KAYWEB Angels CEO, Haig Kayserian delivered a talk at Tumo Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan, Armenia.
It was titled: From Startup to Business
2. Why startup?
• Have you heard the one about the Dane, the Swede and the 3 Estonians who
sold their company to Microsoft for US$8.5 billion?
• What about the one about the Hungarian, whose presentations product is
used by over 40 million people and 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies?
• And what about the Finnish game developers who sold half their company for
US$1.5 billion?
• There is nothing stopping Armenia from developing several such success
stories every year.
3. In fact, Armenia can and must produce
several tech startup success stories every
year.
And we all - founders, mentors, investors -
have a part to play to make this happen.
4. The idea
• Am I really onto something here?
• Who is my market?
• How can I prove it?
5. The strategy
• What is my business objective?
• How do I get there?
• Business Plan - Analysis, Financial Roadmap, Business, Product
• Set goals
• Set milestones
• Set timelines
• Review, review, review…
6. The product
• Strategy defines the final product. What do I need to build now?
• Who do I need to build it?
• Is it ready?
• Test, test, test…
7. The growth
• Will financial/other investment in my business help it grow (scale)?
• How to identify the right investor?
• What do investors look for?
• Same as what you should look for…
• Have you identified a real problem?
• Will your solution solve this problem?
• Your market?
• Your competition?
• Business model?
• Are you the right person?
8. The buzz
• How to get your first 100 customers?
• The marketing strategy and implementation?
• PR
• Digital advertising
• Traditional advertising
• Viral growth
9. The tipping point
• Malcolm Gladwell defines a “tipping point” as "the moment of critical mass, the
threshold, the boiling point"
• You have your first 100 customers… now how do you make it tip?
• Right to left planning
10. The end game
• Have you succeeded or failed?
• Should you move on?
• Should you continue? More investment?
• Should you sell?
