Lean startup for developers conference

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Lean Startup for Developers
Sébastien Arbogast
Take Eat Easy

Who are you people?
• How many of you are not developers?
• How many of you thought of creating their own startup one
day?
• How many of you went through and did create a startup?
• How many of you are still working in your startup?
• How many of you are working in a startup right now?
• How many of you are familiar with Lean Startup?
• How many of you are fed up with me saying the word
"startup" at this point already?

Who am I?
• Java developer for 10+ years
• iOS developer for 5 years
• Agile methodology advocate for 8 years
• Freelancer for 5 years
• Lean Startup practitioner for 4 years
• Startup coach for NEST'up
• VP of Engineering for Take Eat Easy

Why create your own startup?

It's cool to be an entrepreneur!

The (real) entrepreneur lifestyle

Your unique million-dollar idea

There is no such thing

You want to be your own boss

Power comes with responsibility

Your product will be so much better

Think business model

Somebody told you...

Scratch your own itch

Tired of being a consultant?

Beware of the pimps

Obsessed about building a product

Startup is not the best environment

You've got the skills

The perfect triangle

Use your favorite technologies

Over design will kill you

Something out of your pet projects

You will have to keep focus

You want to improve everyone's life

Niche strategy is key

Market research shows you the way

Quality over quantity

Good reasons to do it

Invest in yourself

Find your own solutions

Unique opportunities and expertise

Grow as a human being

Be a part of the solution

Choose the people you work with

Why you would NOT do it

You know what you have...

Not enough money set aside

You miss some business skills

You need to pay the bills

You don't have enough time

Startups are for youngsters

Your ideas are not good enough

You are not in the right place

What if I fail?

Why you are uniquely
positioned to do it?

The power to execute

You already know about lean

You are surrounded by problems

You can easily go freelance

Usual versus Lean

Market study vs…
• Questionnaires and surveys
• Market reports
• Quantitative only
• Takes time and money
• Only valid if you want to verify a strong hypothesis
• Very long iteration cycles
• Tends to conﬁrm what you want to hear

…Customer interviews
• Brainstorm all possible customer segments
• Choose 3 based on your gut feeling
• Draft a business canvas for each
• Sort them by pain level, ease of reach, price and market size
• Take the ﬁrst one
• List your hypotheses
• Meet 10 people in that customer segment and ask questions
• Repeat

Business plan vs…
• Takes time to write
• Long iteration cycle
• Very cumbersome to
update
• Who will read it?
• 3-year projections are
for existing business
models

…Business Model Canvas
Name
Behaviors
Needs  
& goals
Facts
3 most 
pressing 
problems
Existing 
alternatives 
for each 
problem
Tagline for 
your 
marketing 
website
X forY
One key 
feature 
for each 
problem
Awareness
Acquisition
Distribution
Subscriptions
One-time
Variable vs ﬁxed
How many customer to
offset costs
How will
you
measure
success?
Can't be
easily
copied or
bought

The infamous prototype vs…
• You guess what people are going to need
• You guess what they are familiar with
• You include as many features as you possibly can
• Very few of those features will actually be used
• A lot of wasted time and effort
• DO NOT consider that as "free effort": opportunity cost
• When do you stop?

…Most Testable/Viable Product
• Solution interviews
• Wireframes
• Landing pages
• Concierge mode
• Wizard of Oz
• Forums, blogs, mailing lists,
phone numbers

Non-disclosure agreement vs…
• You are afraid that somebody with more money will steal
your great idea before you have the time to realize it but…
• Good and original ideas don't exist
• AWFUL IDEA = -1
• WEAK IDEA = 1
• SO-SO IDEA = 5
• GOOD IDEA = 10
• GREAT IDEA = 15
• BRILLIANT IDEA = 20
• NO EXECUTION= $1
• WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
• SO-SO EXECUTION = $10,000
• GOOD EXECUTION =
$100,000
• GREAT EXECUTION= $1,000,000
• BRILLIANT EXECUTION =
$10,000,000
X
Source: Derek Sivers

…Feedback, feedback, feedback
• Feedback from real potential users (who might become your
ﬁrst customers)
• Feedback from potential investors
• Finding cofounders and partners
• If your idea is all you have, you have nothing

Business plan pitching vs…
• Angel investors are interested in
• Quality, passion, commitment, integrity
• Market opportunity and potential
• Business plan AND initial traction
• Technology and intellectual property
• An appropriate valuation
• Exit strategies
• You need: an elevator pitch, a pitch deck, a prototype…
• But more importantly, you need introductions!

…vs Validated learning

Elevator Pitch
My company [company name]
is developing [deﬁned offering]
to help [target customers]
solve [problem]
with [secret sauce]

Questions?

Lean startup for developers conference

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