This is a short presentation into the world of startups inspired from several startups journeys. The essence is the notion of how bad ideas could be the starting point for great startups and how to proceed with the bad idea

1. Can You Solve
Real World Problems?
Google/Flipkart/Uber?
Startups [Your IDEA]
SRIDHAR CHIMALAKONDA
Image Courtesy : Anton Brand

3. Why this interaction?

13. Why startup?
popular
Impact

14. Unmet Needs/Unmet Markets
• Geographic, Demographic, Professional, Size of
Business, Share of pocket-wise.Age old trick
of segmentation.

15. Dissatisfiers

16. What happens after 10 years?

17. The Key Reason

18. Why now?

20. What constitutes a startup?

23. Bad Idea [Great Idea Later On]
• Plan without execution is really useless
• Long term thinking of the idea
• It should be difficult to replicate
• Several ideas
• Mission oriented

24. You Know
World Doesn’t Know

25. • 10 years to build a great startup
• 2 to 3 years
• DerivativeVersus Original Idea
• Best ideas look terrible at the beginning
– Search engine?
– airbnb?
• No/Less Competition if you got a great idea
• Great ideas feel so normal that no body steals
them

26. • Perfect Time?
• Clone Companies
• Potential Co-founders
• What customers want?
• What are the demands of the market?

27. What makes a Great Product?

28. Great Product
• What to build?
• How to build it?
• Either talk to customers or build your product
• Compettiion from within
• Simple, Simple, Simple [Google, FB, ]

29. The Startup CEO

30. People
• Co-Founder Dating
• It’s bad to be a solo founder
• Hiring
• CEO’s role:
– Set vision
– Raise money
– Evangelize
– Make sure everything works

31. Execution
• What to do?
• How to do?
• Can you get it done?
• Time… Management…
• Focus Focus Focus
• Small
• Never Lose Momentum
• Press – Don’t worry about them

32. Intuition

35. A Checklist
• Is it a market where network effects don’t play a big role? Is there space for several competitors?
• Pitch it to as many people,VCs, entrepreneurs, friends. Can you convince them on how you would build a
better product?
• Are the existing companies in the market doing well? Check Crunchbase. How much funding have they
received? See Google Playstore, how many times has the app been downloaded?Are they doing well?Why?
Why not? Competition acts as an excellent validation for your idea.
• Would you be happy with something that gives you enough to live off? How ambitious are you with the
project? Is this a hobby that you might take up full time later on?Where do you plan to get your
investments from?What returns do they expect?
• Does your product category appear onY-Combinator’s list on what startups they’re willing to fund?
Almost all the categories are crowded, but they still invite innovative ideas. Can you be one of them?
• If not the product, can you differentiate in something else? Marketing, Customer service, Revenue model -
Can you sell it at a lower price and make money somewhere else?), Delivery, Speed, User Experience.
Anything. Does your target market care for it? Great!
• How dynamic is your team? Are you ready to get your hands dirty, see how the market responds and pivot
if required? Is there something to go back to if you fail?
• How big is the market? Is it growing?What percentage of your overall target market has been eaten up?
Will it still have space by the time you’re ready?
• If you’ve answered in the affirmative to a few of the above questions, take a deep breath, validate your
answers, build a business plan and there you go. If not, scrap it.

36. An Activity
Develop[ed] India
Problem | Solution
With Name & Roll No.

37. What do you need towards startups?
Curiosity Perseverance

38. Pitch
For [audience]
I would like to [create…
web/mobile/physical…]
that [does… help…
unique advantages]
---------------------------------
using [these resources]
For [old age people 60+]
I would like to [create an
e-commerce app with one-
click]
that [makes monthly
shopping easy for them]
---------------------------------
using [these resources]
Mark a * if
you like an
idea

40. Ticklers aka Exercises
• Read a newspaper and
make a table with
• Problems
• estimate of number of
people (market) today
and after 3 years
• Proposed solution
• Make a table with
• List top 10 electronics
companies
• What languages they use
to develop their
products?
• Estimate of number of
hours an entry level
employee writes
programs a day

41. Next Steps
• Create a FUN room
• Form groups
• Write the pitch and stick it in the notice
boards  till today 5 PM
• I am here till nextTuesday
• https://researchweb.iiit.ac.in/~sridhar_ch/

42. Join Me!!!
Bridge the gap between the three worlds
sridhar_ch@research.iiit.ac.in
Questions?
Critic?
Suggestions?
42
Acknowledging all sources of data and clipart/image owners