Startups and Smalltak - Presented at Smalltalks2014 Córdoba, Argentinasebastian sastre
Here are the slides of the talk I gave at Smalltalks2014 in November 2014, in Córdoba, Argentina.
It covers the basics of why startups matter and what they actually are. Then show some opportunities and challenges about them and for Smalltalk in particular. It closes with some questions and suggestions on how to raise the value of the community, hopefully resulting in increasing the chances to see more profitable portfolios.
Business, STEM, Entrepreneurship: We all need each other!Shashi Jain
Keynote presentation by Shashi Jain for the MBA Research Conclave, 2017 a convening of business education programs for high school students. In this talk, I question siloing of programs for high school students and advocate for blended learning programs teaching entrepreneurial behavior. Lots of examples from TiE Young Entreprenreurs.
What Mushrooms and Fish Poop Taught Us About Launching a New Line of Breakfas...Lean Startup Co.
Nikhil Arora, Back to the Roots , @backtotheroots
Alejandro Velez, Back to the Roots , @backtotheroots
Back to the Roots founders Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora share their journey from investment banking to mushroom farming and aquaponics. They reveal the lean principles they’ve learned along the way that led them to launch a new line of organic breakfast cereals into thousands of grocery stores and classrooms this year.
Phil Dillard, Black Ant, @PhilD0210
The objective of the Lean Startup 101 training is to introduce the concepts, terminology and approaches — and, to help organizations overcome resistance accepting the new approach so that exploration and learning can begin. This practical, interactive session will provide a solid foundation for advanced sessions, including the Lean Startup 201 & 301. This training is designed for practitioners in both the enterprise and in startups who are relatively new to the Lean Startup approach or who are seeking a quick refresher. Lean Startup 101 is a perfect way to kick off your week of Lean Startup!
Thanks to Lean Startup Co.’s law firm, Orrick, for being the sponsor for this track.
Startups and Smalltak - Presented at Smalltalks2014 Córdoba, Argentinasebastian sastre
Here are the slides of the talk I gave at Smalltalks2014 in November 2014, in Córdoba, Argentina.
It covers the basics of why startups matter and what they actually are. Then show some opportunities and challenges about them and for Smalltalk in particular. It closes with some questions and suggestions on how to raise the value of the community, hopefully resulting in increasing the chances to see more profitable portfolios.
Business, STEM, Entrepreneurship: We all need each other!Shashi Jain
Keynote presentation by Shashi Jain for the MBA Research Conclave, 2017 a convening of business education programs for high school students. In this talk, I question siloing of programs for high school students and advocate for blended learning programs teaching entrepreneurial behavior. Lots of examples from TiE Young Entreprenreurs.
What Mushrooms and Fish Poop Taught Us About Launching a New Line of Breakfas...Lean Startup Co.
Nikhil Arora, Back to the Roots , @backtotheroots
Alejandro Velez, Back to the Roots , @backtotheroots
Back to the Roots founders Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora share their journey from investment banking to mushroom farming and aquaponics. They reveal the lean principles they’ve learned along the way that led them to launch a new line of organic breakfast cereals into thousands of grocery stores and classrooms this year.
Phil Dillard, Black Ant, @PhilD0210
The objective of the Lean Startup 101 training is to introduce the concepts, terminology and approaches — and, to help organizations overcome resistance accepting the new approach so that exploration and learning can begin. This practical, interactive session will provide a solid foundation for advanced sessions, including the Lean Startup 201 & 301. This training is designed for practitioners in both the enterprise and in startups who are relatively new to the Lean Startup approach or who are seeking a quick refresher. Lean Startup 101 is a perfect way to kick off your week of Lean Startup!
Thanks to Lean Startup Co.’s law firm, Orrick, for being the sponsor for this track.
Whether you're a technical or non-technical founder you will need to recruit technical talent to help you scale your startup. In this talk, I'll cover strategies for how to attract and close top technical candidates for an early stage startup.
How can you adopt innovation at your company ? Why should you bother ? How can you do it ? What matters and why ?
Here I share my learning from starting and running a startup and building data science products in thomson reuters and other organizations
How can you adopt innovation at your company ? Why should you bother ? How can you do it ? What matters and why ?
Here I share my learning from starting and running a startup and building data science products in thomson reuters and other organizations
In this talk, we discuss the importance of storytelling and emotional variation in delivering a great pitch, in addition to the content that should go into a pitch.
