Our goal with Entrepreneur in 100 Days is to distill best practices of starting a business and give people a step by step approach to starting up. There is so much useful content out there that it has become nearly impossible to identify what is useful to you, why, and when. Entrepreneur in 100 days has been tested live on 450 students, dozens of entrepreneurs, and on highly innovative departments within large corporates like 3M, ING, Samsung, and Nestle. Its scientific foundation, effectuation, comes from the groundbreaking research conducted by Saras Sarasvathy under the guidance of Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize winner, and one hell of a model American. We welcome you to contact us join (y)our movement. Get pumped! “Everyone is an entrepreneur, we just have different business models”

1. THINK, DECIDE, & ACT
Like an Entrepreneur, in 11 Steps
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- An Introduction -
From your mates at

2. 2
FORWARD
For Thomas, this journey began with his search for a process to take a business idea from non-existence to profit without
risking your house, health, and happiness. I, on the other hand, had just graduated with a masters, and sold my small business
of seven years in the US and was looking for a way to learn something practical about startup strategy and small business
success. After a phone call I joined Thomas on his ‘life-mission’.
Our goal with Entrepreneur in 100 Days is to distill best practices of starting a business and give people a step by step
approach to starting up. There is so much useful content out there that it has become nearly impossible to identify what is
useful to you, why, and when.
Entrepreneur in 100 days has been tested live on 450 students, dozens of entrepreneurs, and on highly innovative
departments within large corporates like 3M, ING, Samsung, and Nestle. Its scientific foundation, effectuation, comes from
the groundbreaking research conducted by Saras Sarasvathy under the guidance of Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize winner, and
one hell of a model American.
We welcome you to contact us join (y)our movement. Get pumped!
“Everyone is an entrepreneur, we just have different business models”
Thomas BlekmanChristopher L. Sparks

3. 3
Pilot in the Plane:
Orchestrate all of the above and shift your
worldview from a linear, predictive mindset
to one
that focuses on control. I.E. Market research
is useless in a world you are about to
change, so focus your energy on controlling
the future rather than predicting it.
Bird in Hand:
What preexisting resources
do you control that can help
you NOW.
Affordable Loss:
Never bet what you aren’t
willing to lose.
Crazy Quilt:
How can you work the
specialties of others into your
project?
Lemonade Principle:
Failure doesn’t exist, only
opportunities to learn.
Leverage these opportunities.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
These five principles should inform every decision you make & will ensure success with minimal risk:
Adopt the Effectual Mindset
Note: This is a challenging process. No one ever found success easily, no matter what they tell you (they’re bullshitting if they tell you it was easy). Well,
maybe for people with trust funds it was easy, but take a look at their lifetime ROI and ask them about their definition of ‘sustainable’.
Get the ‘Principles’ Chapters from our bestselling book, “Corporate Effectuation” on our
website.
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STEP 1:
Your intrinsic motivators and your ‘Why’ should be treated as capital; necessary for the success of the venture. If you have an
idea, why are you drawn to it? If you don’t have an idea, what are you obsessed with. Obsessions make the best businesses:
Develop Your Compelling Goal
Download PDF
How do you want to affect change in the world
around you? Further, why do you want to change
the world around you?
Remember: Entrepreneurship is a long-game. Only
ideas that have a connection to very personal
motivations will persevere. Otherwise you run the
risk of giving up, getting distracted, or jumping on
the next sexy bandwagon.
See: ‘Effectuators Roadmap’. This model helps you
draw out personal motivations that normally take
people years to realize. Complete the top half. This
is your insurance against ‘motivation atrophy’. You
are, in effect, front-loading your motivation!
Also check the instructions on How To Use The
‘Effectuators Roadmap’.
Download PDF

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STEP 2:
Examine your Roadmap (the top half you filled out) and organize the most compelling parts into a communicable story. You
can create a pitch deck or write it out for yourself. Get ready to tell why your idea is so great!
Develop & Test Your ‘Why’ Story
Watch It Now!
Remember you are going to tell why
you are in business and not what your
business is or how you do business.
Make a list of people who would make
great partners and customers.
Build traction and attention with the
people on the list. Call them and tell
your story. Every conversation is a
prototype for a pitch. This will help you
refine your story and convince
important parties in the future.
Communication on an emotional, ‘why’
level will open more gates than
superficial ‘what’ and ‘how’
conversations.
Test this story EVERYWHERE and on
ANYONE and improve it as necessary.
This helps drill down to what is
important to communicate so that
motivates others to join in your
movement.
Inspiration: Watch the famous
Simon Sinek Ted talk:

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STEP 3:
Your Customers Problem, or ‘Pain’
Based on your insights from steps 1 & 2, determine the customer segment(s) toward which you will focus
initial efforts. Your resources at this stage are limited, so might as well focus them on people who energize
you and drive you forward.
Note: You can have more than one customer segment. Just make sure you aren't choosing them based on superficial
criteria like “They have the most money”. Take it from me, working with the wealthy can be a nightmare.
What ‘pain’ or ‘problem’ do these people have, that you can fix, that drives you to think like an advocate for
them?
Complete the right side of the Value Proposition Canvas. Search Google for a set of directions on how to do
this. Look for anything by Osterwalder for instructions on how to use it.
Google: “Value Proposition Canvas” (focus on the assumption side, the circle). This process will help you isolate your
customer segment(s). Like the Roadmap it is very important to have a helicopter view on your customers.

