How to Build a Billion Dollar Startup

SEP 25, 2017
BY JEFF SAFOVICH
HowtoBuildaBillionDollarStartup
From an Idea to $1 Million in Revenues

All Rights Reserved 2017 jeff@Navigabiz.com www.Navigabiz.com
Welcome to Two Simultaneous Events
How to Build a Billion
Dollar Startup?
Grow Your Startup - From an Idea to
$1 Million in Revenues

What It Takes to Build a Billion-Dollar Startup
370 Startups
became
“Billion-Dollar“
155 Exits (since 2009)
215 Unicorns
 Be lucky
 Have the right motives
 Hit a big/basic need
 Be willing to work on a dubious idea
 Be unafraid of a big idea
 Be driven and resilient
 Consider it your life’s work
 Be able to evolve
Y Combinator cofounder Jessica Livingston (thanks to Business Insider)

It is Your Startup we are talking about
Consider how to apply these topics
to your own story

Company’s Culture 5 + 2 Ingredients
If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff …
will just happen naturally on its own
- Tony Hsieh (CEO Zappos), Author of Delivering Happiness

M E T V O
Mission
Employees
Team
Values
Organization
Customers
Community

Culture – Have a Great Mission
Resonating mission
Resonating in employees - Google, Twitter, Edelman, Facebook, Slack, …
Resonating in company’s culture – outdoors oriented employees (REI)
Resonating in candidates: Job postings describing significant impact (Xero, AirBnb)
Doing things that matter
in the world
To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful
Belong anywhere
On a mission to make your working life simpler, more pleasant and more productive
Accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy

Culture – Make Employees Happy
Environment and Terms
Perks: free meals, yoga, massages, on-site laundry (Twitter, Chevron, Facebook, Google)
Meditation room
Unlimited/fliexible vacation (Twitter, SquareSpace)
Attractive office space (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, SquareSpace)
Trips, parties, dog-friendly environment (Google)
Personal growth
Personal training (Zappos, Hevron)
Guest lecturers and presentations (SquareTrade, Google)
Competitive atmosphere (Facebook, Google)

Culture – Encourage Team Work
Values alignment
Cultural Interviews
During the training each employee is offered $2k-$4k to leave (Zappos)
A qualified candidate without the right values, won’t get an offer (Southwest Airlines)
Family Spirit
It is partly like a family or a tribe (AirBnb)
Employees can turn to colleagues for support and advice (Twitter, Chevron)
Supportive and motivational team-oriented environment (Twitter)
Out of the office activities

Culture – Core Values
Sincere
Think about what is important to your company
Do not try to be someone you are not
Ask your team members to sit alone and write down the company values
Truly followed
Be an example
Provide detailed feedback
Documented and posted
Take new candidates to lunch or ask them to spend time with your current team

Culture – Organization and Management
Organizational Structure
Traditional
Flatter (FB, Squarespace)
Flat (Valve)
Holocratic (Zappos)
Co-ownership / Co-op
Co-op with clients (RAI)
Co-ownership with employees via ESOP
Trusting employees
Avoiding micromanaging
Mentorship vs. management

Mission
Mission that resonates
Things that matter in the world
Employees
Environment & terms
Personal growth
Team
Values alignment
Family spirit
Values
Sincere
Truly followed
Organization
The right structure
Trusting employees
Customers
Delivering WOW experience (Zappos)
Give employees “permission” to go that extra mile
Community
Programs to promote community
Shared contribution

How do these companies differ?
Since: 2009
$2.7B in 2017
Since: 1998
$1.2B in 2014
Since: 2010
$1B in 2012
Since: 2011
Shut down in 2013
Since: 2012
Shut down in 2014
Since: 2009
Shut down in 2013
we could not make it the company we wanted
we didn’t pivot hard enough
the customer’s pain was not there

Top 10 Reasons Startups Fail
https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/biggest-startup-failures/
“Startups fail when they are not solving a market problem.
We were not solving a large enough problem that we could
universally serve with a scalable solution.
We had great technology, great data on shopping behavior,
great reputation as a though leader, great expertise, great
advisors, etc, but what we didn’t have was technology or
business model that solved a pain point in a scalable way.”
- Treehouse Logic
Tackling problems that are
interesting to solve rather than
those that serve a market need.







Lack of Product-Market-Fit

What is Product Market Fit (PMF)?
“Product/market fit means being in a good market
with a product that can satisfy that market.”
Marc Andreessen
“Product/market fit is a precondition for effectively
scaling marketing for a company”
Sean Ellis
“Product/market fit is a step in between customer
validation and customer creation”
Steve Blank

Why PMF Methodology?
Fail fast: Inside Google's X - Moonshot Factory, Killing Projects Is Celebrated. Astro Teller
If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough Elon Musk
Be frank with yourself when you fail
Know where you are to choose your next step
Identify “the most promising” concept, Verify a concept potential
Avoid waste: greatest waste is doing efficiently what should not be done at all Peter Drucker
Identify the most important improvement to focus on
Speed up business evolution: most startups do not fail, they just run out of money
(*) PMF – Product Market Fit

Why our first product failed?

7 Key Steps to Building a Successful Business
2.
Concept
4.
Assessments
5.
Experiment
6.
Learn
1.
Dream
7.
Pivot?
3.
Plan

Step 1 – Dream
Usefulness:
The difference compared to the current state of the art,
times how many people it would affect
- Elon Musk, (SpaceX, PayPal, Tesla, OpenAI, etc.)

