1. Founders Institute
David Jones
Founder & CEO - StreetHawk
July 2014
www.slideshare.com/djinoz
@djinoz

2. Assumption:The FI Teams are:
‣ Professionals
!
‣ Non-technical
!
‣ Don’t have a product
!
‣ Looking forTech Co-founder
!
‣Will be seeking Seed Funding
!
True?

3. http://robgo.org/2013/10/29/a-seed-vcs-decision-tree/
Begin with the End in Mind
(Or at least the end of the beginning)

4. Lesson 1: Dream Big
(with free cautionary tale at no extra cost)

5. Lesson 2:Andrew Chen will save you time
Go get zerototraction from AC - actionable steps in pre-product/market fit

6. Getting to P/M fit
First to Market Fast Follower

8. Lesson 3 :Nail the Problem on paper
StreetHawk Example
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Months
Massive Opportunity
App Retention

11. Lesson 4: Revenue is a deodorant

12. david DOT jones AT gmail DOT com | skype://djinoz | Cell:+61 412 683 111 | @djinozdavid DOT jones AT gmail DOT com | skype://djinoz | Cell:+61 412 683 111 | @djinoz
Focus or Fail
In Australia you have limited resources and cash reserves
then focus is your most valuable discipline
if your hypothesis is wrong at least you “fail fast”
(picture credit: Mick Liubinskas/Pollenizer)
Don’t let
Perfect be the
Enemy of the
Good

13. Get to the Core!
DON’T GET HYPOTHESIS BACKLOG
!
The mistake we all make is to generate product ideas without proving
they are so valuable that your customer “must have it”.
!
Have a look at Lean Canvas:
- Method is to break out biggest risk hypothesis
- Test first to prove/disprove

14. Lesson 5: People Lie
So………

15. Validation Tip of the Day:
Look them deep in the eyes and ask for money

16. Lesson 6:Talk to the right people
Looking for 10x differentiation (paid or land grab)

17. Delusion: Picking the wrong metrics
speed though the loop before you run out of money and patience.

18. Gut-Data-Gut
When you don’t have a large enough sample size.
Sukinder Singh Cassidy!http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2900!
How many respondents are required for a good lean startup
product-market-fit survey?!http://www.quora.com/How-many-respondents-are-required-for-a-good-lean-startup-product-market-fit-survey

19. Product vs Sales Matrix
Calibrate the company to the product sales needs
!
Product needs selling, strong sales
piece. This is a sales-driven
company.
!
Product sells itself, strong sales piece.
This is ideal.
!
Product sells itself, no sales effort.
Does not exist.
!
Product needs selling, no sales effort.
You have no revenue.
Credit: Thiel
http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22405055017/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-9-notes-essay