The document provides advice on how to overcome uncertainty and start a business by developing clarity through planning. It recommends writing down all business ideas over a week to generate a thought graph, then creating three essential documents: a pitch deck to explain the idea, and basic financial plans for the business and oneself. The document advises refining the pitch and idea, finding co-founders, exciting friends to join, and figuring out an MVP before raising funds or building the product. It also suggests practicing pitching the idea to select audiences to gain feedback and improve articulation of the vision.
14. Start by putting it down on a paper!
(or OneNote or Evernote or whatever)
15. Just let out a big raw heap of your thought process,
concerns, USP, direct/indirect competitors, product design,
sales process, blah blah blah on a blank sheet
16. Search the internet, read reports, browse competitor’s
website, if possible try out their service and keep writing
things down for 1 week
17. Once you have connected a bunch of ideas and value
propositions, its time to carve out three essential building
blocks of your plan from this thought graph.
18. ● A pitch deck explaining your idea
● Basic financial plan for your business
● Basic financial plan for yourself
20. But wait, shouldn’t I just jump in to code or build a
prototype and launch the damn thing!
21. Sure, you could. If :
a. It only takes a few hours to build out the product
b. You just want to put it out there, spread the word within
your friends and active communities and hope to get
lucky
22. But if you want to methodically build a business, then your
top priorities right now might be as follows
23. ● Refine the pitch and idea
● Find a co-founder or hire the first employee
● Excite and convince your friends to join you
● Figure out what the MVP would look like
● Raise funds, if required (I am a fan of bootstrapping)
24. So shortlist a bunch of your smart friends and colleagues
and prepare a hiring pitch which includes
25. ● Problem you are trying to solve
● How much impact (or money) could it potentially
make
● What skill sets do you need on your team to
move full throttle
● What do your team members stand to gain
26. Practice to tell your story with a lot of conviction. Why do you
feel motivated to solve this problem? Why have you chosen
this fellow in particular to join you? Make it personal.
27. Word of warning: You are probably going to sound stupid the
first few times you articulate your idea (atleast I do), so chose
your audience carefully