Valto Loikkanen is an international serial entrepreneur and portfolio entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience. He is the founder of Grow VC Group, which provides various services to support startups and develop startup ecosystems globally. This includes consulting, infrastructure support, investment market data, and digital investment marketplace solutions. Loikkanen discusses his experience mentoring startups and developing startup support programs. He emphasizes the importance of setting a clear long-term target and milestones, developing the right team culture and structure, and balancing operative and strategic roles within a startup.

1. Entrepreneurship Workshop
Yerevan, Armenia
Valto Loikkanen
Grow VC Group ++
www.growvc.com ++
@growvc ++
Copyrights © Grow VC Group 2015

2. About me

3. My Evolution As an Entrepreneur
● Entrepreneur
● International entrepreneur
● International serial entrepreneur
● International portfolio entrepreneur

4. As an Entrepreneur
● 20 years as international Serial Entrepreneur (US, EU, Asia) &
Portfolio Entrepreneur, with personal hard earned success &
failures
● 17 years experience in developing web based tools for various
business processes
● 6 Years of developing equity crowdfunding and other digital
investment market solutions globally
● 5 years for Startup Ecosystem development combined with online
support tools, platforms & metrics
● For two years, being part of three EC Horizon 2020 Groups:
○ Access to Risk Finance,
○ Spreading Excellence & Widening participation
○ International Cooperation

5. As a Business Advisor
● 10 years of startup mentoring
○ with 2000+ one to one mentoring sessions and workshops
○ with 1000+ entrepreneurs and hundreds of startups around the
world at various development stages and industries
● In parallel 10 years developing Startup Support services, with
entrepreneurial mind and lean methodology (fast ideation,
implement and measure cycle)
● 5 years of “living lab” development for Startup Ecosystem in
Finland with City of Helsinki

6. About Grow VC Group
"The global pioneer of securities crowdfunding, peer
to peer marketplaces and new investment models."

7. Grow Advisors provide consulting and knowledge resources for
Digital Investing Marketplace and Startup Ecosystem
development
Ecosystem Back-end infrastructure and Support to manage,
measure & peer benchmark Startup ecosystems
Deal Index offers Visibility to Professional & International
Investors and real time investment Market Data
Digital Investment Marketplace Back-end solutions and
Development
Other Grow VC Group Companies & Services For Economic
Development

8. Local Investors &
Equity Crowdfunding
International Growth
$
$$
$
i
!
%
?
!
$
i
Local Startup Ecosystem
International Investors &
Multinational Corporations
Talent, Startups &
Support Services
Grow Advisors provide consulting and
knowledge resources for Digital
Investing Marketplace and Startup
Ecosystem development.
Ecosystem Back-end infrastructure
and Support to manage, measure & peer
benchmark your ecosystem.
Deal Index offers Visibility to
Professional & International Investors
and real time investment Market Data.
Digital Investment Marketplace Back-
end solutions and Development
$$$ $$ $$
Talent & Investments
Growing Startups
$$$
The leading global pioneer of digital investment
market solutions for private securities.
Other Grow VC Group Companies &
Services For Economic Development
Peer Benchmarking

9. What is a Startup?

10. A B
C D
High Growth Ambition and
very scalable business model
Low Growth Ambition and/or
Non Scalable business
Market
validated
business
model
Unvalidated
business model
"a kiosk"
"new startup"
“New Startup”

11. Startup stages

12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup_company
Startup Development?

13. ?
Startup Development

14. Startup
Development Phases

15. Build / Release Validate / Iterate
Ideation
Scalable product or
service idea for a big
enough target
market. Some initial
business models for
how it would make
money. One person
or only a vague team;
no confirmed
commitment or no
right balance of skills
in the team structure
yet.
Concepting
Clear and meaningful
target with direction for at
least 3 years with
milestones how to get
there, -> 3, 6, 12, 24, 36
months… Team of two or
three core founding
partners with balanced
ownership. Can also
already have some
extended team with lighter
commitment (stock options
and or cash
compensation)
Commitment
Committed and balanced
founding team. Able to
develop the product or
service (Minimum Viable
Product) without dependency
of uncommitted external
resources, or already an initial
product or service in place.
Existing signed shareholder
agreement between founders,
with milestones, committed
time and money use, for at
least 2+ years with vesting.
Validation
Can demonstrate some
user growth and or
revenue (initial traction).
Continue to attract
additional resources
(money or sweat equity)
for equity or future
revenue. Looking for clear
market validation (Product
Market Fit), to move into
scaling.
Scaling
Showing a clear,
growing and measurable
user and or market
traction in a big or
rapidly growing target
market. Can and wants
to scale fast. May have
attracted significant
funding.
Establishing
Achieved great growth, that
can expected to continue.
No longer needs to
struggle to get resources
and can acquire those
easily. Continues to grow
and often wants to
culturally continue
behaving like a "startup" for
as long as possible.
Founders exit or continue
business as usual.
Minimum Viable Product
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Vision > Target > Mission Growth
Idea / Team Fit Product / Market Fit Business Model / Market Fit
STARTUP DEVELOPMENT PHASES
● Business Model Canvas
● Co-founder Team Building
Scale / Expand
-2 -1 30 21

