Workshop presentation Kielce Technology Park 9 Nov 2011

I Session:
Introduction to
Silicon Valley

Confidential Presentation Materials

Welcome to
Silicon Valley


Silicon Valley Workshops
Kielce Technology Park
Poland – November 9th 2011
High Velocity Company Growth: Best Practices &
Successful Growth Strategies from Silicon Valley, CA

in partnership with


Who We Are

Eurocal Group, LLC. helps technology companies and entrepreneurs
launch their new venture and establish their global presence in Silicon
Valley, California. Providing strategic and operational US market entry
strategies, technology and educational services to help companies think,
plan and execute globally.

Silicon Valley Link provides hands on strategic marketing and business
development services for small technology companies that seek
to expand their presence in the U.S. Silicon Valley Link works with U.S.
and European technology companies to build a presence in Silicon Valley -
a global gateway to the North American, Pacific Rim and Latin American
markets.


Workshop Agenda
• I Session: Introduction to Silicon Valley
• II Session: Marketing, Business Development and
Sales
• III Session: Intellectual Property
• IV Session: Agile Pitching
• V Session: Expanding to the US
• Summary and Wrap up


Goals for the Workshop
Key Objectives for Workshop
• Takeaways
– Think Global from the start
– Leverage Ecosystems Globally
– Develop Local Ecosystem to Go Global
– Solve real Global problems – it’s not only about the technology
• Future
– Build sustainable bridges to Global centers
– Get connected & Stay connected – this is a process!


San Francisco Bay Area: Facts & Figures
 7000 square miles (18000
square Km), of which 1600
(4160 Sq. Km) are Bay water.
 If it would be a circle r= 47
miles (or 76 Km)
 Includes 9 counties and 101
cities
 Diverse population of approx.
7.5MM encompassing all
races and ethnic groups
 Mild year‐round climate High
Avg. 72F (22C) and Low Avg.
46F (8C) strongly influenced
by the cool currents of the
Pacific Ocean.


Home to….. and to…..


and now to…
Color Labs, Inc. Nicira Networks, Inc.
Palo Alto, CA 94301 Palo Alto, CA 94303
Region: Silicon Valley Region: Silicon Valley
Website: www.color.com Website: www.nicira.com
$ Received: $40,999,900 $ Received: $25,900,000
Financing Sequence: 1 Financing Sequence: 3
Stage of Development: Stage of Development: Early
Early Stage Stage
Industry: Software Industry: Software
Description: Develops Description: Develops a
Web-based applications. software which transitions data
Investors in Q1 2011 : centers to cloud infrastracture.
Bain Capital Investors in Q1 2011 :
Redpoint Ventures Andreessen Horowitz
Sequoia Capital Lightspeed Venture Partners
Undisclosed Firm New Enterprise Associates,
Inc.


SILICON VALLEY 1849 TO 2011
Startups from 1849 to 2011
Gold Rush mindset continues…


What happened in Northern California?
• Gold Rush mentality – forced innovation
• Attracted adventurers and pioneers
• Influence on culture
• The real winners were…….


Raw Materials of Silicon Valley
Pioneer Mentality

Ecosystem / Culture / Mindset

fosters innovation and
entrepreneurship


Evolution of Silicon Valley
Marc Andreessen
INTERNET

Steve Jobs
PERSONAL
COMPUTERS

Gordon Moore INTEGRATED
CIRCUITS
Innovation Networks
Hewlett Packard DEFENCE

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000


World War II, Korea and the Cold War
Stanford/Military/Industry Ecosystem
• Stanford did basic research in electronics
• Stanford and SRI do applied research
• Microwave and systems companies in Silicon Valley
produce equipment for the military
Companies
• Sylvania Electronics Defense Laboratory (1953)
• GE Microwave Laboratory (1956)
• Electronics Systems Laboratories (1964)


Frederick Terman
― the Father of Silicon Valley‖
• Stanford Professor of Engineering 1926
-encouraged his students, William Hewlett and
David Packard to start a company
• Dean of Engineering 1946
• Provost 1955
By 1950 Stanford was the ―MIT of the West‖
Stanford becomes center of excellence for
NSA, CIA, Navy and Air Force


