Guest lecture I gave for Deakin university in Melbourne. It talks about my personal experience and the startup world: startups can be grouped in two categories; the ones following the VC funded approach and the ones following the indie hacking and bootstrapped approach.

2. 2
❑ My background
❑ VC startup way
❑ Indie hacking
❑ Info products
❑ Personal branding

3. My background
Industry
Startups
Academia

4. 4

5. 5

6. 6

7. 7

8. What do I want to do?
Industry
PROS
Real applications with users
Work in a team
Pay
CONS
Easy to get lost
Startups?
Academia
PROS
Your own project
CONS
Stressful

9. 9
❑ My background
❑ VC startup way
❑ Indie hacking
❑ Info products
❑ Personal branding

10. Find an existing project or people
Angellist
F6S CoFoundersLab LinkedIn

11. Follow advice / join an accelerator
📅 Is my idea any f#%!ng good?
In your area of expertise - Build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
📅 How to select co-founders and build great teams
Complementary skills
📅 First customers and growth
Product-market fit - Growth hacking - Sales
📅 Investors and fundraising
Good pitch
www.icebreaker.vc
www.antler.co
Some accelerators provide small salaries and good networks. Being located in a big city is important.
Nowadays there are plenty of relevant events for startups: e.g. Slush in the Nordics

12. How to be

13. Examples (close to me)
13

14. 14
NOW
Acquired by Snapchat
for 8M
For info about startups
you might look up on:

15. 15
Founded by Y-combinator $120K for 7% NOW dismissed

16. My attempts
16

17. Tywai
Advertisement placement with AI
• Built a team
• Built an MVP
• Not found product-market fit
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/startup-failure-reasons-top/

18. SciAR
Help lab experiments with Augmented Reality (AR)
• Scientific advisor
• Many competitions won
• Got initial funding

19. 19
❑ My background
❑ VC startup way
❑ Indie hacking
❑ Info products
❑ Personal branding

20. Turning side projects into profitable startups
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6reLWfFNer0
(and make > $50K a month)

21. Just do it
Code it up
(superpower)
No Code
https://twitter.com/bentossell/status
/1232412610278109190?s=20

22. Indie hacking and Bootstrapping
https://www.indiehackers.com/
https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/zero-to-sold/
https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/zero-to-sold/guide/
A community of people working on their
independent projects
(Also an indie project and acquired by Stripe)

23. Bootstrapping vs VC funded
https://twitter.com/mynameis_davis/status/
1297884332179238913?s=20
https://twitter.com/mynameis_davis/status/
1297884333626347520?s=20

24. Examples and
indie hacking
principles
24

25. Solve your own problem
https://www.feedbackpanda.com/
From the author of Bootstrapped Founder
(making $55K a month before selling it)
https://www.indiehackers.com/
podcast/086-lynne-tye-of-key-
values
https://www.keyvalues.com/
(making more than $300K a year)

26. Solve a small problem
https://closet.tools/
(making $35K a month)

27. Solution for a problem / get your audience first
https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/zero-to-sold/guide/ https://leanstartup.co/falling-love-problem/
“Fall in love with the problem not the solution.”

28. Test it fast
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/you-can-launch-a-business-with-a-google-sheet-424aac32bd

29. Test it fast, add a paywall
https://youtu.be/6reLWfFNer0?t=795

30. SLC – Simple Lovable Complete https://blog.asmartbear.com/slc.html

31. Open startups (sharing revenue) https://www.indiehackers.com
/product/closet-
assistant/revenue

32. Open startups (sharing revenue) https://twitter.com/alexwestco
/status/129576741489476812
8?s=20

33. Release it
https://medium.com/itemsy/5-non-obvious-lessons-learned-from-our-product-hunt-launch-c9371d543b38
https://www.producthunt.com/
Find your niche venue
otherwise
https://news.ycombinator.com/
https://www.reddit.com/

34. Not easy
https://www.indiehackers.com/
post/holy-heck-this-is-hard-
8ebe864174

35. My attempt in 2020

36. My attempt in 2020

37. 37
❑ My background
❑ VC startup way
❑ Indie hacking
❑ Info products
❑ Personal branding

38. Sell an info product
https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/
1301289861106683904?s=20
https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status
/1268622381964095488?s=20
https://twitter.com/dvassallo/
status/129621580102060441
6?s=20

39. Where to sell https://gumroad.com/
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/

40. 40
❑ My background
❑ VC startup way
❑ Indie hacking
❑ Info products
❑ Personal branding

41. Be your own brand
https://www.data-mania.com/
https://sirajraval.com/

42. You don’t need your own platform

43. Wrapping up
43

44. Do what YOU want to do
❑ VC startup way
❑ Indie hacking
❑ Info products
❑ Personal branding
I could tell you to read books like: The Lean Startup, The 4-Hour Workweek
but I started them and found them boring.
Don’t get stuck in a bullshit job.
"a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or
pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part
of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is
not the case."