerStages.However,inthis report only the top level stages
are discussed.Ourfirstfourtop-levelstagesare basedlooselyonSteve Blank's 4 Steps to the Epiphany,
but one key difference is that the Marmer Stages are product centric rather than company centric.
Our 6 stages are:
1) Discovery
2) Validation
3) Efficiency
4) Scale
5) Sustain
6) Conservation
Discovery
Your first task as an entrepreneur is to consider how you would like to change the world. Identify a
problem,come upwitha solutionand see if anyone – especially potential users and clients – might be
interested in your idea.
Beyondthe possibilityof gettingaccepted in a startup accelerator and gathering funds from family and
friends, this first phase requires developing the minimum viable product (MVP) that wi ll enable
surveying the market and getting a sense of the project’s acceptance.
This is what Dropbox did at the beginning. The cloud storage website published a video explaining its
service using an MVP and, furthermore, the appearance it would have. This video was one of the
strategies that enabled the company to reach 75,000 users whilst in beta form.
Validation
A startup’s service or products go from being hypothetical solutions to a problem to hitting the street
and lookingforthe firstclientsready topayfor it.At thisstage,moneywill be the onlywaytoeffectively
measure whether the public validates your project.

2. This is precisely what growing numbers of technological companies do when starting crowdfunding
campaigns.
Pebble, the record-breaking smartwatch, managed to raise $10million in Kickstarter. This is an
impressiveexampleof crowdfundingvalidation.Peoplewanted a smartwatch, and they were willing to
pay for it in advance.
Efficiency
In orderto successfullyovercome thisthirdphase,the bestallieswill be market studies and, more than
ever, the advice of a good investor. Listen to the voice of experience.
At thispoint,the entrepreneurhastoanalyse characteristicsandvariablesof everything that surrounds
the startup (market, clients, etc.) in order to find the business model that adjusts best to the
environment.The aim is to increase the customer base in the most effective way possible, preventing
growth from stifling the project.
Scale
It istime to prove the business’s scalability –itscapacityto grow ina sustainable manner(keeping costs
down).The startupmustbe readyto fightininternational marketsandoffergreat margins of benefit. It
istime to stepon the gas and pushthe growthaggressively –itistime for the larger fundraising rounds.
That is how Airbnb and the controversial Uber have managed to grow to the point of being present in
countlesscornersglobally.A couple of fundraisingroundsof over $1billion in the first case, and around
$0.5billion in the second, show how these are good examples of internationalization.
Maintenance
Once the stephas beentakento reachothermarketswithsupportof large fundraisingrounds,it is time
to shore up the project’sbasessothe structure that youhave put so much effort into building does not
collapse.
Maximizing benefits and facing problems derived from the global dimension that the startup has
acquired are key in this phase. The greatest risk is taking for granted that, having reached certain
success,everythingisdone.Don’tstandbyto admire yourproduct;there are problems that can put the
longevity of your business project at risk.

3. Sale or renewal
Your businessmodel works,orisat leastcredible.Youhave the funding needed to internationalise the
company, and you have carried it out successfully. Now what? Experience tells us that there are two
ways:to sell the startupto a giant (Google, Facebook, Apple…) or to go public and try becoming one of
the ‘unicorns’.
Only in this way you can acquire the huge resources that the brand will need to continue growing,
renewing its products, and reinventing itself constantly in order to confront a dynamic market.