Terman Changes the Rules
Silicon Valley as we know it starts here
• Graduate students encouraged to start companies
• Professors encouraged to consult for companies
• Terman and other professors take board seats
• Technology transfer/IP licensing easy
• Getting out in the real world was good for your academic
career
ALL BASED on MILITARY FINANCING


William Shockley
Other father of Silicon Valley…..
Head of radar bombing training for the Air Force
Co-inventor of the transistor (Nobel Prize 1956)
Founded Shockley Semiconductor 1955
8 rebels leave Shockley to form Fairchild Semiconductor
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore leave Fairchild to found
Intel
65 other chip companies founded over the next 20 years
by alumni of these companies


Emergence of Risk Capital & Profit Focus

2nd Engine of Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley
SBIC Act of 1958
Govt matches private investments 3:1
Corporate (Bank of America/American Express)
Private (Pitch Johnson, Bill Draper) Limited Partnerships
Shift funding from military to private = profit focus


Venture Capital
Venture Capital industry grows……
Sutter Hill Ventures (1964)
Kleiner Perkins (1972)
Sequioa (1972)
A Watershed Moment in 1978
Capital Gains - slashed from 50% to 28%
Employee Retirement Income Security Act 1979 – pension
funds can invest up to 10% of holdings


Silicon Valley Ecosystem
Public
Policy

Infrastructure
(Hard) Education

Geography People
Climate Diversity
Working Infrastructur Human
Values
Conditions e ( Soft) Capital

Clustering Role
&
Networking Models

Risk
Culture
Capital

Early
Adopters

Risk Tolerance – Rewarded with Value

Societies that Support Entrepreneurship
& Innovation
Entrepreneurial Oriented Cultures

High status for Rich deal flow
entrepreneurs

Multiple exits & Risk capital -
Liquidity events availability

High quality firms
Embrace
w/ Global potential
Risk

Enabling environment
Pull rather than Push

Failures are valued
experiences


Societies that Suppress Entrepreneurship
& Innovation

Non-Entrepreneurial Oriented Cultures

Low status for Poor deal flow
entrepreneurs

No exits & Risk capital -
liquidity events unavailable

Low quality firms w/o
Risk avoidance
Global potential

Excessive fear of
Push rather than Pull
failure

Criminalization and/or social pariah
status of Failures


Knowledge Based Innovation
Innovation + Entrepreneurship = $VALUE

“Every great advance in science has issued
from a new audacity of imagination.”
John Dewey


Innovation enables the creation of
“TEMPORARY MONOPOLIES”


Innovation is a Renewable Resource
Luckily while innovation is scarce, it is a renewable resource.
Unlike finite natural resources, ideas can spread and benefit
whichever countries are best positioned to take advantage of
them, regardless of where they are invented.

George Bernard Shaw wrote: “If you
have an apple and I have an apple and
we exchange apples, then you and I
will still each have one apple. But if
you have an idea and I have an idea
and we exchange ideas, then each of
us will have two ideas.”


Ecosystem + Networking is KEY
to promote Value Creation
100s of Entrepreneur networking
events every week


Incubators and Accelerators


Special Mention: Serial Entrepreneurs
Love or Money?
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are all over the map when it
comes to personality and motivation. Some are purely
mercenary -- one hit and they're out. Others just love the
technology, and the business is a side effect. Still others just
love starting and building companies.

More of them
There are simply more entrepreneurs now -- due to the
amazing surge in venture capital and the culture of startups over the last 10-15 years -- so
you'd expect more serial entrepreneurs just based on that.

Speed of Company Creation
A lot of new companies simply develop faster these days than they did in the past.
Microsoft and Oracle, for example, both needed 10 years of incredibly hard work to get to
their IPOs (both founded in '76, IPO in '86), and they only had a few hundred employees
each when they went public -- and those were the two biggest software successes of their
era.
Marc Andreessen, Co-founder Mosaic, Ning, Andreessen Horowitz VC


Smartcamp Project
• Young companies looking to solve problems (using
technology)
• Innovative approaches to using technology (not
necessarily the most advanced) to:
1. Solve a real problem
2. Globally

• The key successful mix combines technological ability
with a global approach to business management,
business development, and operational capabilities.


