This document provides guidance and advice for starting a startup. It emphasizes the importance of validating your idea with customers before building anything. Customer development and understanding customer needs are key. The five major factors that contribute to startup success are identified as the idea, team, business model, funding, and timing. Bootstrapping and selling the idea before building the product are recommended approaches. Resources for learning lean startup methodologies and customer development processes are provided.

1. GETTING
YOUR STARTUP
STARTED
Stuart Bertsch
Tech Toledo
For Code City
Toledo, Ohio
Oct 16, 2017

2. Getting Started: Why Now?
• Technology is cheap
• There’s a lot of information on how
• Corporate jobs no longer have security
• You don’t have to risk it all
• Globalization can work FOR you
• Waiting won’t help

3. I have an idea!
&
Now is the time to start!

4. Now What?

5. Info Glut – Google “Startup Books”

6. Do this all the time
• Read everything you can. Start with LEAN concepts.
• Go to Startup events
• A2NewTech
• DNewTech
• Visit ToledoTechEvents.org & pull it into your calendar
• Pitch competitions
• Startup Weekends
• BGSU/UT/Meetups
• Talk to people about your idea
• Learn to code? Maybe.
• Udemy, Codeacademy, Khan Academy, etc.

7. Why Startups Succeed
Bill Gross did research on why startups succeed…
Five major things contribute to success:
1. 28% - Idea
2. 32% - Team
3. 24% - Business Model
4. 14% - Funding
5. 41% - Timing

8. 1. What’s a good idea? (28%)
• One that customers want
• One that customers need…now! (Urgency)
• One that solves a pain point (that people will buy)
• Most startups fail because they build something that’s not wanted
• One that is scalable
• Incremental costs to add customers is low
• LTV is higher than acquisition cost (profitable)
• Ratio of employees to customers is low
• “Go a Billion or Go Home” (Nate Reis, Chargello)
• Getting Valley-type VC attention is all about Unicorns
• What is your addressable market? Is it worth it?
• Think big. Think one million+ users.
• There’s nothing wrong with a “lifestyle” business but know
that it is from the start and what that means in terms of $.

9. The Scalability Jackpot
Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/02/daily-chart-0?fsrc=gn_ep
Update: Facebook now has 2 billion monthly users. June 2017.

10. 2. The Team (32%)
An Ideal Team Has:
1. Visionary
2. Sales Guy -> Hustler
3. Magician -> Marketer
4. Designer
5. Hacker -> Builder
6. Enabler -> Operations Guy (Doing what needs to be done)
Not all are necessary to start. The idea and a builder will get things started.
Could be the same person.
Most VC people will say the Team is more important than the idea.
Mentors are important. Find a mentor, or several.

12. 3. Business Model/Canvas (24%)

13. Where to begin
• Test, Test, Test
• Everything is a hypothesis until you get confirmation from your
customers.
• Steve Blank: Get out of the building (& talk to customers)
• Steve Blank: No plan survives first contact with customers
• Do Customer Discovery
• Cust Dev is a very specific kind of customer interviewing process
1. In Person (preferably, to gauge reactions)
2. Don’t tell them about your idea (you are there to learn, not sell)
3. Ask them how they currently solve the problem your idea addresses
4. What’s worst, best, hardest, etc.
5. Use the 5 whys method to get at root causes
6. When done, then let them know about your idea and get feedback
• Get 100 customer interviews before building anything

14. Get used to being wrong (you’re learning)
• Your first try at a startup will almost certainly evolve
• Every idea I had for a startup rapidly evolved into
something else, usually bigger
• Wondergroups: Remembering names to group management
• VoterBliss: National candidates to all candidates
• Listfitters -> Goings: Curate packing lists to full trip tool
• Be dogged but don’t be blind. Listen and be willing to
“pivot” toward a better solution, find the pain, find the $
• Talk to non-customers and listen to their feedback too
• Beware of problems you cannot solve, no revenue, and
scalability issues (too high of cost to get customers)

16. Rookie mistakes we all make
• Thinking everyone is going to steal you idea
• No NDAs unless they need to understand your secret sauce
• Thinking you must have money to get started
• No need for fancy logos, lawyers, developers, pretty much anything
• How?
• Mock up idea on paper.
• Wireframe it using free resources online
• You can talk to potential customers BEFORE you do anything.
• If you’re awesome, and your customers NEED your product, you can
sell your product before it’s made and help pay for its development.
• http://tommorkes.com/lean-launch-how-to-sell-an-idea-before-you-build-it/
• Kickstarter model

17. Rookie mistakes we all make (2)
• Thinking you are a unique genius and nobody has thought
of your idea before
• Research your market & your competitors. Spend time on this.
Chances are, someone is doing something similar.
• If it’s a big enough market, and a big enough problem, others will be in
the space.
• Having a “build it and they will come” mentality.
• Remember, you need to sell it before it’s made.
• Not knowing your biggest obstacle
• Pro Tip: It’s inertia (getting people to change their habits)
• Selling features
• ProTip: You’re not selling features. You’re selling solutions.
• Think Jobs To Be Done (JTBD): https://jtbd.info/

