1.
the Learning Startup
From Business_Idea to Company_Creation
building_blocks process

2.
What and Who
Time to innovate
● At the convergence of the most recent developments on entrepreneurship
such as the Lean Start-up concept, the Business Model framework and the
Customer Development framework, the Learning Startup is an organisation
running explicit learning processes to convert a Business Idea into a real
business.
Put your (money, time, resources) where your mouth is
● I created the Learning Startup project to experiment and learn around the
Learning Startup concept, starting from the initial Business Idea of an
online, freemium platform to support startups in their learning process of
converting a business idea into a real business.

3.
Inspiring Authors
● This course was inspired by the work of Steve Blank, Eric
Ries and Alex Osterwalder
● Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of
experience in high technology companies and management. He is
a Consulting Professor at Stanford in the Graduate School of
Engineering STVP Program and author of “Four Steps to the
Epiphany” http://steveblank.com/
● Eric Ries is the creator of the Lean Startup methodology and the
author of the entrepreneurship blog “Startup Lessons Learned”
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/
● Alex Osterwalder is an author, speaker and workshop facilitator
on the topic of business model innovation. He is the author of
“Business Model Generation” http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/

4.
Bibliography
Books
● Steve Blank – Four Steps to the Epiphany
● Alex Osterwalder – Business Model Generation
Blogs
● Steve Blank – Steve Blank – NOTE: start from “Customer Development Manifesto” tag
● Alex Osterwalder – Business Model Alchemist
● Eric Ries – Startup Lessons Learned
Meta resources
● Steve Blank blog – Tools and Blogs for Entrepreneurs
● Andrew Chen blog – List of Essays
● Tom Eisenmann blog – Readings on Launching Tech Ventures
● Eric Ries blog – Recommended Reading
● Startup Lessons Learned – conference website sllconf.com
● Learning Startup blog – Channels
Other Books
● Brant Cooper & Patrick Vlaskovits – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development
● Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson – Re-Work
● Eric Ries – The Lean Startup Book (Sep 2011)
NOTE to find the online resources just google these terms

5.
Biography
Leonardo Zangrando has a background in Mechanical Engineering and holds an MBA from IESE
Business School. He has been consulting on sales effectiveness in the pharma sector for the past 10+
years. Since 2007 he reoriented his activity towards education and training.
On a parallel track, he has been interested in business startups since the mid 90's and has worked on
several projects in the initial transition from business idea to startup, with particular focus on
bootstrapping (self-financing startups.) He is currently helping a number of startups in the transition
process to a running business.
Leonardo Zangrando key theme is resource-efficiency, in terms of increasing efficiency of processes,
reducing waste of resources, and expressing full potential. He is fascinated by the evolutionary process
of a startup, which transforms a business idea into a company and he is very keen on increasing
entrepreneurs success rate by improving the entrepreneurial process' efficiency.
He advocates the convergence of the most recent developments on entrepreneurship such as the Lean
Startup concept, the Business Model framework and the Customer Development framework into the
Learning Startup, an organisation running explicit learning processes to convert a business idea into a
real business.
He created the Learning Startup project to experiment and learn around the Learning Startup concept,
starting from the initial Business Idea of an online, freemium platform to support startups in their
learning process to convert a business idea into a real business.

6.
the Learning Startup
From Business_Idea to Company_Creation
building_blocks process

7.
What is a Startup?

8.
Business
STARTUP Company
Idea
A temporary
organisation
to transform
a Business Idea
into a Company

9.
What is a Company?

10.
A working definition
Company
An on-going
organisation
executing a plan
trough systems
and procedures

11.
This section based on the work of Steve Blank
What is a Business Idea?

12.

