Why Startups Are _Not_ Small Versions of Large Companies

Why Startups Are Not Small Versions of Large Companies
Steve Blank
www.steveblank.com
Twitter: sgblank

I Wrote This

Five Short Stories

Not All Startups Are Equal

Small Business
Startup
Small Business Startups
Serve known customer with known product
Feed the family

Small Business
Startup
Exit Criteria
Business Model found
- Profitable business
Existing team
< $1M in revenue
known customer known product
Feed the family

Small Business
Startup
- Business Model found
- Profitable business
Existing team
< $10M in revenue
5.7 million small businesses in the U.S. <500 employees
99.7% of all companies
~ 50% of total U.S. workers
http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdf

Large Company Sustaining Innovation
Sustaining Innovation
Transition
Scalable
Startup
Large Company
Existing Market / Known customer
Known product feature needs

Large Company Disruptive Innovation
New Division
Transition
Large Company
Disruptive Innovation
New Market / Unknown customer needs
New tech / Unknown product features
Looks like a scalable startup

Scalable
Startup
Large Company
>$100M/year
Scalable Startup
Goal is to solve for:
unknown customer and unknown features

Scalable
Startup
Large Company
>$100M/year
Exit Criteria
Business model found
Total Available Market > $500m -$1B
Can grow to $100m/year
Focused on execution and process
Scalable Startup

Scalable
Startup
Large Company
>$100M/year
Total Available Market > $500m
Can grow to $100m/year
Business model found
Focused on execution and process
Typically requires “risk capital”
Scalable Startup
In contrast a scalable startup is designed to grow big
Typically needs risk capital
What Silicon Valley means when they say “Startup”

Scalable
Startup
Large Company
Search
customer needs/product features found
i.e. Product/Market fit
- Repeatable sales model
- Managers hired
What’s A Startup?
A Startup is the organization used to search for a scalable business model

What VC’s Don’t Tell You:The Transition – Founders Leave
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
Build
Founders depart
Professional Mgmt
Process
Beginning of scale

Why Product Managers Wear Sneakers

Startups Search and Pivot
The Search for the Business Model
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
customer needs/product features found
i.e. Product/Market fit
Found by founders, not employees
Repeatable sales model
- Managers hired

Startups Search, Companies Execute
The Execution of the Business Model
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
- Cash-flow breakeven
- Profitable
- Rapid scale
- New Senior Mgmt
~ 150 people
Product/Market fit
- Managers hired

Metrics Versus Accounting
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large
Company
Traditional Accounting
Balance Sheet
Cash Flow Statement
Income Statement

Metrics Versus Accounting
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large
Company
Startup Metrics
Customer Acquisition Cost
Viral coefficient
Customer Lifetime Value
Average Selling Price/Order Size
Monthly burn rate
etc.
Traditional Accounting
Balance Sheet
Cash Flow Statement
Income Statement

Customer Validation Versus Sales
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large
Company
Sales
Sales Organization
Scalable
Price List/Data Sheets
Revenue Plan

Customer Validation Versus Sales
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large
Company
Customer Validation
Early Adopters
Pricing/Feature unstable
Not yet repeatable
“One-off’s”
Done by founders
Sales
Sales Organization
Scalable
Price List/Data Sheets
Revenue Plan

Customer Development VersusProduct Management
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
Product Management
Delivers MRD’s
Feature Spec’s
Competitive Analysis
Prod Mgmt driven

Customer Development Versus Product Management
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
Product Management
Delivers MRD’s
Feature Spec’s
Competitive Analysis
Customer Development
Hypothesis Testing
Minimum Feature Set
Pivots
Founder-driven

Engineering Versus Agile Development
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
Engineering
Requirements Docs.
Waterfall Development
QA
Tech Pubs

Engineering Versus Agile Development
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
Engineering
Requirements Docs.
Waterfall Development
QA
Tech Pubs
Agile Development
Continuous Deployment
Continuous Learning
Self Organizing Teams
Minimum Feature Set
Pivots

Startups Model, Companies Plan
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
Plan describes “knowns”
Known features for line extensions
Known customers/markets
Known business model

Startups Model, Companies Plan
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
Unknown customer needs
Unknown feature set
Unknown business model
Model found by iteration
Plan describes “knowns”
Known features for line extensions
Known customers/markets
Known business model

Startups Protect Mavericks, Companies Fire Mavericks
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
Pains in the butt
Always looking at something different
Doesn’t get with the program

Startups Protect Mavericks, Companies Fire Mavericks
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
CEO of your company
Finds your next market
Pains in the butt
Always looking at something different
Doesn’t get with the program

Startups Don’t Last Forever
Scalable
Startup
Transition
Large Company
- Cash-flow breakeven
- Profitable
- Rapid scale
- New Senior Mgmt
~ 150 people
Product/Market fit
- Managers hired
You failif you remain a startup!