19. How do you know it might work?
• Customer development is the first and most important job you have
1. Define your customers (BMC: Customer Segments)
2. Find access to them (BMC: Channels)
3. Interview them about the problem you are solving (BMC: Value Prop)
4. This process validates 1-3
• Look for the money
• Money usually follows the pain
• Find the pain points that you are solving
• Ask customer what it would be worth to solve their worst problem
• After the interview, describe your solution
• You want about an 80% “want” rate unless your idea is totally new
• Do your customers’ eyes light up? Do they sit up, lean in?
• Do they ask you when they will be able to have your product?
• Gold Standard: Will they give you money now?

21. 4. Funding (14%)
• Always explore bootstrapping
• Building your company without taking VC (Read REWORK by Jason Fried)
• Will your customers fund your startup? Maybe! Ask.
• KickStarter? – usually not for software startups
• Thinking VC or Angel Funding? (Read Brad Feld’s Venture Deals)
• Think Traction first: have a growing customer base, with revenue
• Read “Traction, A Startup Guide to Getting Customers”
• Getting funds from others will usually require you to relocate nearer
the funding company
• Thinking local?
• Talk to me privately about intrinsic issues with local funding
• It’s not “get money to build it,” it’s “build it to get money.”
• Initial value is all about team + customers, revenue, and growth.
• Remember slide #1: Funding is only 14% of reasons for success.

23. 5. Timing (41%)
• Bill Gross says it’s the most important success factor
• Look at emerging trends.
• Are they good for you or bad for you?
• There are things that are out of your control
• Don’t be afraid to pivot or move to an entirely new idea.
• Luck is a big part of (big) success
• ProTip: Don’t give up your day job until your company is
generating more revenue than you are making.

24. Modern Methodologies
• Lean Startup Thinking
• Understand the Problem
• Collaborative Design
• Design & Prototype
• Test & Learn
• Iterate & Refine
• Design Thinking
• Empathize
• Define
• Ideate
• Prototype
• Test
• <repeat>
Everything starts with understanding the problem you
are solving and the people you are solving it for.

25. So what’s the plan?
① Validate your idea with customers.
Make pre-sales if possible. Can you fund building your product this way?
Don’t be afraid to pivot and modify your idea. Look for the pain and solve
the most painful problem.
② Can you contract it out?
I don’t recommend taking your last 30K and putting it toward a startup, or
cashing in your retirement – I’ve seen this done.
③ Build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
This will probably be your wall – finding a person to build it with you or
finding the money to build it. Having step 1 nailed will help. Look for
partners. Be willing to share your company. Try to bootstrap.
④ Test it on your customers -> generate revenue
⑤ Get feedback, make changes, test against new
customers, repeat.

26. It’s not easy…
“For an entrepreneur, every day is a crisis.”
- Phillip Knight, Founder of Nike
“The average time to create an overnight success is about
ten years.”
- Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon
“Based on data in CrunchBase we know that of all startups
that received seed funding, only a little over 5% reach a
series C.”
- Matt Kaufman, Head of Operations at CrunchBase

27. Understand the problem (Value Proposition)
Know your customers (Customer Segments)
Know how to reach to them (Channels)
…but it’s worth it!
None of these require money or special skills
Do 100 customer interviews, then you’ll have answers

28. “Today, not starting is far, far worse than
being wrong. If you start, you've got a shot
at evolving and adjusting to turn your
wrong into a right. But if you don't start, you
never get a chance.”
― Seth Godin, Poke the Box

29. Thank You!
Stuart Bertsch
stuartbertsch@gmail.com
Slides will be posted here:
slideshare.net/stuartbertsch

30. Resources
WHY STARTTUPS FAIL: https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/startup-failure-post-mortem/#20152update
WHY STARTUPS SUCCEED: https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gross_the_single_biggest_reason_why_startups_succeed
LEAN CONCEPTS
Ash Maurya has a great free intro course to LEAN concepts on Udemy.
See: https://www.udemy.com/lean-canvas-course
SEED FUNDING
Here’s a great rundown of a VC’s perspective on what a Seed program is and how you, as a startup, fit in.
See: http://vcwithme.co/2015/07/23/anatomy-of-a-vc-seed-program-and-you
CUSTOMER VALIDATION CHEAT SHEET
From APP Sumo (Noah Kagan)
http://stuartbertsch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/validation_cheat_sheet.pdf
Sell your product before you build it:
http://tommorkes.com/lean-launch-how-to-sell-an-idea-before-you-build-it/
Books Mentioned: Traction, REWORK, Venture Deals
Jobs to be Done (JTBD): https://jtbd.info/
STEVE BLANK https://steveblank.com/tools-and-blogs-for-entrepreneurs/
Sharing Equity http://slicingpie.com/
Coding https://www.udemy.com/the-web-developer-bootcamp/ ($200, on sale for $10)