agile, business model, corporate innovation, customer development, lean, lean startup, lean launchpad, stanford, steve blank, engr 245

1. # interviews
this week:
0
Juhana Kangaspunta Ron Tidhar Erik Zahnlecker David Flatow
# total
interviews:
0
Machine Learning / Software
Engineering
Product / Strategy VC / Growth Equity AI / Data Science
Tracking billing hours automatically
Tracking billable hours is a frustrating, laborious, and inefficient process for the employee.

2. Using AI to track billable hours automatically
Providing managers with accurate, real-time insights for growing the bottom line.
# interviews
this week:
10
Juhana Kangaspunta Ron Tidhar Erik Zahnlecker David Flatow
# total
interviews:
100
Machine Learning / Software
Engineering
Product / Strategy VC / Growth Equity AI / Data Science

3. Team
3
Juhana Kangaspunta Ron Tidhar Erik Zahnlecker David Flatow
Machine Learning / Software
Engineering
Product / Strategy VC / Growth Equity AI / Data Science
Nick O'Connor Tom Bedecarre
Founder of
Launchpad Accelerate
Fresh Stanford student
(also co-founder of AKQA)
Mentors
Allocate

4. Day One
4
Initial idea:
Tracking billing hours automatically
Tracking billable hours is a frustrating, laborious, and inefficient process for the employee.
Market size

5. Week 1 Business Model Canvas
5

6. Key Original Hypotheses
6
Value Proposition
Saving time by filling out time sheet is the
biggest value proposition
Customer
Relationships
We can GET enterprise customers via
a ‘trojan horse’ strategy…
Customer Segments
Any professionals who bill clients by the
hour (consultants, lawyers, PR agents,
project managers, and accountants) all
experience this frustration

7. So Here’s What We Did…
7
• MVP (below), and tested hypotheses
Send daily report
Verified by customer
Collect Customer Data
(for a single day)
Process
manually
In the building
Out of the building
10
Interviews

8. Learning 1 - Customer Segment Focus
8
• Cluttered thinking - trying to boil the ocean
Lawyers
Accountants
PR
Consultants
Freelancers
Interior Des.
Advertising
• Narrowed our focus - PR and Advertising professionals
35
Interviews
• Why? PR/Ad are underserved, creative, multi-taskers, who are
younger, and more willing to adopt new technology
PR
Advertising

9. Further Ad. Validation - Market Size
9Source: LinkedIn,
Ibis
Employee Count
US PR Firms
Total: 4,901
2015 Revenue:
$13.8B
US
Advertising/Marketing
Firms
Total: 46,098
2015 Revenue:
$50.0B

10. Learning 1 - Business Model Canvas
10

11. Learning 1 - Business Model Canvas
11

12. Learning 2 - Customer Archetype
12
Position
Junior / Mid Level
Professional
CEO / Management IT / CIO / CFO
Age 22 - 30 30+ 30+
Value
Proposition
Time-saving, increase
productivity, avoid manager
emails asking for timesheets,
less time on non-vital tasks
Increase revenue, real-time
decisions, accuracy,
efficient resource allocation,
forecasting
Avoid shadow IT, adopt tech
built with enterprise in mind,
security
Channel
Organic, SEM, word
of mouth
Direct Sales Direct Sales
0
Interviews
Jennie

13. Learning 2 - Customer Archetype
13
Position
Junior / Mid Level
Professional
CEO / Management IT / CIO / CFO
Age 22 - 30 30+ 30+
Value
Proposition
Time-saving, increase
productivity, avoid manager
emails asking for timesheets,
less time on non-vital tasks
Increase revenue, real-time
decisions, accuracy,
efficient resource allocation,
forecasting
Avoid shadow IT, adopt tech
built with enterprise in mind,
security
Channel
Organic, SEM, word
of mouth
Direct Sales Direct Sales
50
Interviews
Jennie
Anna
Jennie’s Boss

14. Learning 2 - Customer Archetype
14
Position
Junior / Mid Level
Professional
CEO / Management IT / CIO / CFO
Age 22 - 30 30+ 30+
Value
Proposition
Time-saving, increase
productivity, avoid manager
emails asking for timesheets,
less time on non-vital tasks
Increase revenue, real-time
decisions, accuracy,
efficient resource allocation,
forecasting
Avoid shadow IT, adopt tech
built with enterprise in mind,
security
Channel
Organic, SEM, word
of mouth
Direct Sales Direct Sales
Jennie
Anna
Jennie’s Boss
Gaza
The Gatekeeper
75
Interviews

15. What Didn't Work
15
Hypothesis
Outcome A nice to have for employees
Tracking hours is tedious
and time consuming
Value Proposition
$2 CPC with little conversions
Market to users with
AdWords and SEO
Customer Relationships
• Do employees really care about timesheets? Or are they top-
down mandated tasks?
• Do people even know an automatic, AI-based solution exists?
Why?

