Don't Be A F'in Wantrepreneur - Silicon Valley Comes to the Baltics - October 12th, 2014

1. DON’TBEAF***INGWANTREPRENEUR
VITALYM.GOLOMB
@VITALYG
OCT12th,2014

2. +Investor

3. cccstartups.com
@cccstartups

4. corporate
people
startup
people
P experts in one area
P years climbing ladder
P stable lifestyle
P real responsibilities
P life balance
P generalists
P early start
P cheap lifestyle
P nothing to lose
P nothing else matters

6. so what THE F***
is a startup?

7. A STARTUP IS...
an experiment in search
of a business model- steve blank

8. SCALABLE
STARTUP
transition company
business model found
product/market fit
repeatable sales model
managers hired
break-even
profitable
rapid scale
new senior management
~150 people
“a startup is not a smaller
version of a large company”- steve blank

9. A STARTUP IS A COMPANY
THAT IS CONFUSED ABOUT:
1. WHAT ITS PRODUCT IS,
2. WHO ITS CUSTOMERS ARE,
3. HOW TO MAKE MONEY
- DAVE MCCLURE

10. “A STARTUP’s default
state is #failure. as a
founder, you have to
work to unfail it.”- VITALY M. GOLOMB

11. why would you want to
start a company?

12. get good grades
go to a good college
get in a good company
get regular promotions
retire, play golf, die
normal career

13. startup career
-if successful-
what people think
it looks like
what it really
looks like

14. entrepreneurship
is a mental disorder

15. but it takes a
little crazy...
to change
the world

16. so, why are youdoing it?

17. for the
money?

18. for the IPO money?

19. 50
100
150
200
250
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
number of tech
ipos since 1999
26 <26

20. funded startup
success rate
30% fail
30%
unprofitable
30%
somewhat
profitable
10% big
success

21. by the way...
#failure in
startups is
overgloried

22. failure is for
losers
- Beck

23. 1st time founder 18%
repeat failed founder 20%
repeat successful founder 30%
the odds are against you

24. you’ll get acquired if
you are lucky and good

25. freedom?

26. normal job:
one boss

27. startup:
every user
is your boss

28. have a family?
they will suffer

29. “as a startup ceo, i slept
like a baby. i woke up
every 2 hours and cried.”
- ben horowitz

30. feeling
defeated
yet?

31. founder and team morale
jess lee - “why startup founders are always unhappy”

32. good news:
you can improve
your chances

33. find a problem
you can’t live
without
solving

34. don’t build technology looking
for a problem to solve
solve a painful problem

35. what is all this lean bullshit?

36. lean = quick iterations

37. more chances to
solve the problem

38. more chances to #unfail

39. so what’s a goodstartup?

40. firstthingsfirst

41. nothinG matters
more than traction

42. solves a painful problem
for a specific customer

43. how can you be sure you’re
solving a problem?

44. how is it currently
being solved?

45. no competitors
=
no problem
=
no market

46. stop coding
get out of the building
talk to your customers
face your fears
validate assumptions

47. HOWAREYOUDIFFERENT
ANDBETTER?
HARD?EXPENSIVE?SUCKS?

48. F’IN

49. ANDGROWINGFAST

50. what’s your business model?

51. symmetric
customer pays
for experience

52. asymmetric
3rd party pays
for customer

53. DOES IT scale?

54. $1,000,000
$2,000,000
$3,000,000
$4,000,000
Craigslist Apple Google Facebook Amazon McDonalds
revenue
per employee$3.6M
$2.15M
$1.25M
$1.1M
$691K
$64K

55. don’t forget:
you are building a
repeatable business

56. measure everything

57. internet-driven
customer acquisition

58. main ingredient: team

59. hiring is hard

60. O much money
O stability
O support structure
O a long-term plan
P stock
P flexibility
P chance to make
a difference
what you
don’t have
what you
do have

61. BUSINESSwith domain expertise
DESIGN ENGINEERING
balanced startup team

62. what is your
unfair advantage?

63. ACCOMPLISHMENTS
MONEY RAISED?
PARTNERSHIPS?
GROWTH?

64. THESILICONVALLEYFUNDINGSTACK
BOOTSTRAP/FriendsFamily&Fools
ACCELERATORS
ANGELS/SEEDVCs
$100M+VCFUNDS
GROWTHEQUITY
circa 2014
M&A/IPO

65. BOOTSTRAP
ACCELERATORS
ANGELS/SEEDVCs
$100M+VCFUNDS
GROWTHEQUITY
EUROPEANFUNDINGSTACKcirca 2014
/FFF
M&A/IPO

66. 2001 DOT COM CRASHUS VC FUNDS RAN AWAY FROM EUROPE
few, STRONG EUROPEAN VC FUNDS SURVIVED

68. …andpre-date
LARGEFUNDTHESISAREBASED
ON$5M+FIRSTROUND

69. LIMITEDBIGDEALS
+
LIMITEDEXITS
=
MOSTREGIONAL
FUNDSTOOBIG
TOPROVIDEGOOD
RETURNS

70. YESTERDAY’SSEEDISTODAY’SSERIESA/B

71. YESTERDAY’SIPOsARETODAY’SACQUIHIRES

72. SOURCE: STEVE BLANK

73. SOURCE: SEED DB
MEDIANEXIT=$20M

74. WHYHERE?
WHYNOW?

75. EUROPEPRODUCESHIGHER
VENTUREEXITMULTIPLESTHANU.S.

76. EUROPEANEXITARE25%SMALLER,BUT…
ENTRYVALUATIONSARE3-4XLOWER

77. EUROPEPRODUCES
1/2ASMANYEXITSASU.S.
AND1/3OF$100M+EXITS
WITHONLY20%OFU.S.VC

78. MEDIANCASH-ON-CASH
$100M+EXITMULTIPLE
4.5X
US
7.2X
EUROPE
2005-2011 SOURCE: EARLYBIRD, DOW JONES VENTURE SOURCE

79. BRACEYOURSELVES
EUROPEANINVESTORSARECOMING

80. THEFUTUREFOR
EUROPEANSTARTUPS
ISBRIGHT

81. want theSE slides?
follow @vitalyg

82. one more thing…

83. coming in 2015
download
1st chapter
free now
www.founderco.com
@vitalyg