Smartcamp Finalists
• The overall winner: San Francisco-based company, Streetline
www.streetlinenetworks.com that takes the pain, cost, time and
gas usage out of searching for elusive parking spots in San
Francisco, LA and soon other major cities.
• Two other companies received special mentions:
– Sproxil www.sproxil.com a Boston-based company providing
innovative brand protection and pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting
strategies to developing countries.
– TreeMetrics www.treemetrics.com a Cork-based software company
deploying 3D laser scanning technology to optimize forestry
management


Silicon Valley Ecosystem
Public
Policy

Infrastructure
(Hard) Education

Geography People
Climate Diversity
Working Infrastructur Human
Values
Conditions e ( Soft) Capital

Clustering
& Role
Networkin Models
g

Risk
Culture
Capital

Early
Adopters

Risk Tolerance – Rewarded with Value

NEXT PRESENTATION


II Session: Marketing, Business
Development and Sales

in a global economy
IdaRose Sylvester
Managing Director
Silicon Valley Link
November 2011
idarose@siliconvalleylink.com


Presenter: IdaRose Sylvester
• Founder of Silicon Valley Link, connecting European entrepreneurs to the
US market
• Driving value in marketing and sales, at reduced cost and risk, timed and
scaled for the market
• Polish entrepreneurial heritage
• 20 years in strategic marketing
• International startup experience


Agenda
• The Silicon Valley view on marketing, business
development, and sales
• The importance of these functions
• Organizing for success
• Deeper understanding
– Marketing
– Business development
– Sales
• Business models
• Case studies
• Q&A

What is the purpose of marketing,
business development and sales?


Startups typically think
• We don’t have time for marketing, business
development or formal sales (just give us your
Rolodex!)
– We are so unique the product will sell itself
• We don’t have money for marketing, business
development or sales (just go viral!)
• We don’t understand the value of marketing,
business development or sales

In reality

Your product will
not sell itself


Not fancy falsehoods to make you look good


Not proving you are the “best”


Honestly: not about making money


The purpose of marketing, business
development and sales


A closer look at marketing


“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile
the moment a single builder
contemplates it, bearing within them
the image of a cathedral”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery


Marketing: What it does

• Defines your main objective for the
global market
• Understands the market forces that help
you meet your objective
• Discovers and mitigates risk for your
biggest market obstacles


Marketing functions
Promotion
Collateral Branding

Pricing PR/outreach

Go to Market
Research
strategy

Value
Competitive IQ
proposition

Roadmap Target
Channel
customers,
strategy
partners

US versus European marketing practices
• Americans don’t have patience to read long explanations,
all the details
• We are not encumbered by humility, and expect
companies to really promote themselves
• We like to follow the leader, show us your reference
cases, especially if you are entering the US from outside


A few how tos


Learning about your market
• Market trends
– Talk to industry experts
– Talk to industry influencers
– Talk to customers, partners and competitors
– Go to and read about tradeshows
– Read trade magazines, blogs, analyst reports
– Competitive assessment
– Database searches
• Market sizing
– Analyst reports, industry reports
– Similar markets
– Data on part of the market
– Clever assumptions

Finding customers & partners
• Create potential segmentation
– Industry verticals, geography, direct v channel, consumer v
business, size of business
• Methodologically search for information by segments
– Talk to industry experts
– Talk to industry influencers
– Go to and read about tradeshows
– Read trade magazines, blogs
– Competitive assessment
– Database searches


Creating your value proposition
• Not what your product does, but what problem you
solve
• Problems are based on ―pain‖ the customer has
– Excess expense
– Inefficient processes
– Boredom
• Helping your customer gain a unique competitive
advantage


A closer look at business
development


Business development: What it does
• Defines and manages business models and
customer acquisition strategy
• Creates connections in the marketplace
• Gathers intelligence
• Builds long term relationships for competitive
advantage


Business development functions

Lead generation

Business modeling
Account planning

Sales campaigns
Intelligence

Licensing
Channel development
Strategic alliances


A closer look at sales


"If you are not taking care of your
customer, your competitor will."


"You don’t close a sale, you open a
relationship"


"It is not your customer’s job to
remember you. It is your obligation and
responsibility to make sure they don’t
have the chance to forget you."