16. Startup Team

17. Startup Team
● Founder’s Role
● Effective Startup Team Structure and System of
Incentives
● The Art of Hiring and Getting Hired

18. Team Building “Toolkit”

19. Team Building “Toolkit”
● Vision -> Target (10+years)
● Mission
● Attitude & Culture
● Shareholder Agreement (SHA)
● Extended team members
● Advisors & Mentors

20. Set a clear target!

21. ● Without a clear target you can not plan or make a
strategy to get there
● With target you can get focus
● Good way to define a target is to write a vision that is
both clear and descriptive enough, but also flexible
enough to last time
● Your strategy & plan to get there is your mission
● Clearly defined Vision, mission and focus will help you
evaluate new opportunities, against if they take you
closer or further from the target and act based on that
Why Target Matters?

22. Target
● Without a target you can not start moving forward as
you can not know if the direction is right
● When you have set the target you can start planning the
journey to get there
● Just moving forward is not progress

23. No target
?

24. General Observations Of Targets
● Set too low ambition
● Too short term
● Does not take to account the competition factor over
time
● Does not take to account enough external factors
○ markets changes
○ megatrends
○ financial turmoil
● Often nothing in between
● Wrong market timing (too early / late)

25. Why set a high ambition target
● Whatever target you set it will guide you
● Modest target may feel easier to achieve but you rarely
would archive beyond your target
● Bigger target will force you to design and test more
scalable tools and models of working
● And even if you don't reach it, it's still often more than
with modes target
○ "Aim for the stars, land on the moon"
● Its very different plan to handle 10000 customers
around the world than 100 at your city

26. Mission

27. Mission
Start Target

28. Plan
Start Target
Plan to reach the target

29. Reality
Start
Target
Reaching the
target

30. What helps?

31. How to attack a high ambition target?
● Break it down it to milestones
● Design it backwards
● Design everything for scalability
● Its different to be able to handle 10000
customers around the world than 100 at your
city

32. Setting milestones
Start Target
1 2 3 4 5
Set milestones to help navigate

33. Setting milestones
Start Target
5
Start by making them all from backwards
from the target in high level
4

34. Setting milestones
Start Target
1 2 3 4 5
Then from start to next 1 & 2 milestones
in more detail

35. Take Action!
Start Target
1 2 3 4 5
Take action on reaching the first
milestone while keeping the focus on next
one and the target.

36. The new reality
Start
Target
1
2
3 4
5

37. But it actually becomes to this
Start
Target
1
2
3 4
5
6
7
8
If the milestones are reached the ambition grows and new target
and milestones are set based on the pace, learnings market
development etc.

38. Attitude & Culture

39. Attitude
● If you have no right "get it done" attitude, no
skills will matter
● But right skills with the right attitude is what
you need

40. Company Culture
● Fairness, transparency, honesty & communication
● Team is key. It's more important than the idea you start
with
● Good team can make success even from a bad idea as
they learn, adapt and can find the right idea
● Bad team can't get even a good idea to work (unless
being lucky)
● Those that do more are more lucky
○ volume always leads to more opportunities and faster
learning

41. Building the best Team
● Look people that have other/better skills than you (to learn)
● Look for type A people
● Type A people are often motivated more by the vision,
journey & challenge than the money alone
● Type A people look for other A people they want to work with
● Type B people have commitment issues and are less
motivated by challenges and more about money
● Type B people look for type C people so they can look better
than they are

42. Typical roles in a startup
● Core operative Co-founders (min.2 max. 3)
● Other founding team members/partners
● Other team & employees
● Advisors
● Mentors
● Board Members
● Investors

43. About titles in a startup
● Titles are needed for terminology and
external communications
● Inside the founding team those should be
considered as responsibility roles not
hierarchy
● SHA is what matters

44. Operative & Strategy balance
● Separate operative and strategy people/roles (hats)
● and separate strategy and operative focus
○ operative focus = focus on action and reaching the next
milestone
○ strategy = to stop, step back and re-evaluate the target,
milestones progress & learnings. Adjust as needed
○ time for strategy review?
■ At the start
■ quarterly in the early days
■ once or twice per year on the mid stages depending on pace
■ High growth stage -> monthly

45. SHA (1st founders, later investors)
● Ownership structures
● Intellectual property rights (IPR) rules
● Commitments & Vesting
● Tasks & Roles of partners
● Competition clauses, Confidentiality
● Partner/shareholder entry & exit situations
● Buy Back Option in normal Partner Exit Situation
● Rules Governing Share Disposal
● Market Value Determination
● Communication among Partners to the Agreement
● Disputes and Governing Law

46. Success
idea + plan + action + timing
= reaching a set target

47. Success
idea + plan (set of initial
assumptions) + action ((volume x
testing assumptions - failures) +
(volume x testing improved
assumptions - failures)) + timing =
reaching a target

48. Valto Loikkanen
valto@growvc.com
+358 400 421 551 (FIN)
+1 415 854-0546 (US)
Grow VC Group ++
www.growvc.com ++
@growvc ++
Thank You!