Plan versus Model

Business Plan
A document your investors make you write that they don’t read
A useful place for you to collect your guesses about your business
Size of Opportunity
Customers
Channel
Demand Creation
Revenue/Expenses/Profit
The template to look like everyone else when you present to VC’s/Management

No Business Plan survives first contact with customers

So Search for a Business Model

What Is a Business Model?
Diagram of flows between company and customers
Scorecard of hypotheses testing
Rapid change with each iteration and pivot
Product Management-driven
* Alex Osterwalder

Business Model =
Keeping Score in a Startup
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP
PARTNER
NETWORK
INFRASTRUCTURE
CUSTOMER
OFFER
TARGET
CUSTOMER
CORE
CAPABILITIES
portrays the network of cooperative agreements with other companies
explains the relationships a company establishes with its customers
VALUE
PROPOSITION
describes the customers a company wants to offer value to
outlines the capabilities required to run a company's business model
gives an overall view of a company's bundle of products and services
DISTRIBUTION
CHANNEL
VALUE
CONFIGURATION
describes the channels to communicate and get in touch with customers
describes the arrangement of activities and resources
sums up the monetary consequences to run a business model
describes the revenue streams through which money is earned
COST
STRUCTURE
REVENUE
STREAMS
FINANCE

Business Model Generation Book

How Do Startups Search For A Business Model?
The Search is called Customer Development
The Implementation is called Agile Development

The Lean Startup

Who Does This Search?
The Founders
Not Employees
How?

Solving For Customer and Product Unknowns:Customer Development

The founders
Get the Hell Out of the Building
^

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

Then why do we have:
process to manage product development?

Then why do we have:
Process to manage product development?
None to manage customer development?

Startup - Back of the Napkin Model
Concept/Seed Round
Product Dev.
Alpha/Beta Test
Launch/
1st Ship

Tradition – Hire Marketing
Concept/Seed Round
Product Dev.
Alpha/Beta Test
Launch/
1st Ship
- Create Demand
- Launch Event
- “Branding”
- Hire PR Agency
- Early Buzz
Create Marcom
Materials
- Create Positioning
Marketing

Tradition – Hire Sales
Concept/Seed Round
Product Dev.
Alpha/Beta Test
Launch/
1st Ship
- Create Demand
- Launch Event
- “Branding”
- Hire PR Agency
- Early Buzz
Create Marcom
Materials
Marketing
Build Sales Organization
Hire Sales VP
Hire 1st Sales Staff
Sales

Tradition – Hire Bus Development
Concept
Product Dev.
Alpha/Beta Test
Launch/
1st Ship
- Create Demand
- Launch Event
- “Branding”
- Hire PR Agency
- Early Buzz
Create Marcom
Materials
Marketing
Build Sales Channel / Distribution
Hire Sales VP
Pick distribution Channel
Sales
Business
Development
Hire First Bus Dev
Do deals for FCS

Tradition – Hire Engineering/Product Mgmt
Concept
Product Dev.
Alpha/Beta Test
Launch/
1st Ship
- Create Demand
- Launch Event
- “Branding”
- Hire PR Agency
- Early Buzz
Create Marcom
Materials
Marketing
Build Sales Channel / Distribution
Hire Sales VP
Pick distribution Channel
Sales
Business
Development
Hire First Bus Dev
Do deals for FCS
Engineering/Product Mgmt
Write MRD
Waterfall
Q/A
Tech Pubs

Product Development
Concept/Bus. Plan
Product Dev.
Alpha/Beta Test
Launch/1st Ship
+
CustomerDevelopment
Company
Building
CustomerDiscovery
CustomerValidation
Customer Creation

Customer Discovery
CustomerDiscovery
CustomerValidation
Company
Building
CustomerCreation
Stop selling, start listening
Test your hypotheses
Continuous Discovery
Done by founders

Customer Discovery
Phase 3
Test
ProductHypothesis
Phase 4Verify, Iterate &
Expand
CustomerDiscovery
To Validation
Phase 1Author
Hypothesis
Phase 2Test
ProblemHypothesis

Hypothesis
Product
Customer/Problem
Distribution/Pricing
Demand Creation
Market Type
Competition

Customer Validation
CustomerDiscovery
CustomerValidation
Customer Creation
Company
Building
Pivot
Repeatable and scalable business model?
PassionateEarlyvangelists?
Pivot back to Discovery if no customers

Customer Validation
Phase 4Business
ModelVerified
Phase 3Positioning
CustomerValidation
From Discovery
To Creation
Phase 1Get
Readyto Sell
Phase 2Sell toEarlyVangelists

The Pivot
The heart of Customer Development
Iteration without crisis
Fast, agile and opportunistic

Speeding Up Cycle Time
Speed of cycle minimizes cash needs
Minimum feature set speeds up cycle time
Near instantaneous customer feedback drives feature set

So What Does Engineering Do?

Waterfall / Product ManagementExecution on Two “Knowns”
Requirements
Product Features: known
Design
Implementation
Verification
Customer Problem: known
Maintenance
Source: Eric Rieshttp://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com

Agile - Customer Problem is KnownExisting Company/Market
“Product Owner” or
in-house customer
Unit of progress: a line of working code
Problem: Known
Solution: Unknown

Lean StartupCustomer Problem + Product Features are Unknown
Problem: Unknown
Solution: Unknown

64
Customer Creation
CustomerDiscovery
CustomerValidation
Company
Building
CustomerCreation
Creation comes after proof of sales
$’s for scale
Lean Startups are not cheap startups

Company Building
Company
Building
Customer Creation
CustomerValidation
CustomerDiscovery
(Re)build company’s organization & management
Re look at your mission

I Write a Blog
www.steveblank.com

Summary
Founders can’t delegate customer discovery
Startups are about speed of pivots
Product
Customer
Channel
They are not about MRD’s and process
Product management can be an asset or an albatross in startups
You can make the difference…with sneakers

Thanks
www.steveblank.com

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Why Startups Are _Not_ Small Versions of Large Companies

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