Sales functions

Defining product/customer fit

Long term relationships
Deal close

Fulfillment & service Contract negotiation


US versus European sales practices
• US customers have no patience, you have one chance to
win and a short sales cycle
• US customers expect lifelong, free service
• US channel views responsibilities much differently
• Making connections via trusted resources, versus cold
calling and direct sales


A great sales team DOESN’T
• Rely on smooth talking to win deals
– It’s a group of relationship specialists who build trust
• Rely on low price and ―special deals‖ to close
business
– It’s a team the finds the pain point of the customer
and shows how value is added
• Rely on a giant Rolodex of contacts
– Great sales teams rely on relationships, marketing
information, customer knowledge and product
information


A great sales team

• Keeps warm leads warm
• Works closely with the entire team
• Builds relationships for the long term
• Knows and solves customer problems
• Sets price and feature expectations early
• Knows who the decision makers really are
• Always keeps promises


Putting it together


Turning Technology into Revenue

Operational Visibility
Marketing

Strategic Vision

Marketing

Business Reality check
Development

Sales Results


Turning Revenue into Better Revenue

Effectiveness Operational
Marketing

Market
Strategic
Awareness
Marketing

Targeting Business
Development

Product Fit
Sales


• Marketing: defines where the house should be built, the
style that fits customers and features inside
• Business Development: draws up the architectural plans
and finds contractors, works with customers to ensure
features are right
• Sales: is the hands on person building the houses


How it comes together

Customers
Executives
Strategic Business
Marketing Development
Partners

Operational
Sales
Marketing

Engineering
Other external
stakeholders


Top business models


Key business model trends today
• Be agile
• Accept failure
• Fail fast
• Be lean
• Test and pivot, repeat


Four Steps to the Epiphany

Source: Steve Blank

Putting it all together


The Lean Startup

―Don’t be in a rush to get big, be in a rush to
have a great product.‖
• Minimal viable product
• Product/market fit
• Build-measure-learn feedback loop
• Spend appropriately, avoid waste

Eric Ries, 2010

The Lean Startup theory: made very lean

Ideas
Learn Build

Data Code

Measure


Putting it all together: case studies


Case study: Angry Birds
• ―Overnight‖ success
– Angry birds was the 100th game for Rovio
• Each game was a step towards game mechanics,
storytelling, graphics, channel strategy
• Once the company was very successful with the game,
they became a full product company
– Multiple game versions, branded products, movie
• Interestingly, they have yet to establish a US presence,
choosing instead to have the CEO in the Valley 50% of his
time


Case study: Color.com
• Strategy one: $41M in venture funding,
initially launched as a social photo sharing app,

• Result: Derided for being overhyped, not
concerned about privacy, lost key executives
– PIVOT

• Strategy two: Now an ad hoc social networking app
• Verdict: respected move, highly visible, unclear future


Case study: Dropbox
• Launched as an online storage company, the
same time at least 3 dozen other companies
entered the market
• Strategy one: Spend a tremendous amount of money on
classic launch program, big launch. Result: failure, cost of
acquisition 4x revenue
– PIVOT
• Strategy two: Spend tremendous amount of money on
classical marketing programs. Result: not much
– PIVOT
• Strategy three: Give customers incentives to get friends to
use system. Result: 100,000 users to 4M users in just over
a year


Case study: Zappos.com
• Knew online shoe shopping should be popular, but
needed improvement, didn’t know how that would look
• TESTED the market in a unique way, finding out what
customers need to feel comfortable buying shoes online
• MEASURED customer results, then built out a full strategy
• Result: Highly successful retailer, bought by Amazon for
$1.5B


“there are only two mistakes on the
road to truth: not going all the way,
and not starting”


Thank you!

Questions?
IdaRose Sylvester


III Session: Intellectual Property


Presenter: Jacek Wolosewicz

• Practicing Entrepreneur
• Founder of multiple, media related startups.
• Verance Corp., developed the current SDMI watermark
based content protection and tracking technology.
• Holder of multiple patents in the areas of media, security
and VLSI design. Educated at CCNY and MIT
• IP evaluation consultant at IV, RPX


IP Agenda

• Why is IP Important ?
• What is IP? - Types
• What is IP? - International
• Patenting Costs
• Patent Filing Strategy


What is the Big Deal?

