The document provides an overview of the #AC12 program, which is designed to help startups develop customer-centric business models through customer development and lean startup methodology. It introduces the mentors and their areas of expertise. The agenda includes sessions on introductions, program objectives like achieving product/market fit, weekly schedules, milestones and deliverables. It emphasizes the importance of getting out of the building to test hypotheses through customer interviews and validations.

1. #AC12 Overview
Overview, business models and customer development.
Adapted Steve Blank’s E245

2. Agenda
• Introductions.
• Program overview.
• Our expectations.
• Program objectives.
• Introduction to Customer Development.
• Week one milestones.
• Week one housekeeping.
• Key reading for the program.

3. Introductions
(& what we help you with).

4. Adrian Stone
Serial Entrepreneur
x 3 Exits via SurePlan
$20-$25m range across US, UK,
Australia, New Zealand.
Finance company + $3m T/O
Helps with. Strategy, business
modelling, enterprise sales,
channel partnerships,
internationalisation, capital
raising and negotiation.

5. Andrew Birt
Marketer and entrepreneur.
Startup Marketing, RosterPlus,
Lean Startup Melbourne &
AngelCube.
Helps with. Lean. Customer
discovery, customer validation
and customer acquisition.
Market testing, branding, pricing,
business modelling, online
marketing, public relations,
pitching and capital raising.

6. Nathan Sampimon
Developer and Entrepreneur.
Founder of Inspire9 web agency & co-
working space. Cofounder AngelCube.
Helps with. Agile development, user
personas, lean startup methodology,
back and front-end design, UI/UX, web
business models, hosting, cloud
infrastructure, user testing, payment
gateways etc.

7. And of course.

8. Mentors & Advisors
• VC’s / Entrepreneurs / and SME
experts e.g. Legal, UI/UX etc.
• Their role is to help you “get out
of the building”
• Share contacts
• Offer real world entrepreneurial
advice
• Critical feedback
• Note: You should arrange your
schedule around them not the
other way round.

9. Mentors tactical guidance
• You’ll meet a lot of mentors,
• Respond to our internal
some of who you’ll know &
critique of your team
new people. In addition to
our sessions. Find one or two
to do this for you. • Rolodex help - “why don’t
you call x?”
• Review your presentation
• Pushing your team to make 5
before you present.
- 10 customer contacts/ week
• Comment on your teams
• Meeting one-on-one with
Customer Discovery blog (to
your teams at least four to
be discussed)
five times during the program.

10. Weekly Schedule

11. Demo Day - Melbourne
July 10, 2012

12. Demo Day - Sydney

13. Demo Day SV & US Trip
September 1st - 14th 2012
Optional 3 months at Startup House

14. Budgeting the $20,000

15. 13 Week Journey

16. Our expectations of you.
• That one of the founders spends a • That if you don’t have a product yet
you have a compelling mock-up or
minimum of 10-20 hours out of the
predesign that you can use to start
building and working on Customer
building excitement.
Development.
• That you do whatever it takes to • That you strive to be the #1 brand
in your category via PR, marketing,
learn from customers, understand
audience building, social, content
the value you could deliver, get
marketing, partnerships & getting
their buy-in and lock in $$$ as early
your brand noticed and talked
as possible.
about.
• That you document your customer
• That you don’t suck at email (hint:
development journey, hypothesis’,
reply instantly to important people,
tests and learning every week (it is
customers and investors).
the best source of investor
readiness you’ll ever develop). • That you treat each-other with
respect, help each-other through
• That your branding, copywriting,
good and bad times, provide
landing pages or front-end design
constructive feedback to your peers
look f#cking amazing.
and enjoy the ride.

17. AngelCube by the numbers
• ~24 mentor sessions (2 per week).
• 12 milestone sessions (This is #1).
• 12 pitch practice sessions.
• 10-20 hours per week of Customer Development
• 3 mentor speed-dating events
• 1 hour per week blogging your learnings.

18. Program Objectives

19. AngelCube is really about
getting Out of The Building
• AngelCube is not just about mentor sessions.
• AngelCube is not just about “getting feedback”
• AngelCube is not just about learning to pitch.
• AngelCube is about the work you do outside the building...
It’s the difference between a vision and a hallucination
(Steve Blank).

20. Program objectives.
• Going from idea or “a product” to a business.
– Business Model + Customer Development
– Hypotheses testing of the business model(s)
– Getting “out of the building”
– Execution. Product development/refinement.
• Product/Market Fit.
• Positioning (Messaging & Mindshare)
• Economics (Cost of Acquisition)
• Growth (Marketing, PR, Partners, Momentum)
• Investor Readiness. (Pitching. Intro’s. Knowledge, etc)

21. Two types of Startups.
Before product market fit.
& After product market fit.
Marc Andreeseen, Founder Netscape & Andreeseen Horowitz Capital

22. What is Product/Market Fit?
1. The customer is willing to pay for the product.
2. The cost of acquiring the customer is less than
what they pay for the product.
3. There’s sufficient evidence indicating the market
is large enough to support the business.