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STEP 4:
Customer Discovery & Customer Validation - Testing Your Assumptions
If you don’t get “out of the
building” (Steve Blank)
there is a good chance you
are building something that
has no market and/ or no
one wants. Call actual
clients and start pitching to
them ASAP.
Record feedback. What you
can measure you can
control. Refine your
offering as you get
feedback.
This is your chance to
repeatedly test and iterate
what is becoming your
pitch.
Remember, you have yet to
develop a product and you
are still very flexible, so
recheck your customer/
market assumptions until
they become facts. Is your
audience indicating a
willingness to pay for your
product/ service? You are
on the right track! Keep
sharing!
You want to walk away with
a crystal clear picture of
your ideal customer
segments are so you can
focus your limited efforts
and resources.
Google: ‘Customer Development’ by Steve Blank & ‘Value Proposition Canvas’- Validating your assumptions

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STEP 5:
Your Solution - Designing Your Solution & Target A Segment
With your insights from
testing your assumptions
you can begin filling the
left half of the Value
Proposition Canvas. Be
specific; match ‘pain
relievers’ & ‘gain creators’
with ‘pains’ & ‘gains’.
Unsure of any of this? Go
back and ask a few
customers what they think.
Keep testing until your
solution becomes
compelling both to you and
the customer. Doing this
will move you toward
“Product-Market Fit” – A
state in which your product
increasingly fits your
intended market.
Follow these ten steps
toward
finding PMF described by
Ash Maurya.
Now it is time to start
thinking in terms of “The
best form of validation is
sales. Period!” – if you can
get people to pre-pay then you
are really ahead of the game!
Package your well-tested
solution in a pitch that
clearly outlines why, due to
the rigorous testing you
have put it through, it is the
best pain reliever and gain
creator for each of your
customer segments.

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STEP 6:
Achieving Your Solution, ‘Bird in Hand’, & ‘Quilting’
Now you start building the business. Start with
available means. What is your Bird in Hand?
What do you have now that you can leverage to
build your business?
Means which you need, but do not have, you can
source from others. This is where your story and
pitch come into play.
A note on protecting your ideas: No one ever started a business in a vacuum. You
stand to gain far more by sharing ideas than by protecting them & fearing copycats.
If you have a compelling enough story, which you should by now, people will want to
follow you – they will entrust their time and effort to you as their leader. Remember,
your product is not the product itself, your product is the business model.
If you haven't yet bought ‘Running Lean’ by Ash Maruya, now is the time.

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STEP 7:
Testing your Solution & Pitching
Create your MVP: A
minimum viable product –
Google what this means as
stated by Eric Ries.
Test: Introduce it to REAL
customers who represent
your customer segments as
defined in Step 3.
Measure their reception of
your MVP & collect
feedback.
Iterate: Improve your
offering to get to a solution
that people actually want
to pay for.
Repeat this process and iterate until you find the fit
that makes you a millionaire OR pivot (see
“Lean Startup” for more on pivoting).
Get to actual sales fast! True sales are the ultimate
and only real customer validation - it keeps you
alive and kicking, knowing you are heading
somewhere!
See ‘Lean Startup’ by Eric Ries (an absolute entrepreneurial necessity). Ries turned the startup world on its head by applying Lean Methodology
to startups and has a fantastic description of what an MVP is and how to get there.

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STEP 8:
“Oh shit, someone else has me beat to market”- So you’re a second mover?
Even better! You are so lucky to have someone build the market for you and assume all of the risk!
Overtake their value - build something
better based on your research.
Knowing their existing offering, you
can even test their current iteration
on your customers and your offering
to theirs and improve your product.
Congratulations, you have juiced a
lemon & made lemonade. Just
remember to keep testing, measuring,
iterating and comparing your offering
to the next best! You simply cannot
cheat this process and expect to win!
Stick to the program.
Go back to your roadmap and begin
filling in the bottom half. Instructions
can be found here.

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STEP 9:
Developing Your Revenue Model, BMC, and Lean Pricing
Google: “Business Model Canvas” by
Alexander Oosterwalder. Like the Value
Proposition Canvas and the Effectuators
Roadmap, the BMC is an exercise you will
repeat dozens of times. Having your first
iteration at this point is a nice way to track
your evolution. Probably a good idea to buy
this book
This is where you can start building your
business model around your product-
market fit. The business model is simply
a plan for how profitability can be
sustained, maintained, and multiplied.
Pricing: Price is the dominant factor for your profitability. Pricing is a
fickle monster. Finding that sweet spot that gives you what is needed
and your customer what she wants is the final determinant in the
point-of-sale transaction. Omar Mohout has written a blog about it,
which can be found here.
Your Revenue Model is your competitive advantage now as well as
later, and should be curated accordingly.

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STEP 10:
The Effectuators Roadmap & the Path Forward
Go beyond your MVP and grow it into
something extraordinary! Live the
dream. It’s a lifestyle, not a job.
Turning the Effectuators Roadmap
into a practical, executable plan.
Finish the Second Half:
Instructions
Continue working others into your
Quilt. Build agreements based on
reciprocation and co-creating of
value. Sometimes it may be a
better idea to stay away from the
people who want to sign contracts
and talk money before they talk
ideas.
Should you aim for steady growth
or scale up as quickly as possible?
Welcome to what we like to call a
‘champagne problem.’ If you get
this far there are many new tools
that you will need to add to your
effectuators toolbox. Contact us to
find out more!

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NO RECEIVING WITHOUT GIVING
Establish trust, relevance, and
authority with your potential
customers by delivering value to them
in the form of blogs, free content, paid
workshops, classes, etc. Anything that
has value. Help them move toward
more trust and toward a full purchase
of your product.
It is important to note that people are
good at smelling bullshit. You have to
actually deliver on value (aka give
them useful, practical information).
Bad content can and will hurt you!
See our blog on finding out where your
audience hangs out by using social
media! We have a blog about that, too!

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OUR BOOK, ‘ONDERNEMER IN 100 DAGEN’
English version
available at the end of the summer.
Try our bestseller Corporate Effectuation
A great primer for the Effectual Mindset!
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