• $1.8 billion largest infringement award - Centocor Ortho
Biotech Inc. v. Abbott Laboratories.

• $9 million median damages award in 2009

• $1.5 billion – Intellectual Ventures fund

• $90 million – RPX has acquired worth of rights

Confidential Presentation Materials 91

Why do you need it? - Defense


What is IP?

TRADE
COPYRIGHT
MARKS

DESIGNS INTELLECTUAL PATENTS
PROPERTY

TRADE CONFIDENTIAL
DRESS INFORMATION/
TRADE SECRETS


What is IP? - Basics of IP

• Rights granted by statute
– Patents
– Copyrights
– Registered designs / design patents
• Rights established through use
– Trademarks
– Trade dress
• Rights established by contract or conduct
– Trade secrets/Know-how/Confidential information


What is IP? - Different patent perspectives

• Scientist: end product of research (inventions, know-
how).

• Engineer: tool or a process.

• Marketer: potential competitive edge vs. potential
disaster.

• Attorney: intellectual property.

• Business person: a type of asset.


What is IP? - Patent Features
• Only way to protect disclosed technology
• Protects inventions
• Is territorial
• Requirements
– Inventorship
– Novelty
– Inventive step/non-obvious
– Adequate disclosure of invention
• Registration/Examination
• Duration/Maintenance fees
• Rights


What is IP? - What may be patented?

• Apparatus, devices, equipment
• Article of manufacture
• Method, process
• New composition

• ―Non statutory subject matter‖
– Laws of Nature
– Mathematical algorithms


What is IP? - Patent procedure
• U.S. operates on a first-to-invent basis
• Canada and other countries operate on a first-to-file basis
• Patent filing and prosecution
– Provisional filing (U.S. & Canada) [optional]
– Utility filing (US non-provisional) – must contain claims
– Examination of claims
– Rejection
– Allowance
• Patented
– Issuance of patent
– Patent only is enforceable after issuance (grant)


What is IP? - Patent rights

• Right to exclude others from practicing the patent claim,
a ―negative‖ right

• Right to stop others from making, using, selling, offering
for sale, and importing the claimed invention


What is IP? - Internationalization of patents

• Paris Convention – 1883, last amended 1979, 173 countries,
WIPO
• Priority date based on first filing within a year of
international filing
• Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
• Regional systems (EPO) – European Patent Office
• International patenting is expensive


What is IP? - Internationalization of patents


Why do you need it? - Financial

• Investors – Barrier to entry
• Perceived as asset – Higher valuation
• University of California receives more patents from the
U.S. government than any school in the country, the
university has generated about $500 million in revenue in
the past five years.
(Licensing and Litigation)
• Intellectual Ventures went from $150 million to $1.5
billion in the first fund, between basically 2004 to 2008.
• RPX has acquired more than $90 million-worth of rights


Why do you need it? - Protection

• Google NDA, Facebook and others
• NDAs don’t work
• VCs don’t sign NDAs
• Partners, Clients and Investors – IP Threat


Why do you need it? - Protection

•“ Google may disclose certain information
under this Agreement it considers confidential
and/or proprietary concerning Google's business
and/or technology ("Confidential Information")...”

• “...Participant shall ensure compliance by Authorized Personnel
with the terms and conditions of this Agreement, and shall be
responsible for any breach of such terms and conditions by any
Authorized Personnel....”
• ―Google does not wish to receive any confidential
information from Participant, and Google assumes no
obligation, either express or implied, for any information
disclosed by Participant...‖


Why do you need it? - Offense

• Intellectual Ventures has filed three patent infringement
lawsuits against a total of nine companies in three
different technology sectors—software security,
memory, and integrated circuits. - $1.5 billion fund

• Commerce One – e-commerce failure, IP litigation
success

• Digimarc – business failure, IP litigation success


Why do you need it? - Offense

• Google and Nortel have agreed on the sum of $900
million

• NTP, they of the suit against AT&T, Sprint et al., won
a staggering $612 million from RIM in a 2006
settlement.


