The document provides an overview of starting a tech startup for middle schoolers, including defining what a tech startup is, the challenges they face with a 90% failure rate, and exploring potential ideas like creating avatars of teachers. It then outlines the necessary skills, team roles of a hustler, hacker and designer, and different locations they could work from to develop their startup concept.

1. STARTUPS FOR
MIDDLE SCHOOLERS
Ricardo Leon • Nov 2015

2. I was born in a
little tiny
village called
Mexico City.
Traveled the
world from
East to West.
Big artsy,
techie, foodie
and startup
guy.
ABOUT ME

3. WHAT’S A TECH STARTUP?

4. THE NEWEST COMPANIES THAT
COULD CHANGE THE WORLD!
-- Techcrunch

5. DO YOU RECOGNIZE ANY OF
THESE COMPANIES?

7. HOCKEY
STICK
Most of these startups experience an extraordinary growth in the first years
YEAR 0 YEAR 4
100M
200M
300M
400M
500M
YEAR 2

8. THE REALITY IS THAT
90%
OF TECH STARTUPS FAIL
No
market
need
Ran
out of
cash
Not
the
right
team
Poor
product

9. GAME TIME

10. We are a group of middle school students.
We think it would be cool to start a tech startup.
We are wondering where to start.

11. WHERE CAN WE FIND A
NOVEL IDEA?

12. Google began in 1996 as a research project by
two Ph.D. students at Stanford University.
SCHOOL PROJECT

13. The founders of Airbnb could not afford the rent for their loft in San Francisco.
They made their living room into a bed and breakfast.
SOLVING A PROBLEM

14. The founders of Supercell, the creator of Clash of Clans, were big fans of games
like Angry Birds. They wanted to create a new kind of gaming company.
FOR THE FUN

15. WHAT’S OUR COOL IDEA?

16. What about if we build a product
that allows us to create avatars
of our teachers?

18. WHO IS GOING TO USE
OUR PRODUCT?

19. OUR PEERS

20. OUR
PERSONA

21. WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE
BUILDING?

22. NOT SURE. WE WILL FIGURE IT OUT.

23. IDEATION

24. IDEATION

25. DOCUMENT

26. HOW TO BUILD A PRODUCT?

27. START SMALL

28. MAKE
TEST
LEARN
ITERATE

29. SKETCH

30. WIREFRAME

31. MOCKUP

32. PROTOTYPEPROTOTYPE

33. WHAT TYPE OF SKILLS WE
NEED TO SUCCEED?

34. ILLUSTRATING
CODING
WRITING
LISTENING
PRESENTING
HUSTLE
SELLING
SPEAKING
NETWORKING
ORGANIZING
PROBLEM
SOLVING
ANALYZING
PATIENCE
MATH
CREATIVITY

35. HOW MANY PEOPLE?

36. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 99

37. HACKER HUSTLER DESIGNER
THE MAGIC TRIO

38. HUSTLER
This is the team leader. The hustler
builds the team, ignites their
passion, and manages projects. The
hustler gets out, talks to people and
build partnerships. Most
important, the hustler helps guide
the team to success.

39. HACKER
The hacker eats, sleeps and
breathes code. It’s important the
hacker knows or can learn the
coding environment you will use to
build the product. The best hackers
have knowledge of product
development and visual aesthetics.

40. DESIGNER
The designer develops concepts
and specifications of the product.
Ideally, the designer wears many
hats: builds layouts, branding
assets, copywriter, marketing
collateral... As an added bonus, the
designer must be both technical,
artist, and social.

41. Matt Hall was a struggling video games developer living on a sheep farm owned
by his parents. For many years he earned absolutely nothing even after releasing
top titles in the app store. Matt partnered with Andy Sum and founded a new
studio they called Hipster Whale. Together they published Crossy Road with the
help of designer Ben Weatherall.

42. WHERE CAN WE WORK?

43. HOUSE SCHOOL LIBRARY
EVERYWHERE

44. MY FAVORITE SPOTS
Northside
Kaldi’s
Colony Club
The Coupe
Canvas

45. CHARTBOOST NEW CREATIVE HEADQUARTERS
Source: eoffice

51. SUCCESS FAILING MANY TIMES= x

52. Ricardo Leon
ricardo@pactica.com