4. About BlueRun Ventures
• Over $1.0B under management
• Investing out of Fund IV ($240M)
• Focus: Mobile & consumer internet
• Seed & Series A
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5. Stuff that surprised me
• Having nearly 10 years at MSFT didn’t matter at all.
• Having an MBA from Wharton mattered even less.
• Both were seen as basically negatives.
• But, several of the skills from both really helped.
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6. Top 10 Startup Lessons
1. Today’s Golden Age For Founders & Its Double-Edge Sword.
2. What’s #1: Markets, Team, or Product?
3. Picking Co-Founders & How to Split the Baby.
4. The “Whatever Works” Principle
5. Getting used to “No,” and Being a Meat Eater
6. Hire Slow, Fire Fast
7. Distribution is Really Hard & Really Important
8. If You Stop Loving It, Make a Change.
9. Values and Value Add
10. Pitching & Fund-Raising
11. My go-to resources
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7. Lesson 1:
It’s a Golden Age for Entrepreneurs….
Cheaper than ever to start a company.
Better resources
• Incubators: Y-Combinator, 500Startups, …
• Resources: Startup Digest, Lean Startup, TC, VB
Technology is easier to learn, access, &c.
• Codecademy
• RoR
• AWS
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8. … And Investors Understand This.
I see lots of great companies that are:
• Capital efficient
• High velocity in coding and releasing
• Product in market with traction
• Clear customer insight on what works
• Battle-tested founding teams
• Clear, concrete ask on what $$$ they need
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9. Implication
While we’re in a Golden Age for
Entrepreneurs, it is raising the bar
for most very early stage
companies…
You need to prove more on very
little money, because so many other
start-ups are already doing so.
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10. Lesson 2:
What’s #1: Markets, Team, or Product?
Which is most important?
A.Market
B.Product
C.Team
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11. Which is most important?
A.Market
B.Product
C.Team
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12. Analysis
• 75 pitches / quarter
Market
• 0-2 get to term sheet Team
• Score each Traction
• Multiple regression Product
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13. How I think about Markets
Choose Any 4 Companies, Stack Rank Vision
• World’s largest store
• Redefine social
• Organize & access information
• Reinvent money
Your Company • ????
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14. How I think about Markets
Choose Any 4 Companies, Stack Rank Vision
• World’s largest store
• Redefine social
• Organize & access information
• Reinvent money
• Teach English to children everywhere
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15. Lesson 3:
Picking Co-Founders & Equity Split
What a tech founder needs in a business co-founder…
• Someone who sells what you build
• Someone who can do all the important stuff that’s not coding
• Leadership and vision
• Potentially you can raise money, while you code.
What a business co-founder needs in a tech co-founder…
• Someone who writes code and gets technical stuff done, and who ideally understands
how to hire and expand the technical team over time.
• Technical chops, CS/EE degree
• Nice to have: a track record building stuff
• Very nice to have: Ideas on how to hire devs
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16. Finding a Technical Co-Founder
More important than fund-raising
Requires almost the same skills
• Pitching and salesmanship
• Capacity to speak enough geek
• Resourcefulness
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18. Lesson 4:
The Whatever Works Principle
You never get a second chance to If you’re not embarrassed with your
make a first impression. – Anon. first launch, you’re waiting too long. –
Reid Hoffman
Lean Startup
Revenue from Day 1 Never stealth!
Building for Scale Scrum
Everything Inhouse
Offshore
Minimum Viable Product
StealthCo HTML5
Native Apps Customer Development
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19. Whatever Works
You never get a second chance to
make a first impression. – Anon. If you’re not embarrassed with your
My Advice & Learning: you’re waiting too long. –
first launch,
Reid Hoffman
• Absorb all this stuff
Lean Startup
• Listen to people you trust
Revenue from Day 1 Never stealth!
• Use what works
Building for Scale for you
Scrum
Everything Inhouse
• The key is work fast & economically
Offshore
Minimum Viable Product
StealthCo HTML5
Native Apps Customer Development
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20. Lesson 5:
Get Used to No
As Founder: Heard “No” a lot, especially fund-raising
• At least 150 times
• From 5 different countries
As an Investor: I say “No” a lot, especially to fund-raisers
• Probably 1%
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21. What’s weird about this…
• These numbers are probably about average
• Generally “No” coming from smart, polite person
(Not always the case, so be careful)
• Under 10% of founders really follow-up and stay after it
• Lesson: build a plan to deal with “No”…
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22. Be A Meat-Eater
• Speed
• Swagger & optimism
• Persistence
• Follow-through
• Showcase progress
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23. Lesson 6:
Hire Slow, Fire Fast
Hire Slow Fire Fast
• Wait for real pain • When perf lags, speak up
• Everyone interviews • Set clear expectations
• Share feedback • Set a crisp timeline
• Do reference checks • Fire
• Dinner w/ SO • Ensure lawyer is in loop
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24. Lesson 7:
Distribution, distribution, distribution
This is by far the weakest part of
your business at this point
And, it is also one of the most
important…
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26. Lesson 9
Values & Value-Add
Values are key from day 1
• Set them & talk about them constantly.
• No “right” way to do this, but doing it is important
Value-Add is also a key from day 1
• If someone stops pulling their weight, deal with it
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28. Logistics : Pre-Meeting
• Arrive 15 minutes early every time
• Have back-ups (2nd PC, Dongles, USBs)
• Treat everyone you meet politely
• Setup & preflight ppt & demo before meeting starts
• Bring ideally 2-3 people
Remember: You are SELLING
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29. Logistics: During Meeting
• Give everyone who attends a role
• Script which person handles which slide(s)
• Assign a scribe, every time
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30. Logistics: Q&A During Meeting
Often badly managed, and very important
Answer questions directly
Script answers on the obvious questions
– How much are you raising?
– How long does this last?
– What beachhead markets do you think are most promising?
– What holes exist in your team?
– Why won’t Google, Facebook, Twitter, or someone else eat your
lunch?
– What makes you the right team to do this?
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31. Logistics: Post Meeting
• Scribe: Write down all new QA for FAQ
• Follow-up in email that day w/ thanks, etc.
• Do what you need to handle rejection
• Keep positive & keep in touch
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32. Go To Resources
• TechCrunch, VentureBeat, TechMeme, etc.
• JoelonSoftware
• http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/
• Startup digest
• Netflix on Culture
• Compstudy.com
• Igor International Naming Guide
• Paul Graham’s blog.
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