The document discusses things entrepreneurs should think about over the summer, including validating assumptions with experiments rather than debates, innovating in real time, getting an unfair advantage through advisors and mentors, and proving hypotheses with minimal or no funding through customer research and minimum viable products. It emphasizes testing everything through A/B testing and pivoting if needed based on results.

1. Things to Think
about this Summer
Steve Barsh
CEO, PackLate.com
steve@PackLate.com * 215.888.2101
@packlate @sbarsh
1
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Sunday, May 9, 2010

2. Premises & Observations
• Money too early
• Validation from investors
• Key risks
• Out-of-box techniques
• De-risk before
• Pitching
• Building the product
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Sunday, May 9, 2010

3. 3 – 7 Key Assumptions
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4. Stop Waving, Start Pointing!
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4 Copyright © 2009-2010 by PackLate.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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5. Common Assumptions
Positioning / differentiation
Demand
Market size
Feature set (Benefits?)
Competition
Pricing / business model
Sales / adoption cycle Enterprise value
Team
Product development
Execution
Marketing
Financials & forecasts
Financial needs
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5 Copyright © 2009-2010 by PackLate.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, May 9, 2010

6. Experiment
• Hypotheses
• Prove or Disprove
• Build -- Release,
measure, learn,
iterate
• Research
• Valid proxies
6
PackLate.com Copyright © 2009-2010 by PackLate.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, May 9, 2010

7. What to learn on your
“summer vacation” - 1
1. Don't debate. A/B test everything. (applies to
software, messaging / positioning (e.g., Adwords))
2. Innovate in real time.
3. Get an unfair advantage (mentors, advisors, Board,
LinkedIn, University, wherever you can)
4. Ask for advice, not money. (1 mouth, 2 ears)
5. What are you learning?
6. What are your key assumptions?
7. What can you prove with $0?
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Sunday, May 9, 2010

8. What to learn on your
“summer vacation” - 2
8. Know what you are talking about
9. Minimum viable product (MVP), Lean, Embarrassment
10.Biz development -- stand in their shoes
11.Positioning
12.Always marketing, testing, & selling (refining)
13.Estimating
14.PR - what's the STORY, why will anyone really care (and who
will), why are you doing PR? (SEO? Customers? Brand
equity? Credibility?)
15.Not being afraid to pivot (be stubborn, but not too
stubborn)
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Sunday, May 9, 2010

9. Things to Think
about this Summer
Steve Barsh
CEO, PackLate.com
steve@PackLate.com * 215.888.2101
@packlate @sbarsh
9
PackLate.com Copyright © 2009-2010 by PackLate.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, May 9, 2010