23. Before product market fit.

24. Fig 1. Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development.

25. Getting to PMF.
Customer Discovery.
Fig 1A. Ash Mayura, Running Lean. 2010.

28. But
Realize they’re hypotheses

30. Test the Riskiest
Assumption First!

31. MVP is a Process not a Product

32. Running MVP Interviews

33. Interview tactics.

34. 20 Minute Exercise
• Sketch out your business model canvas.
• Write down your riskiest assumption, as something
that you need to test.
• Conceive a test (MVP) you will run this week to
validate or disprove this assumption.
• Develop the criteria to determine if your test has
passed or failed.
• List who you need to interview and design the process.

35. Let’s talk about
pivoting.

38. A pivot can be on the product, business
model, and engine of growth. Here’s 10.
Zoom-in pivot. 5.Business
1.Zoom-out pivot. architecture pivot.
2.Customer 6.Value capture
segment pivot. pivot.
3.Customer need 7.Engine of growth
pivot. pivot.
4.Platform pivot. 8.Channel pivot.
9.Technology pivot.
Eric Ries, The Lean Startup 2011

39. I recommend that every
startup have a regular
pivot or persevere
meeting.
Eric Ries, The Lean Startup 2011

40. Tracking Progress.

41. After product market fit.

42. The Startup Pyramid
Sean Ellis, Startup-Marketing.com.

43. 9 Milestones to Growth
• Where’s the love.
• Expose the core gratifying experience.
• Metrics.
• Start charging.
• Extreme customer support.
• Brand experience over awareness.
• Driving growth. (Dave McClure, AAARR)
• Business / process building.
• Patience / persistence / durability.
“Milestones to Startup Success”, Sean Ellis - Startup-Marketing.com 2009

44. AAARR Metrics
• Acquisition: users come from various channels.
• Activation: users enjoy 1st visit “Experience”
• Retention: users come back multiple times.
• Referall: users like product enough to refer.
• Revenue: users conduct monetization.
Dave McClure, Startup Metrics for Pirates

45. Dave McClure, Startup Metrics for Pirates

46. Dave McClure, Startup Metrics for Pirates

47. Dave McClure, Startup Metrics for Pirates

48. Dave McClure, Startup Metrics for Pirates

49. Complex?
CustDev has just four steps.

50. Fig 1. Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development.

51. Milestones
Week 1

52. Team Deliverables
- Sketch out your business model canvas.
- Identify your most critical / riskiest assumption.
- Develop a way to MVP (test) that assumption (slide deck,
screenshots, diagram, brochure, landing page, demo etc).
- Write your interview process including key insights.
- Conduct 10-20 real customer (or user) F2F interviews.
- Start a blog, journal, wiki or LeanLaunchLab to describe the
key customer insights you’ve gained during these interviews.
- Make necessary product improvements based on customer
feedback and lessons learned from real customers.
- Present this learning back to the group in 10 minutes - Monday

53. Housekeeping
- Develop a loose 13 week product and CustDev plan.
- Develop a product plan, that can factor in Customer insights.
- Develop a loose 13 week budget and book a time with Adrian
and Andrew for budget approval and payment of the $20,000.
- Ensure the company is formed (or process started).
- Book a time with Adrian to sign all legal documentation.
- Please join the AngelCube Yammer and introduce yourself.
- Set-up your AngelList profile with existing brand and logo.

54. The boardoom reimagined.
Blog Customer Development progress as a
narrative following this format.
• Keep score of the strategy changes with the
Business Model Canvas
• Comment/Dialog with advisors and
investors on a near-realtime basis.

55. Networks we use.

56. Key Reading

57. Cust Dev Manifesto
A Startup Is a Temporary Organization Designed to Search
for A Repeatable and Scalable Business Model
There are no facts in the building, so get 9. Startup Metrics are Different from Existing
out of the building. Companies
1. Pair Customer Development with Agile 10.Agree on Market Type – It Changes
Development Everything
2. Failure is an Integral Part of the Search for 11.Fast, Fearless Decision-Making, Cycle Time,
the Business Model Speed and Tempo
3. If You’re Afraid to Fail You’re Destined to 12.If it’s not About Passion,You’re Dead the
Do So Day You Opened your Doors
4. Iterations and Pivots are Driven by Insight 13.Startup Titles and Functions Are Very
5. Validate Your Hypotheses Different from a Company’s
with Experiments 14.Preserve Cash While Searching. After It’s
6. Success Begins with Buy-In from Investors Found, Spend
and Co-Founders 15.Communicate and Share Learning
7. No Business Plan Survives First Contact 16.Startups Demand Comfort with Chaos and
with Customers Uncertainty
8. Not All Startups Are Alike