MEMSI June: Primary Market Research Skills ClinicElaine Chen
In this interactive workshop, we explore the detailed interview, the card sorting technique and digital experimentation, three foundational skills for primary market research in a startup setting.
Understand your customer in developing countriesElaine Chen
Customer development is critical for the success for any new product development initiative. But what if your new initiative solves a problem in a developing country? Can you really solve the problems on the ground without spending significant time living in the country where the product will be used? In this talk, we use the Playpump case study to understand why the only real way to build a sustainable venture that solves problems in developing countries is to do primary market research on the ground. We explore a few research techniques you can engage in, including interviews, observation and immersion. This talk includes interactive simulations where participants will learn valuable research techniques via an interactive exercise.
Beyond Buzzwords: An Introduction to The Lean StartupPaul Parent
Eric Ries's book, The Lean Startup, supplied new language to conversations about entrepreneurship. Ries brought important ideas to a wide audience and transformed the way people approach startups. This talk will introduce the fundamental concepts from The Lean Startup. Learn what makes a startup distinct from other businesses. Walk through the core elements of the methodology. Understand the meaning and context for widely-used terms like 'MVP', 'product / market fit', and 'pivot'.
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Lean for Sharing Ventures: Four Times Harder, Four Times More Rewarding, Ted ...Lean Startup Co.
The structure, economics, and strategy of sharing economy companies dramatically complicate the design and validation of a successful business model. In this session with Ted Ladd, professor of internet economics and a research fellow at the Center for Disruptive Innovation at the Hult International Business School, you will learn, apply, and critique several Lean extensions to decrease risk and accelerate return for your sharing venture.
Once you know what you want to do it is time to build ideas that have a chance to deliver on your objectives. Contrary to the belief that the ability to build ideas is limited to a select few, there are tools, techniques that can help any team build better ideas.
Better problem formulation
Effectuation (looking for ideas at home with the resources you have)
Systematic search for stimulus and diversity
Techniques to continue building ideas
With these tools and techniques the process is clear, but clear does not mean easy. Removal of fear and an ongoing action focus is the “secret sauce” that can pull everything together.
Deliverable: New ideas that have a good chance of being on strategy; meaningful and unique
The process of idea generation -- coming up with one, filtering and then taking it through the process of germination, evaluation, design, validation and building is a hard one. My co-founder Gordon Chaffee and I wanted to share our experiences doing that across multiple startups with other to-be entrepreneurs in the hope that it would help them as they went through this process themselves.
This was presented as a talk to CMU-SV students recently as part of Stuart Evan's class on Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Presentation: IT Innovation Crisis - Getting to the Culture of YesIdeaScale
On April 4th, 2014, Vivek Bhaskaran delivered a presentation at Interop 2014 about improving IT innovation culture by sharing innovation and cultural best practices having to do with communication tactics, open innovation strategies, and overcoming biases.
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In mass-production, you only have one chance to get the product right. The in-flexibility and expense of the physical product supply-chain prohibits an experimental, iterative approach. Inspired by lean startup, hardware entrepreneurs are developing new tools and methodologies for exploring and validating their product ideas prior to mass manufacture. 3D printing and off-the-shelf development kits are being used to support rapid product iteration and low-volume early adopter sales. Existing commercial products are being hacked by entrepreneurs to prototype and explore completely new experiences. Prototypes are becoming instrumented to collect data on engagement and usage patterns in the field. Illustrated with case studies from the Highway1.io hardware startup accelerator this talk will share a range of emergent patterns and best practices in lean hardware development.
Disciplined Entrepreneurship: What can you do for your customer?Elaine Chen
In this class, we will explore how, given a target market and chosen user persona, we can come up with a solution that solves these problems and meets the needs and wants of the customer. We will discuss how to come up with ways to develop high level product concepts that can be tested in the field. We will cover hypothesis testing techniques, including classical quantitative techniques like usability benchmarks as well as modern techniques such as the use of landing pages to test product interest and purchase intent.
The Art & Science of Product-Market Fit: Introducing the National Network for...UCICove
About UCI Applied Innovation:
UCI Applied Innovation is a dynamic, innovative central platform for the UCI campus, entrepreneurs, inventors, the business community and investors to collaborate and move UCI research from lab to market.
About the Cove @ UCI:
To accelerate collaboration by better connecting innovation partners in Orange County, UCI Applied Innovation created the Cove, a physical, state-of-the-art hub for entrepreneurs to gather and navigate the resources available both on and off campus. The Cove is headquarters for UCI Applied Innovation, as well as houses several ecosystem partners including incubators, accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, mentors and legal experts.
