Presentation to Imperial College MBA students on how to engage and add value to startup businesses through a consulting or mentoring relationship

1. CRASH COURSE ON
DELIVERING VALUE
TO A STARTUP
Imperial College Business Labs 5th December 2013

2. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO TALK ABOUT:
The startup landscape
Observations from the startup ecosystem
Let’s talk lean!
5 things you don’t (necessarily) need for a startup
Top consulting tips

3. Questions before we start?

4. STARTUPS
WORKSPACES
/ HUBS
CORPORATES
INVESTORS
SUPPORT GOVERNMENT
• Hackthons & Startup Weekends
• Pitching - Don't Me Bro
• Meetups - Silicon Drinkabout
• Education - General Assembly
THE STARTUP
LANDSCAPE

5. 5 OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE STARTUP
ECOSYSTEM

6. 'STARTUP' MEANS LOTS OF THINGS TO LOTS OF
DIFFERENT PEOPLE
• Startup V Small business
“A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or
service under conditions of extreme uncertainty”
• Core tech startups (emphasis on disruptive business
models) through to more traditional business propositions
Eric Ries, The Lean Startup
• Tip: use generic language in early conversations to get a
feel for what type of ‘startup’ they are. Use the wrong
language and you will lose credibility quickly!

7. RANGE OF AGE AND EXPERIENCE
• Generation Ys
• Established VCs and Angel Investors
• Increasing involvement of corporates and venture
programmes
• Limited business experience but tremendous ambition
• Utilising the accessibility of establishing a startup
• Distinct triangle / hierarchy of experience (and finance)

8. EXPLORING THE CORPORATE / STARTUP RELATIONSHIP
• Two worlds are colliding in a way that no one yet fully
understands
• Driven by a number of factors, including:
• CSR agenda and desire to be seen to be supporting enterprise
• Innovation outsourcing (IP)
• The rise of intrapreneurship (what can the corporate world learn?
• In professional services, desire to build relationships early
• Corporate venture
• Sponsored accelerator programmes
• Sponsored hackathons
• A recognition that ROI is not yet fully understood

9. A FOCUS ON PRODUCT
• In the tech world this is often where founders expertise lies
• Links to lean startup methodology / thinking that business is
product led (driven by MVP and Customer Development)
• Be mindful that an MBAs experience is (probably) more
helpful in a general business sense

10. BE PREPARED TO TALK TO LEAN...
... or face losing credibility!

11. LEAN BY EXAMPLE!

12. Why Lean?
• You don’t have VC funding
• You don’t have Angel funding
• You don’t have any funding
• You don’t have any money
• You need some customers
• Getting customers is about execution, not about product or
engineering (mostly)
“The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else” Eric
Ries

13. The Pirate Metrics
• Acquisition
– Where users come from
• Activation
– They have a happy first experience
• Retention
– They come back
• Referral
– They tell other people
• Revenue
– You make money
MeasureConversion
“If a metric won’t change how you behave, it’s a bad metric” Ben Yoskovitz, The Lean
Entrepreneur

14. Targeted Marketing (Ads)
• Job Title and Function
• Age Range
• Skills
• Interests & Groups
• Gender
• Marital Status
• Location & Radius Targeting

15. Targeted Marketing (Social)
• Your competitors followers

16. Targeted Marketing (Social)
• Events your competitor attends
• People that attend those events
• Turn Twitter handles into Email addresses

17. Detailed Analytics
• Who, When, Where
– Visits, Clicks, Referrals
• Interests
– Click-Through & Downloads
• Engagement
– Time spent on site & Bounce
• Effectiveness
– Conversion & Goals

18. Detailed Analytics (Landing Pages)
• 2.8m emails @ $21/email = $60m donations
• from £12/month

19. Content/Inbound Marketing
• XaaS – Everything As A Service
– Whitepapers, Blogs, Tweets
– Photographs, Videos
– Voiceovers
– Micro Tasks

20. User Engagement
• “if Current URL is yoursite.com/services, and visitor has already
visited 3 pages, and has spent over 30 secs on the current page,
and is in the UK send this message ……. ”

21. Real-Time Reporting
• Qualified Leads
• Support response/fix times & calls
• Mailchimp subscribers
• SMS, Calls + Durations, & Costs
• Follows, Likes & +1s
• And lots more …..
“If a metric won’t change how you behave, it’s a bad metric” Ben Yoskovitz,
The Lean Entrepreneur

22. TOP CONSULTING TIPS

23. Build the Trusted Advisor relationship
Read the David Maister book

24. • Active listening with open questions – “what’s going on here?”
• Subject matter expert – credibility, trust and reliability
• Remember that the client is buying confidence not just a service
– NEVER look panicked even if you are!
• Act with the upmost integrity at all times – ‘sell’ the client what
they really need (and not what they don’t) and they will return
• Personality is key – need to be likeable, trust worthy whilst at
the same time able to constructively challenge

25. • Get client’s attention with quick wins – demonstrate your
capability, build the relationship and business will follow
• Sell solutions i.e. solve the clients problems or pain – more than
just mentoring
• Nail down your engagement management skills – contract
negotiation & writing, project planning, open communication etc
• Remember that you are the expert at what you do, but that the
client is the expert at what they do – relationships should be
collaborative not combative
• Appeal to basic human nature – work with a client to both arrive
at the solution, rather than imposing your solution on them

26. 5 THINGS YOU DON’T (NECESSARILY)
NEED FOR A STARTUP

27. 1. A great idea
2. Engineering/development expertise
3. Venture capital financing
4. The willingness to take risks
5. The ability to scale

28. QUESTIONS (AND ANSWERS)