Step 1 – Dream (cont.)
Vision
Goal
Mission
• What will change in the world?
• Strategic long-term goal
• What will your role be?

7 Key Steps to Build a Successful Business
2.
Concept
5.
Experiment
6.
Learn
1.
Dream
7.
Pivot?
3.
Plan
4.
Assessments

Step 2 - Concept
Problem Solution Go-to-Market
Monetization
Promise
What is your unique value proposition?
Zero in on the heart of your service and highlight
what stands out about the solution you provide.
Product/Service
How do you do it?
How does your solution solve your audience's need?
List the major solution capabilities
Value
What values will your customers gain?
List specific advantages and benefits your customers
will gain by using your solution.
Audience
Who has the need?
What groups are you providing value for?
Groups of customers who rely on each other’s
recommendations when making usage or purchase
decisions
List a few sample clients.
Need
What’s the need?
What need are you going to solve?
What is the context in which the need manifests?
How painful the need is?
Growth
How do you reach them?
What’s your distribution method: Viral / Sticky / Paid?
Consider the most effective mediums to reach your
audience.
Business Model
How will you monetize?
How will you generate income?
Present a pricing model for your product or service.

Step 3 – Actionable Plan
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Month
1
Month
2
Month
3
Month
4
Month
5
Month
6
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Goals (Learning/Customers/…)
Action Items – Product Market Fit
Action Items – Product
Action Items – Go to Market
Team
Resources
Costs

Step 4 – Assessments (cont.)
Assessments
Goals
KPI
• What do you need to know to predict success?
• What are target values for your KPI?
• Translate Assessments into Metrics
(*) KPI – Key Performance Indicator

Step 4 - Assessments
Problem Solution Go-to-Market
Monetization
Value
Do they appreciate
the value you provide?
.
Need
Do they really need
your solution?
Growth
Is your growth method working?
Business Model
Is your monetization effective?
.

KPI Goals
Need
Example: 3% Click-through-rate on invitation emails
Value
Example: 12% of users are active
Growth
Example: 2 Invitations are sent by each active user
Monetization
Example: 17% of users are paying
Step 4 – Assessments (cont.) (*) KPI – Key Performance Indicator

North Star Metric = NSM
An aggregate value that people get
from your product
• Focused on Value for customers - Footprint over time
• Reflecting work of an entire company
Amount of active daily users  7 friends in 10 days
# weekly bookings / rides
Examples:
By Sean Ellis

Step 5 - Experiment
MVP
Measure
Try
• Minimal possible scope to measure KPI
• Embed measurements into MVP
• Run your experiment
(*) MVP – Minimal Viable Product
(*) KPI – Key Performance Indicator

STEP 6 - Learn
Analyze
Compass
Progress / t
• Actual KPI results vs. your goals
• Focus improvements on highest gaps
• Did you improve?

STEP 7 – Pivot?
Goal
Goal
is KPI converging?
A
B

7 Key Steps to Build a Successful Business
2.
Concept
5.
Experiment
6.
Learn
1.
Dream
7.
Pivot?
3.
Plan
4.
Assessments
• Talk to your clients
• Experiment and learn fast
• Move the needle every day
• Pivot is an option

Do successful startups ever fail? Pivots…
+
Since: 2009
$3.8B in 2016
Since: 2007
$31B in 2016
Since: 2010
$1B in 2012

Fund Raising - 5 Key Ingredients
The right investors
Find investors that resonate with your
dream, your stage, the amount of
money you are raising
Personal relationship
Develop personal relationship with
investors
Business potential
Show there is a strong need in a big
market, and that you know this market
well
Balanced team
Have a balanced team, able to execute the plan.
Out of 4 skills: Business, Product, Technology, Marketing –
you should have at least 2 in the beginning
Solid plan
Present inspiring objectives you’ll reach with the money being
raised, and a clear plan executable by the team.
Base your story on experiential actionable insights

Today’s Two Simultaneous Events
How to Build a
Billion Dollar
Startup?
Grow Your Startup
- From an Idea to
$1 Million in
Revenues
Social
Campaign
CTR (*)
Social
Organic
Traffic
Landing Page
Conversion
$ / Ticket
1.6% 74% 33% X
1.3% 52% 23% 3 * X
(*) CTR
Click Through Rate

Points to remember
Dream big
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars
If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff… will just happen naturally on its own
Greatest waste is to do efficiently what should not be done at all.
Follow the trail wherever it leads…
Most successful startups end up doing something different than they originally intended
Enjoy along the way!
Paul Graham
Peter F. Drucker
Norman Vincent Peale
Tony Hsieh

More to explore
Books
Lean startup, by Eric Ries
Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production, by Taiichi Ohno (Kaizen)
Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim
Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey A. Moore
The four steps to the Epiphany, by Steve Blank
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product/market_fit
http://www.startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/
http://growthhackers.com/
http://theleanstartup.com/
http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html
Techniques
The 5 Why
Business Model Canvas
Buyer Utility Map
A/B Testing
Agile / SCRUM

A Free Consultation Meeting
Startups from today’s event get a free consultation meeting
Email me to book a meeting (first come, first served)
Jeff Safovich
jeff@navigabiz.com
www.Navigabiz.com

How to Build a Billion Dollar Startup

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