Follow us on social media:
Facebook: @UCICove
Twitter: @UCICove
Instagram: @UCICove
LinkedIn: @UCIAppliedInnovation
For more information:
cove@uci.edu
http://innovation.uci.edu/
Whether you're a technical or non-technical founder you will need to recruit technical talent to help you scale your startup. In this talk, I'll cover strategies for how to attract and close top technical candidates for an early stage startup.
How can you adopt innovation at your company ? Why should you bother ? How can you do it ? What matters and why ?
Here I share my learning from starting and running a startup and building data science products in thomson reuters and other organizations
How can you adopt innovation at your company ? Why should you bother ? How can you do it ? What matters and why ?
Here I share my learning from starting and running a startup and building data science products in thomson reuters and other organizations
In this talk, we discuss the importance of storytelling and emotional variation in delivering a great pitch, in addition to the content that should go into a pitch.
MEMSI June: Primary Market Research Skills ClinicElaine Chen
In this interactive workshop, we explore the detailed interview, the card sorting technique and digital experimentation, three foundational skills for primary market research in a startup setting.
Understand your customer in developing countriesElaine Chen
Customer development is critical for the success for any new product development initiative. But what if your new initiative solves a problem in a developing country? Can you really solve the problems on the ground without spending significant time living in the country where the product will be used? In this talk, we use the Playpump case study to understand why the only real way to build a sustainable venture that solves problems in developing countries is to do primary market research on the ground. We explore a few research techniques you can engage in, including interviews, observation and immersion. This talk includes interactive simulations where participants will learn valuable research techniques via an interactive exercise.
Beyond Buzzwords: An Introduction to The Lean StartupPaul Parent
Eric Ries's book, The Lean Startup, supplied new language to conversations about entrepreneurship. Ries brought important ideas to a wide audience and transformed the way people approach startups. This talk will introduce the fundamental concepts from The Lean Startup. Learn what makes a startup distinct from other businesses. Walk through the core elements of the methodology. Understand the meaning and context for widely-used terms like 'MVP', 'product / market fit', and 'pivot'.
This talk was prepared for PHX Startup Week in February 2016.
Lean for Sharing Ventures: Four Times Harder, Four Times More Rewarding, Ted ...Lean Startup Co.
The structure, economics, and strategy of sharing economy companies dramatically complicate the design and validation of a successful business model. In this session with Ted Ladd, professor of internet economics and a research fellow at the Center for Disruptive Innovation at the Hult International Business School, you will learn, apply, and critique several Lean extensions to decrease risk and accelerate return for your sharing venture.
Once you know what you want to do it is time to build ideas that have a chance to deliver on your objectives. Contrary to the belief that the ability to build ideas is limited to a select few, there are tools, techniques that can help any team build better ideas.
Better problem formulation
Effectuation (looking for ideas at home with the resources you have)
Systematic search for stimulus and diversity
Techniques to continue building ideas
With these tools and techniques the process is clear, but clear does not mean easy. Removal of fear and an ongoing action focus is the “secret sauce” that can pull everything together.
Deliverable: New ideas that have a good chance of being on strategy; meaningful and unique
The process of idea generation -- coming up with one, filtering and then taking it through the process of germination, evaluation, design, validation and building is a hard one. My co-founder Gordon Chaffee and I wanted to share our experiences doing that across multiple startups with other to-be entrepreneurs in the hope that it would help them as they went through this process themselves.
This was presented as a talk to CMU-SV students recently as part of Stuart Evan's class on Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Presentation: IT Innovation Crisis - Getting to the Culture of YesIdeaScale
On April 4th, 2014, Vivek Bhaskaran delivered a presentation at Interop 2014 about improving IT innovation culture by sharing innovation and cultural best practices having to do with communication tactics, open innovation strategies, and overcoming biases.
Marcus Gosling, Highway1.io , @marceire
In mass-production, you only have one chance to get the product right. The in-flexibility and expense of the physical product supply-chain prohibits an experimental, iterative approach. Inspired by lean startup, hardware entrepreneurs are developing new tools and methodologies for exploring and validating their product ideas prior to mass manufacture. 3D printing and off-the-shelf development kits are being used to support rapid product iteration and low-volume early adopter sales. Existing commercial products are being hacked by entrepreneurs to prototype and explore completely new experiences. Prototypes are becoming instrumented to collect data on engagement and usage patterns in the field. Illustrated with case studies from the Highway1.io hardware startup accelerator this talk will share a range of emergent patterns and best practices in lean hardware development.
