2. Today’s session
• Recap and review
• Understand what you need to do to be successful in
stage two of the competition
• Introduce the concept of Customer Development
• Begin to apply it to your idea/vision
9. Academic excellence for business and the professions
What’s the problem?
How big is the problem?
Whose problem is it?
How is it currently solved?
1
2
3
4
Startup design brief
28. Judging criteria
• Is there a clearly defined problem?
• Is there a clearly articulated & differentiated solution?
• Is the market clearly defined, addressable and
scalable?
• Is there a viable and sustainable business model?
• Is the plan backed-up by concrete evidence?
37. Academic excellence for business and the professions
I have a super
duper techy
innovation!!!
I have an
idea!!!
I have a
passion!!!
See: Bill Aulet, www.disciplinedentrepreneurship.com
47. Academic excellence for business and the professions
Established
companies
Execute against an established
business model
Startups
Need to search for a
scalable & profitable
business model
48. Key idea 2
The only way you can find a
business model is to “get out of
the building!”
59. Academic excellence for business and the professions
Customer
discovery
Customer
validation
Problem –
solution fit
Problem –
market fit
Yay, this is
awesome!
62. Exercise 1
• 15-mins, working individually or in teams
• Take the business hypothesis worksheet and
complete as many sections as possible
• Make sure your answers are as concise and specific
as possible
• Don’t over-think the exercise!!!
63. Exercise 2
• 15-mins, working in groups of 2 or 3
• What assumptions have we made that, if proven
wrong, would cause the business to fail?
• Take the second worksheet and list as many of these
assumptions as possible
• Make your assumptions as concise and specific as
possible
65. Assumptions
• We believe that people care about pillow temperature
• We believe that people care about sleep quality when
purchasing a pillow
• We believe we can sell online to customers
• We believe our customers will be young urban professionals
• We believe that our very first customers will be new graduates
who need to outfit their apartments
• We believe that we can sell our pillows at a high enough price to
cover our costs
• We believe that we can raise enough capital to cover
investments in manufacturing
66. Exercise 2
• 15-mins, working in groups of 2 or 3
• What assumptions have we made that, if proven
wrong, would cause the business to fail?
• Take the second worksheet and list as many of these
assumptions as possible
• Make your assumptions as concise and specific as
possible
67. Homework
• Before next week’s session
• Review your list and mark the assumptions that would
have a large impact on your business and feel highly
uncertain
• Prioritise your top-3 assumptions
• Download Talking to Humans PDF and read pages 1-27
(www.talkingtohumans.com)
70. Key points
• We’re not just looking for hypothetical business ideas or plans –
we want to see action, traction and evidence
• Every new business idea is an article of faith precariously
perched on a big stack of assumptions
• You need to challenge these assumptions right from the start –
not sail blissfully towards an epic fail at the end
• This means that you need to understand what assumptions
you’re making
• And then rank them in order of priority.