Why do you need it? - Defense

• ―An average patent case will cost between $3 million
and $10 million, and take two to three years to
litigate.‖ Average cost of patent litigation. Lawyers
USA, August 14, 2006)

• Patent swap instead of litigation

• Litigation can be on a contingency basis


Why do you need it? – IP Market Funnel

Patent Portfolios

Brokers,
Consultants

Intellectual
IV,RPX
Ventures, RPX,
OT OceanTomo, Acacia
$$
$$$$
$$$$$

Why do you need it? – IP Market


Patenting Costs

• USPTO costs - $330, Small Entity $165
• Small Entity – Established by petition and financial
status. Individual, research or academic
• Euro Patent Fees - $1,673
• US – $50K
• International – $100K
• Equity swap + deferred payment
• Provisional Filing – 1 year protection


Patent Filing Strategy

• Provisional vs. Patent – Disclosure – critical; Claims
less important in Provisional
• Search – A Gamble
• Disclosure – Cover everything possibly related
• Think BIG – broad independent claims
• Think Specific – detailed dependent claims
• Continuation in kind – Related material; early date


IV Session: Agile Pitching

The art of selling you
Networking, pitching and the importance
of the relationship

IdaRose Sylvester
Managing Director
Silicon Valley Link
November 2011
Linkedin.com/in/idarosesylvester


Agenda

• The importance of networking
• The importance of pitching
– What is a pitch?
– Why does it matter?
– Elements of a good pitch
– Develop your own pitch
• Competition


Networking
• Business is essentially who you know, and the strength of
those relationships


In today’s business environment
• People are busy
• People are smart
• Everyone is doing something interesting

How do you convince someone to listen
to you, and remember you?


Here’s how
• Tell something interesting and unique about you,
especially related to the situation in which you are
• Find out something interesting and unique about a person
• Learn something about a person that you can do to help
them
• Put these three together and create a reason to follow up


Practice


The art of the pitch


What is a pitch?
• We pitch (throw) a baseball, we pitch (set up) a tent, we
pitch to a certain level (set our expectations) and we pitch
ideas (sell them to others)
• A short, structured message for an audience from which
you want something, such as money
• Usually very short, 30 seconds to 10 minutes
• Must persuade that your technology, marketing strategy,
market position, business model, finances, operations and
other factors are worthy of their attention, sound, valid
• Always the first step, never the last


Why you should learn pitching:
everyone is in sales


A pitch is not:

• A deep technical explanation
• A long discussion of your business plan
• Proof you are going to be the next Facebook or Google
In fact, pitching is NOT about closing a deal, winning a
customer, or landing a story in the press, it is about
GETTING TO THE NEXT STEP


What IS a pitch?

A successful pitch takes your entire
business (and the thousands of hours
of your effort) and distills it down to a
10 minute or less story:
 What you do
 What pain it removes from the customer
 Why you do it best
 Why you are the best to do it
 And how money will be made


Key aspects of good pitching style
• Concise (short and to the point)
• Clear (leave no doubt about what you do well)
• Compelling (leave no doubt what you do is important)
• Credible (prove YOU can do it)
• Concrete (be specific about your product, technology and
needs, the problem it solves)
• Customized (know your audience)
• Conversational (sound like a real person)


The elevator pitch


An elevator pitch outline
Who you are: I am (name), the (title) of (company name)
Optional comparison: We are the x to the y or Optional statement
about your success: We are the leading…
Intriguing question or fact: Did you know x?
We help ___(describe your customer)________ to _____(describe
the problem they have that you solve)______.
Optional: Specific customer example
Our product (name) does (describe key feature/benefit).
Unlike (competitor), we (describe your key differentiator).
The Ask (what you are looking for this person might provide)
Close (contact information and next steps)


An Elevator Pitch Sample


An elevator pitch example
I am IdaRose Sylvester, the Director of Business Development for IDchecker.

We are the leading supplier of instant, online identity verification.

Did you know that every 3 seconds, an identity is stolen? In the US alone, 15M identities are stolen every
year!

We help companies in the financial, HR, online shopping, banking and travel industries quickly, cheaply and
automatically verify identity documents, saving time and preventing fraud. Both our customer and the
consumer benefits.

We work with eBay, Paypal, Travelex, RBS and many more global brands.

Our product is an online service that verifies copies of identity documents from over 200 countries, both
electronically verifying the data and having a final check made by international identity document experts.

Unlike our competition, we offer more flexible solutions, faster time to verification, and better accuracy.