Business
Market Type
Idea
●
Disruptive Innovation
→ create market
Buyer value generated (willingness to pay)
●
Sustaining Innovation
Costs incurred
→ get market share
●
Compete on
– Cost Leadership
– Differentiation
Industry Successful Successful Competitor – Specialization
average differentiated low-cost with dual
competitor competitor competitor advantage

13.
Business
Industry Risk
Idea
Med Dev / Health Care
Life Science / Biotech Technology
Risk
Personalized Medicine
Cleantech
Semiconductors
Customer
Consumer Electronics AND
Game Software Technology
Risk
Communication Software
Electronic Design Automation
Communication Hardware
Enterprise Hardware Customer
Enterprise Software Risk
Web 2.0

14.
Business
Size the Market
Idea ● Total Available Market
– How big is the universe
Startup
● Served Available Market
Target – How many can I reach with
Market
my sales channel
Served
Available
● Startup Target Market
Market – who will be my most likely
buyers
Total
Available
Market

15.
Business
STARTUP Company
Idea
To qualify for becoming A temporary An on-going
Startup, a Business Idea
organisation organisation
must have a Market.
to transform executing a plan
Activities will depend on
Industry Risk and a Business Idea trough systems
Type of Market. into a Company and procedures

16.

A Business' Building Blocks

17.
Let's find a way to describe
how a Business works
● What is a Business about?
● How does it do it?

18.
Q. What is a Business about?
A. Reach Customers and
Deliver Value to them

19.
CUSTOMERS /
CUSTOMER SEGMENTS
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
which customers and users are you serving?
which jobs do they really want to get done?

20.
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
do for them? do they care?
what are you offering them? what does it
VALUE PROPOSITION

21.
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
CHANNELS
through which interaction points?
how does each customer segment want to be reached?

22.
DEMAND CREATION /
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
what relationships are you establishing with each segment?
personal? automated? acquisitive? retentive?

23.
REVENUE STREAMS
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
what are customers really willing to pay for? how?
are you generating transactional or recurring revenues?

24.
Q. How does it do it?
A. Using Key Resources to
perform Key Activities
(or have someone else do it)

25.
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
which assets are essential?
KEY RESOURCES
which resources underpin your business model?

26.
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
KEY ACTIVITIES
business model? what is crucial?
which activities do you need to perform well in your

27.
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
KEY PARTNERS
who do you need to rely on?
which partners and suppliers leverage your model?

28.
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
what is the resulting cost structure?
COST STRUCTURE
which key elements drive your costs?

29.
key value demand creation /
activities proposition customer relationships
key customers /
partners segments
from “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder
images by JAM Visual Thinking - www.jam-site.nl
cost revenue
structure key streams
resources channels

30.
The Business Model describes the rationale
of how an organisation...

Creates Value Delivers Value
Captures Value

31.
What is a Company then?
Company
KP KA VP DC CU
KR CH
An on-going
CS RS organisation
executing a
+ Business Model
(through plans,
EXECUTION systems, procedures)

32.
What does a strtup do to transform
a Business Idea into a Company?

33.
Sketch out your Business Model
building
building
block
block
building
block building building
block block
building
block
building
block
building building
block block

34.
But realise it's just a set of Hypotheses
Hyp
Hyp
building
building
block
block
Hyp
building Hyp Hyp
block building building
block block
Hyp
building
block
Hy p
building
block
Hyp Hyp
building building
block block

35.

STARTUP Company
● Test and refine the hypotheses until the entire
Business Model is TESTED
● Make sure the Business Model is PROFITABLE
● Make sure the Business Model is REPEATABLE
● Make sure the Business Model is SCALABLE
(not applicable to craftsmen and one-off projects)

36.
STARTUP Company
A temporary
organisation
searching for a
tested, repeatable,
and scalable
Business Model

37.

STARTUP Transition Company
A temporary Building An on-going
organisation the Systems organisation
searching for a which implement executing a
tested, repeatable, the Business Model Business Model
and scalable (so far we were (through plans,
Business Model in design mode) systems, procedures)
SEARCH BUILD GROW

38.
KP KA VP DC CU
STARTUP Transition Company
Business
= = =
Idea
KR CH SEARCH BUILD GROW
CS RS

Business Modeling
Product Alpha/Beta Launch /
Concept
Devel. Test 1st Shipm.

Product Development
Customer Customer Customer Company
Discovery Validation Creation Building

Customer Development

Systems Development

39.
More Startups fail from
a Lack of Customers
than from a failure
of Product Development
Steve Blank
Retired Entrepreneur
Venture Capital advisor
Stanford Professor of Entrepreneurship

40.
the FACTS are out of the building

41.
the Learning Startup
From Business_Idea to Company_Creation
thank you!
Leonardo Zangrando
the Learning Startup
leo@zangrando.com