16. Learning 3 - Employee to Manager Pivot
16
Hypothesis Managers at PR/Ad Agencies want Allocate
to help them understand their business
Experiments
1. Email/LinkedIn campaigns
2. A/B Prototype demos
3. Pilot proposals
Change
Pivot to sell to managers rather than
employees. Surprisingly managers are the
evangelist
1. Roughly 20% response rate
2. Very positive responses to dashboard
3. Eagerness to pilot
Results
80
Interviews

17. Learning 3 - Business Model Canvas
17

18. Learning 3 - Business Model Canvas
18

19. Learning 3 - Strategy Implications
19
Channel Need enterprise sales team for direct sales
Customer Relationships
Email campaigns and demos allow us to
GET managers at large agencies
Value Proposition
Managers need accurate and real-time
reports about their organizations allow
managers to make informed business decisions

20. Value Proposition Canvas - Junior Employee
20
• High output -
reading, creation,
coordination
• Multitaskers - many
clients
• Tech-savvy -
computer,
smartphone
• Communicators - in
person, emails
• Want to appear
organised, efficient,
valuable
• Working on time-consuming, mundane
activities
• Manual, unchallenging, non-vital
• Things that interrupt workflow and
ability to multitask, deliver high volume
output, etc.
• Using AI to
automatically
track a
person’s
billable hours
• Pre-filling of
timesheets
Time Saving
Savings:
• Time
• Effort
• Frustration
• Reliability
• Accuracy
• Manager scepticism
Time Saver

21. Value Proposition Canvas - Junior Employee
21
• High output -
reading, creation,
coordination
• Multitaskers - many
clients
• Tech-savvy -
computer,
smartphone
• Communicators - in
person, emails
• Want to appear
organised, efficient,
valuable
• Working on time-consuming, mundane
activities
• Manual, unchallenging, non-vital
• Things that interrupt workflow and
ability to multitask, deliver high volume
output, etc.
• Using AI to
automatically
track a
person’s
billable hours
• Pre-filling of
timesheets
Time Saving
Savings:
• Time
• Effort
• Frustration
• Reliability
• Accuracy
• Manager scepticism
Time Saver
Doing good work, and
satisfying their clients &
managers

22. Value Proposition Canvas - Manager
22
• Tech-savvy -
computer,
smartphone
• Communicators -
in person, emails
• Need to be
organised
• Staffing
• Project
Management,
Budgets (burn
rates), teams
• Projections and
forecasts
• Lack of knowledge or insight into employee’s
work and activities
• Chasing up employees to fill out timesheets
• Uncertainty with regards to employee
utilisation
• Budgetary constraints
• Poor forecasts
• Slow budgeting/staffing reaction times
(month-by-month planning)
• KPI metrics
dashboard based
on real-time,
accurate data
• Customisable,
searchable
dashboards
• Simple, beautiful
UI/UX
• Staffing,
budgeting, and
forecasting
dashboards
• Information
• Accuracy
• Budgeting,
Staffing, Projecting
• Revenue,
Efficiency
• Bottom Line
Savings:
• Time
• Effort
• Frustration (chasing
employees)
• Reliability
• Accuracy
• Money
Doing good work, and
satisfying clients

23. Payment Flows
23
Employee
Junior Account
Exec
PR Firm
CFO/COO
Client
Marketing /
Account Managers
Weekly Reports
$ 50K / year
Daily Timesheet
$ Retainer /
Hourly
Contract
$ Salary
Resource Mgmt

24. Market Map - Timekeeping
24
Market Leaders

25. Market Map - Resource Management
25

26. Where We Ended Up
26
Employee MVP Manager MVP
Using AI to track billable hours automatically
Providing managers with accurate, real-time insights for growing the bottom line

27. Investment Readiness
27
Idea
We use AI to automatically populate time
sheets and to provide accurate, real-time
insights to managers
Prototype Prototypes for different customer
segments and archetypes.
Product
MVP has given validation that technology
is feasible. Manager prototypes have
allowed us to refine key features.
Proven Product
Market Fit
Get 10+ paying, referenceable
customers
Have list of companies which are eager
to start early access.
Customer
Trials

28. Meta-Learnings
28
• Interviews - “We have two ears, and one mouth -
use them in the right proportions”
• Teamwork - find some faces you’re willing to look at
after 1am
• Sales - know your customer segments so well that
you can “wow” them by speaking their language
• Sales pt. 2 - always bring baked goods to meetings

29. What’s Next?
29
• Seed funding?
• Y-Combinator application for Summer 2016 batch
• Build high fidelity MVP with 80%+ automation
• Pilot program

30. By the Numbers
30
Notes Taken
(words)
39,080 (Animal Farm has 29,000)
Slack Messages 3,800
Emails Written 1,292
Lines of code 1,125
Slides 199
Interviews 100
Launchpad
(hours)
76
Prototypes 6

31. Special Thanks
31
•Teaching Staff
• For encouragement, and being relentlessly direct
•Jennie Chow & Monica Cho
• Dozens of PR agents interviews, and brave early guinea pigs
•Mark Zahnlecker
• Directing, filming, and editing Lessons Learned
•Our Mentors. Especially Tom Bedcarre, our adopted mentor
• 9 mentor meetings
• Came to almost all of our 3-hour long classes
• 14 Intros to senior management at the best Ad/PR firms in SF
• Including management at AKQA: CFO, CIO, Head of IT, Finance
Director…
•Our Interviewees, friends, families, and many more