Presentation on idea validation and "getting out of the building" for NCIIA "Invention to Venture" workshop for New York University undergrad and graduate students.

1. Getting Started: Idea Validation Invention 2 Venture Workshop (NCIIA), New York University September 24, 2010 Giff Constable, CEO & Co-Founder of Aprizi

3. Have held every hat there is to wear in a startup OTHER than coding

4. Done both enterprise and consumer software

6. So, you have an idea

7. In academia, ideas are everything

8. NOT in startups

9. Validation and Execution

10. What are your assumptions? Pricing Customer Behavior Staffing Needs Customer Need Funding requirements Channel Partners Market Size Technical Risk IP and Legal Customer Type Regulatory Approval Go-to-market strategy Competition

11. WHAT is the problem you want to solve? WHO has the problem? HOW do you solve it? big is the market? will you reach the user/customer? will you make money? will you beat any incumbants?

12. Then get out of the building

13. Don’t delegate or outsource this

14. At first, qualitative not quantitive

15. Stick to 1-on-1 meetings

16. Get creative about finding interviewees

17. Be Fearless (failure is scarier)

18. Don’t be paranoid

19. Doing Learning Interviews Work to their schedule Get psyched to hear things you don’t want to hear Disarm “politeness” training Start with behavior, not feedback Ask open ended questions Listen, don’t talk Encourage but don’t influence Follow your nose and drill down Parrot back to confirm Thank them Ask for introductions Record or write up your notes as quickly as possible

20. Advanced Skillz: the Five Whys

21. Would they buy it now?

22. Talk -> Paper Mockup -> Prototype -> Beta Test every step of the way

23. This is not just for customers (potential investors, partners, even competitors)

24. Measure progress in learning

25. Learning does not mean abdicating Vision

26. Be patient, learning comes in waves

28. Cooper & Vlaskovits: The Entrepreneur´s Guide to Customer Development

29. Eric Ries: Startup Lessons Learned

31. Customer Development Exercise (you get to try both sides of an interview: entrepreneur and prospect)

32. Mock invention: a widget to reduce consumer energy consumption

33. Example Questions to Ask How conscious are you of your energy consumption? How much do you care about your energy use? In what ways do you think you waste energy? In what ways do others waste energy? Is your or other people's energy use a problem? What electrical devices do you use on a daily basis? What efforts have you made to conserve energy? What could you do to conserve more energy? Do you think the government should get involved in energy conservation? How much would you pay for a product that reduced your energy bill by 10%? By 50%? Bonus: how do they typically discover new products?