This document summarizes a presentation on starting a lean startup the Italian way. It discusses key lean startup principles like building minimum viable products and getting customer feedback iteratively. It emphasizes validating business hypotheses by getting out of the building to talk to customers, and outlines lean startup methodologies like customer development and the business model canvas. The presentation stresses that startups should be bootstrapped rather than seeking funding initially, and should focus on finding product/market fit through iterative testing of business ideas and assumptions.

1. Lean startup
- the Italian way -
Nicola Junior Vitto
Blomming
Programmers in Padua - April 27, 2012 - Padova
@njvitto - @blomming
nicola@blomming.com
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2. What’s a startup?
A startup is first of all an experiment, it is a human
institution designed to deliver a new product or
service under conditions of extreme uncertainty
At its heart, a startup is a catalyst that transforms
ideas into product.
(From Lessons Learned blog By Eric Ries)
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3. Ideas
How important are ideas?
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4. Team
Team is the key
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5. Passion
It’s very difficult to succeed without passion
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6. Market research
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7. Market: B2C
B2C
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8. Market: B2B
B2B
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9. Market: B2B2C
B2B2C
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10. Business Plan
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11. Prototype
Or as a developer, you will probably start
prototyping your software
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12. Questions
How do you choose features?
How much wait before launching the product?
What’s your development process?
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13. Go Ahead
Having a good idea,
a proved and experienced team,
market research and a good plan...
...and/or a prototype
...last missing thing is...
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14. Money
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15. VC Funding
Venture Capitals or Angel Investors
can give you money based on your plan
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16. And then?
(Classic) Product Development
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17. Development: Waterfall model
Waterfall
Problem: known Solution: known
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18. Wait a minute
...but we said...
...the Italian way!
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19. Bootstrapper
You should be a bootstrapper.
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20. Searching for Money
Do you have a plan a/o prototype
and a (good?) idea?
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21. Searching for Money
No money for ideas
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22. A classic full-featured product
Yes...it can be well organized,
but not all features are required to your lean startup.
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23. Minimum Viable Product
MVP: A product with the
fewest number of features
needed to achieve a
specific objective, for
which users are willing to
‘pay’ in some form of a
scarce resource.
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24. Intermediate MVPs
Final MVPs test the business model
Intermediate MVPs test high risk
components of the business model.
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25. Business Models (examples)
Free/Adv Freemium
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26. Business Models (WTF)
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???

27. What’s wrong?
9/10 Startups fail
66% of successful
changed plans
58 ideas = 1 success
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28. What’s the problem?
Lack of customers
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29. What’s the problem?
Build a product no one wants
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30. What about Business Plans?
No business plan
survives
the first customer contact
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31. What about Business Plans?
Plans are for a known future
not for a startup context
So, plans fail in startups
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32. Assumptions on Product Development
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33. Business Models
It’s all about business models
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34. What’s a Lean Startup?
Lean startup is a rigorous process
for iterating from Plan A
to a plan that works.
(by Ash Maurya)
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35. Lean is not cheap
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36. Lean startup is...
Open Source software
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37. Lean startup is...
Open Source software
Cloud computing architectures
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38. Lean startup is...
Open Source software
Cloud computing architectures
Agile methodologies
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39. XP
Agile (XP)
“Product owner” or
“in-house” customer
Problem: known Solution: unknown
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40. “Problem” in startups
...but in startups problem is unknown
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41. “Problem” in startups
What can help me?
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42. Customer Development
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43. Four Steps to the Epiphany
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44. Business Plans
While the death of the business plan as a
method to engage investors is a welcome
development, it doesn’t eliminate the need to
think through your business – a process aided
by, ironically, the writing of a business plan.
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45. Get out of the building (by Steve Blank)
Your business assumptions can be wrong
Go out and speak with your customers
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46. Don’t broadcast
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47. Talk with your customers
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48. Business Models
We said:
“It’s all about business models”
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49. Many different business models
The same technology, product or service
can have many different business models
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50. Sketch out your Business models
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51. Iterate on guesses (set of hypotesis)
Iterate fast and often to find your business model
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52. Customer Development: pivoting
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53. Business Models Canvas
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54. OODA Loop
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55. AARRR Metrics
By Dave McClure
More on: http://500hats.typepad.com/
Initial hypotesis must be precise to be measured
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56. Product/Market fit
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57. Customer Development: scaling
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58. What’s a Lean Startup?
Problem:
unknown
Solution:
unknown
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59. Scalable (lean) startup
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60. Scalable startup
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61. Early Adopters
The MVP is for your first customers:
they are called Innovators and Early adopters.
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62. Experience
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63. Entrepreneurship
...Entrepreneurs recognize they are going to have
to follow their own internal compass and embrace
the uncertainty as part of the journey.
- Steve Blank -
more info on http://steveblank.com/2009/06/29/agile-opportunism-entrepreneurial-dna/
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64. Courage
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65. Find the right people
Your partners and your team
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66. Focus focus focus
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67. Be frugal
Do you REALLY NEED that new: phone, car,
shoes, to go out for dinner or beers every day,
etc.???
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68. Blog-Magazine: LikePicasso
A blog as a Customer Development tool
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69. On your Blomming pages
Creating
a Shop
on Blomming
you can
immediately
sell...
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70. On your Blomming pages
On websites and/or blogs
Creating
a Shop
on Blomming
you can
immediately
sell...
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71. On your Blomming pages
On websites and/or blogs
Creating
a Shop
on Blomming
On your Facebook page
you can
immediately
sell...
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72. On your Blomming pages
On websites and/or blogs
Creating
a Shop
on Blomming
On your Facebook page
you can
immediately
On Blomming’s Storefront
sell...
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73. On your Blomming pages
On websites and/or blogs
Creating
a Shop
on Blomming
On your Facebook page
you can
immediately
On Blomming’s Storefront
sell...
On other sites
and mobile
API devices
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74. The Lean Startup
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75. Running Lean
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76. Business Models
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77. Useful on how to pitch investors
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78. Work only from 9 to 5
Is it possible?
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79. An alternative?
Lifestyle business
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80. Italian Lean Startup Meetup
http://www.meetup.com/Lean-Startup-Bologna-Meetup
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81. How to start a Startup?
http://www.venture-lab.org/
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82. Thanks
Blomming.com
Company.Blomming.com
Magazine.Blomming.com
Help.Blomming.com
Twitter.com/Blomming
Facebook.com/Blomming
Personal blog: njvitto.com
nicola@blomming.com
On FB & Twitter as: njvitto
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