Disciplined Entrepreneurship: What can you do for your customer?Elaine Chen
In this class, we will explore how, given a target market and chosen user persona, we can come up with a solution that solves these problems and meets the needs and wants of the customer. We will discuss how to come up with ways to develop high level product concepts that can be tested in the field. We will cover hypothesis testing techniques, including classical quantitative techniques like usability benchmarks as well as modern techniques such as the use of landing pages to test product interest and purchase intent.
The Art & Science of Product-Market Fit: Introducing the National Network for...UCICove
About UCI Applied Innovation:
UCI Applied Innovation is a dynamic, innovative central platform for the UCI campus, entrepreneurs, inventors, the business community and investors to collaborate and move UCI research from lab to market.
About the Cove @ UCI:
To accelerate collaboration by better connecting innovation partners in Orange County, UCI Applied Innovation created the Cove, a physical, state-of-the-art hub for entrepreneurs to gather and navigate the resources available both on and off campus. The Cove is headquarters for UCI Applied Innovation, as well as houses several ecosystem partners including incubators, accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, mentors and legal experts.
Follow us on social media:
Facebook: @UCICove
Twitter: @UCICove
Instagram: @UCICove
LinkedIn: @UCIAppliedInnovation
For more information:
cove@uci.edu
http://innovation.uci.edu/
Why is this book so important? One of the biggest lessons I have learned within the startup landscape is that even though pricing, together with the business model, remains by far the lever that most impacts revenue, the subject is a sensitive one.
Pricing is a strong — but often underused — tool available to capture a share of value created for customers
Pricing is one of the biggest challenges that startup face. The book is a practical toolkit that positively influences the pricing strategies of startups. It reveals insights in the different pricing methods and tactics used by successful companies.
Presentation given at User Experience Edmonton meetup in January 2015. Gives an overview of how you can sell User Experience design methodologies to your boss or company. Talks about starting small, return on investment and not asking permission.
Phil Wheat and his innovative shopping cart technology that will revolutionize the retail industry. This automated shopping cart technology is the perfect solution for people with disabilities, severe allergies, or those who like to stay ahead of the technology game.
How To Find and Conquer Your Niche
SCRUFF is the #1 rated gay dating app. Why should you care? Because it's a perfect example of an app that has found and conquered its niche to become a worldwide success, without raising huge amounts of capital. This talk will reveal tons of secrets that your startup can put to use today to improve your design and scalability, your community, and even your bottom line.
Get to know your investor before you send them a
deck. Easy tips to use.
The presentation has been made by Paul Belknap (Investment Manager,
Villgro Innovations Foundation) and Ullas Marar (Head - Scouting and Inspiration
Villgro Innovations Foundation).
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Jeff Katz on Lean Hardware Startups
1.
2. Pretty slides?
• I don’t like slides with a lot of text. I prefer slide shows with lots of
pictures I can talk over
… but since you are going to be looking at this later, without the benefit
of me talking, I put a lot of words on it
• Slides will be available on Slideshare
• Credits to Ben from hax and Gregor from alphaboard for creative
borrowing of their concepts
3. Who am I?
• Went to NYU (Computer Engineering) and University System of
Maryland (BS Computer Science and Business)
• Serial Entrepreneur: Internet, Games, Interactive Entertainment,
Finance, Security
• Co-Founder of HARDWARE.co, community for Hardware Startups to
share knowledge
• VP Engineering KIWI.KI GmbH—lead engineering effort and product
design. Prototyped and productized all gen 1 hardware and services.
4. Ideation
• Don’t know what to do? Ask the internet…
• Twitter search “someone should invent”
• Google trends
• Write down shower ideas
• Meet with other entrepreneurial people and tell them about your
ideas!
• Participate in events where you can meet new people and work on
interesting ideas.
• Solve a problem you (or a loved one) has!
5. Vision—Customer
/ Problem Fit
Problem/Solution
Fit
Product/Market
Fit
Scaling
Who are your
customers? What
are their
problems?
Does your
solution actually
solve the
problem? Is
someone actually
willing to pay for
it?
How do your
customers
segment? What is
your unique value
proposition?
Cost structure,
revenue streams,
unfair advantages
Biggest Risk:
Is your problem
worth solving?
The process…
6. The problem is the solution
• “… so preoccupied with wither or not they could that they didn’t stop
to think if they should.”
