The document discusses how entrepreneurs can leverage proven science and tools to enhance their chances of success while creating a vision for the future. It emphasizes understanding customer problems over solutions and encourages direct engagement to discover their needs. The content also touches on concepts like disruptive innovation and validated learning, featuring various frameworks and insights from prominent figures in entrepreneurship.

1. What Problem Are You Solving?

2. Zach Nies

3. @zachnies

4. Entrepreneurs have a
chance to create the
world they want

5. There is proven
science that can
improve your odds of
success

6. What world do you
want to create?

7. What does that feel
like?

8. Success allows you to
create the world you
want and live your
dreams

9. Why am I here
tonight?

11. Success, but they
weren’t living any
dream

12. Discover & promote
the tools that enable
success while living
the dream

13. How I got here

15. Font Sampler
http://media.kelbymediagroup.com/layersmagazine/images/columns/artoftype/may06/glyph-set.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caslon-schriftmusterblatt.jpeg

17. 2,500,000
customers

18. Vision: Civil rights and equality for all

22. Vision: Reinvent
collaboration

23. Amazing team,
exactly the culture I
dreamed of creating

24. Great product

25. One problem:
Failed the
Milkshake Test

26. Why am I doing this?

27. Live inside the Internet

29. Vision: Solve the world’s hardest
problems as citizen engineers

30. Some context
and some math

31. Gaussian distributions
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32. Power laws and Pareto distributions
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33. Other Pareto distributions
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34. High impact, low
probability events

35. An example

36. 8’1’’
2’5’’
3.3 x
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37. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%J>'*<5/,1%7C@B7A7C6B:

38. Bill Gates
The
Entire
150,000 x
Room

39. Business involves
Pareto
distributions

40. But wait, there’s
more…

41. 4 Dots

42. 6 Connections

43. 64 Patterns

44. 10 Dots

45. 45 Connections

46. ? Patterns

47. Patterns
35,184,372,088,832

48. In business a few
patterns are more
valuable than all
the rest

49. but which ones?

50. “The only valid model of a
complex system is the
system itself.
Murray Gell-Mann

51. Steve Blank
“Get out of the
building!”

52. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%*)'5>&=<K</<<%@86L6@9@MM:

53. Figure out
the problem

54. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%?=<&'0!,/%7M786L9L6L:

55. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%@B887LB8NO67%@9B@7BBLBL:

56. Anthropologist

57. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%0!>0?/)44)1/%9B8A6B@C6C:

58. No focus groups

60. Talk to people
in person

61. !"#$%%;;;+0',//P5+0,4%453&'0!)*<9%Q>'-<1<'6L6MRSTO+J#-:

62. Introduce yourself
to 3 other people
!"#$%%;;;+0',//P5+0,4%453&'0!)*<9%Q>'-<1<'6L6MRSTO+J#-:

63. Development
Marketing
Sales

64. Problem Team
Solution Team

65. Problem Team
Solution Team

66. For whom, what
problem are you
solving?

68. Finding prospects

69. “Customers don’t care
about your solution.
They care about their
problems.
Dave McClure

70. !"#$%%;;;+0',//P5+0,4%453&'0!)*<9%Q>'-<1<'6L6MRSTO+J#-:

71. Make a list of 10
people you could
contact directly or
ask for an
introduction
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72. Sketch out the
email or script you
will use
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73. Problem Interview

74. Who is
feeling the pain?

75. What pain
are they feeling?

76. How do they make
the pain go away
today?

77. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%'2<0,4%7C7CA9C7CB:

78. Testable
hypothesis

79. !"#$%%;;;+0',//P5+0,4%453&'0!)*<9%Q>'-<1<'6L6MRSTO+J#-:

80. List the problem
hypotheses you
want to test
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81. Problem Interview Overview
Running Lean by Ash Maurya, page 118.

82. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%*)'5>&=<K</<<%@86L6@9@MM:

83. Solution Interview

84. Problem Team
Solution Team

85. Who:
Early adopters

86. How:
Make money

87. What:
Primary problem

88. The
[feature name]
will solve the
[problem name]

89. Testing your
solution

91. Solution Interview Overview
Running Lean by Ash Maurya, page 142.

92. !"#$%%;;;+0',//P5+0,4%453&'0!)*<9%Q>'-<1<'6L6MRSTO+J#-:

93. Build the
boilerplate
for your
solution interview
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94. Innovation

95. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%&2&0U,%9MCMM6978@:

96. Typical
market research:
Customer
attributes

97. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%/<'#)0,=>-1>5%8L9@8@A9A:

98. Innovation
market research:
Addressing what
problem

99. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%/<'#)0,=>-1>5%8L9@8@A9A:

100. What is your
competition?

101. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%1?&')4%@L@8BA6A9A: !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%8@CCA@B7NO66%97AB9L68@6:

102. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%=)?<R5!<R-'&12R0&1K,1%M@@8B@C768: !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%J,'-<.'&V)=%9798@A@898:

103. Milkshake Test
What job is your
solution being
hired to perform?

104. Types of
Innovation

105. Sustaining
Disruptive

106. Sustaining
Disruptive

107. Sustaining
Disruptive

108. Is there a large population of
people who historically have not
had the money, equipment, or
skill to do this thing for
themselves, and as a result have
gone without it altogether or
have needed to pay someone
with more expertise to do it for
them? To use the product or
service, do customers need to
go to an inconvenient,
centralized location?

109. Are there customers at the low
end of the market who would be
happy to purchase a product
with less (but good enough)
performance if they could get it
at a lower price? Can we create
a business model that enables
us to earn attractive profits at
the discount prices required to
win the business of these
overserved customers at the low
end?

110. Is the innovation disruptive to all
of the significant incumbent
firms in the industry?
If it appears to be sustaining to
one or more significant players
in the industry, then the odds
will be stacked in that firm’s
favor, and the entrant is unlikely
to win.

111. Disruptive

112. Building the MVP

114. Validated Learning
Eric Ries

115. Design Thinking

116. Pirate Metrics
Running Lean by Ash Maurya, page 154.

117. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%*)'5>&=<K</<<%@86L6@9@MM:

118. !"#$%%;;;+I)0?'+0,4%#!,5,/%I&",#C78%997MALBCB:

119. Primary book that informed this talk

120. Other books that informed this talk

121. People who informed this talk
David Max Ash Clayton
Snowden Boisot Maurya Christensen
Frank H. Mark Eric
Knight Newman Ries
Steve
Blank