We are expanding into the US, and I would appreciate speaking with someone at your company who
manages fraud or compliance to learn more about US market dynamics.

Can I get your business card, so I can call you next week to connect to someone at your company?


Key elements in a pitch


The comparison
• We are the Groupon for clean energy products
• We are like Skype for business telecommunications
• We are like Facebook for garden industry
• Our product is like a digital video recorder, but for web
video


The Problem
• You must solve a real problem. Solving the problem for
your customers will improve their business (or life), make
or save them money, in a significant way.
• Good: 500M people around the world own a mobile phone
but do not have access to electricity. This hurts telecom
revenue growth, and it prevents people developing areas
from communicating, preventing commerce. Our cost
effective solar charger solves this problem.
• Bad:


The Ask
• Good: We need $1.5M in funding to build our
demonstration platform, and then market it to the 20
channel partners we have identified. The money will also
help us hire 6 more engineers, and will last us 6 months,
at which point we believe we will be commercially viable

• Bad:


Pitch Creation


Now it is your turn

• Form teams
• 30 minutes helping each other with pitches
• Pitch competition & awards


V Session: Expanding to the US:
a primer


Why learn from Silicon Valley

If you can
make it
here, you
can make it
anywhere!

Sooner or later…

…everyone comes to Silicon Valley


Three truths about Silicon Valley

• Many of your early
adopter customers are
there
• Many of your partners are
there
• And many of your
competitors are there


Things you should know about Silicon Valley

• We work long hours
• We don’t take extensive vacations
• We have few formal holidays
• Management style is fairly flat
• People are expected to be fast learners, self starters
• People change companies every 18 months
• There are no employment laws protecting workers


Three questions: moving beyond borders

• Poland is a sizeable market, but is it big
enough?
– US market is 7x+ as big
• Does your product have natural global reach?
• What must you do to expand globally?
– New customers
– Customization
– Organization


Making the choice to expand to the US

• Move headquarters
• Create full subsidiary
• Create field office
• Hire reps
• Other solutions


Contemplating the move: questions to ask

• Are you personally committed and ready for the
change?
• Do you understand the commitment required by
your organization and is it ready to change?
• Are you ready financially?
• Is the market timing right?
• Do you know the right steps to make?
• Do you have the patience to build a new market?


Top mistakes made by European
companies entering the US

• Come too soon
• Come too late
• Lack of market testing
• Lack of feature and messaging adjustment
• Impatience
• Lack of appropriate resources


The steps to your own US epiphany

REPEAT!
Measure
readiness

Test
Succeed
assumptions

Measure &
Execute
assess


Step one: stop and think

• Don’t move headquarters or people, yet


Step two: are you ready?

– Tested (minimally viable) product,
or better, fully developed
– Revenue positive
– Reference customers
– Corporate commitment to change
• Revenue
• Efforts
• Global support


Step three: test assumption

– Who are your customers in the US
– What do they value from your
technology and company
– What are their feature, price, service
requirements
– How do they buy product
– What does your messaging need to be


Step 3.5: how to
• How do you test these assumptions?
– Visit US a few times, meet the right people
– Hire local resources to help you with ongoing and formal testing
– Network, network, network


Step four: measure and evolve

• Measure and assess, evolve
– What features do you need to offer in the US
– At what price
– To which customers
– And what message?
• What effort, timing, resources will it take to
evolve?
• Upon consideration, is this still an attractive
option?

Step five: execute
• Execute
– Create US appropriate messaging
– Create US launch strategy (channels, marketing)
– Decide nature of presence in the US
– Take steps to set up presence (legal, visas, HR,
physical)
• Succeed


Resources you likely will need
• US attorney familiar with US incorporation,
visa issues and IP
• Mailing address
• Bank account
• Support from local embassy, trade and
development arm (if available)
• Localization support
• Insider knowledge


How to make it in the US
• US focused messaging
• Know your customer
• Build reference cases
• Sell value, not features
• Build relationships, connect and network


Thank you!

Questions?
George Slawek
George.slawek@eurocalgroup.com

Jack Wolosewicz
jack.wolosewicz@eurocalgroup.com

IdaRose Sylvester


Workshop presentation Kielce Technology Park 9 Nov 2011

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