A brief walkthrough on customer validation, building a minimum viable product, and a bit on pitching your startup idea.

1. Startup Weekend San Antonio
WELCOME!

2. Matthew Egan
Founder @ Image Freedom
@ImageFreedom

4. CUSTOMERS

5. Don’t find customers for your products,
find products for your customers.
Seth Godin

6. Customer Validation
1 Talk To The Right People - Your mom will always think
your ideas are wonderful but that doesn’t mean they are.
Ask The Right Questions - Don’t invite people to agree
with you, instead ask questions without an obvious answer.
2
Open Yourself To Being Wrong - Being proven wrong
hurts, but when you ignore the truth you just waste time.
3

7. MVP

8. If you are not embarrassed by the first version
of your product, you’ve launched too late.
Reid Hoffman
Founder, LinkedIn

9. MVP: Minimum Viable Product
M
Minimum - The least amount of effort required to
offer a basic product or service to a customer.
Viable - The raw core product or service which
convincingly demonstrates value worthy of purchase.
V
Product - A product is also a transaction, a customer
buys something intending to receive value.
P
Launching Your MPV Enables Validated Learning
Paying Customers will take you more seriously and you will get true feedback.

12. MVP: Minimum Viable Product
“The minimum viable product is that version of a new product
which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of
validated learning about customers with the least effort.”
-Eric Ries
The Lean Startup

13. PITCHING

14. If you can’t explain it simply, then
you don’t understand it well enough.
Albert Einstein

15. Elements Of A Good Pitch
1
Identify The Problem - Identify the market problem you are
addressing and explain the failings of current industry solutions.
Explain Your Solution - Clearly explain your solution to this
problem and the key reasons why your idea will succeed.
2
Establish Trust - Share information about your background,
your team, your advisers, whatever it is that will establish trust.
3
Bait The Hook But Don’t Go Overboard - Keep It Simple
If a potential investor is interested they will ask more detailed questions.

16. See You Friday!