• The question isn’t can we make it, but is it worth making?
• Why are we uniquely qualified to make this solution?
• Is this solution the best solution to the problem?
7. Customer Problem Fit
• Find (potential) customers to interview
“Hi, my name is ___ from ___. Right now, we’re starting a company to ______. We’re currently
in the development phase and I was hoping you might provide some insight into the market. I
would like to understand your perceptions of _____. In exchange, I would be more than happy
to tell you about some recent innovations in the ___ industry.
• “Is there anything I should have asked you that I didn’t?“
• Take notes
• Have a conversation, not an interrogation
• More complaining = more prepared to pay
• Ask if they have a workaround
• Ask for intros!
• Who is the prototypical early adopter? How badly do they want this problem
solved?
• Document Everything
8. Problem Solution Fit
• Lean Hypothesis: “We believe __ has the problem of ___. We can
help them with our ____. We will know we are right if ____”
• Validate hypothesis quantitatively
• Fail early, often, and cheap
• Try to validate or invalidate before writing a single line of code or 3d printing
• Use paper, clay, wood, lego—anything to get your idea across
9. Product Market Fit
• What is a MVP?
• Minimum: Crap no one wants
• Viable: Built with more backing
than you have
• Minimum Viable Product: Good products to build and learn from
• Consider crowd funding—proves some demand
• Warning: Crowd funding is an obligation!
• Prototype Early – Collect Feedback
Minimum Viable
10. Hardware Startups
• Everything a “software” startup has
• But with Hardware as well
• Hardware is a double-edged sword
• Prototyping is easier than ever!
• Electronics: Arduino / Raspberry Pi / Sensors from Cellphones
• Forms: 3d Printing, CNC
• Interactions: Smart Phones
• Infrastructure: Cloud
11. So uh, What’s lean hardware?
• Build the right things
• Build things right
• Build things fast
• Deliver value on top of things
12. How do I lean hardware?
• Validate the problem
• Be fast to market
• Use money effectively
• Avoid VC
• Don’t build (on top of) crap
13. Someone is going to steal my idea!!!
• If someone can steal your idea, then…
• Your idea was obvious
• Your execution was simple
• It was never a good market to get involved in
• But I have a patent!!!
• Patents are only as good as the defense
• Do you have the time and money to defend your IP?
14. What do I need?
• Problem & Solution
• Skills -- Not just technical skills!
• Team -- Resourceful, optimistic, persistent, persistent, persistent,
persistent
• Market Approach -- Needs to be 10X better or different *not cheaper
• Demand – proof it exists
• Distribution
• Plan for what to do next
15. Never just hardware
• Stand alone products can will
be copied
• Do something difficult
• Take something complicated,
and by making it smart, make it
simple—NOT THE OTHER WAY
AROUND
• Hardware + Services
Community, Algorithms, Buy-in
Beware:
• Fun/Fluff
• Easy Stuff
• Solutions looking for
problems
• Impossible solutions
• Delivering too late
• Unprofitable solution
• No customer Attachment
• Ahead of time
• Local solution
• I put a chip in it
16. How long does this take?
Prototyping Production Scaling
3 months – 2 years 3 months – 1 year 1+ year
• Be realistic, some things take time
• … but don’t let it get away from you, ask for help.
17. Four Rules of Retail
1. Keep demand higher than distribution
2. Your customers are your best investors
3. Take your time and learn—retail is a marathon not a sprint
4. Cash flow is the most important measure
• Pre-sales are great
• Credit from a supplier is pretty good
• Financing purchase orders is okay
• Credit from a bank is okay
• Financing on future sales is okay
• Venture capital sucks!
18. Warning: Hardware is not hard
• It’s just tricky!
• There are tons of gotchas, trivia, regulations, expectations, all of which will
tank your business
• If you can avoid making bespoke hardware to solve the problem, by all
means, do so
• Customize existing hardware
• Partner with existing providers
• Double-edged sword: Risky, but if executed well provides a stable and
continuous access to your customers
• Prototyping is cheaper than ever, but production still has the same fixed
costs (NRE, Certifications, Logistics)
20. Ideal Lean Hardware Startup
• Solves a real problem, in a way no one has solved before
• Opens up a huge market, or creates a new one
• Makes a complicated thing or system simple
• Isn’t a one-off sale, but an ongoing relationship
• Does not push complexity onto your customers
• Hardware development absolutely required
• Awesome team of dedicated people
• Funded by pre-sales and partners