I've got an idea. And now?
IED
Lesson 3
Frieda Brioschi
frieda.brioschi@gmail.com

Course program
1. Italian Startups
2. Set up a startup in Italy
3. I've got an idea. And now?
4. Value analysis
5. Business model
6. Communicate, communicate, communicate
7. Being net
8. Find your market
9. Funding: venture capital, business angel and other
ways of financing
10. Pitch

Today's table of content
1. Design and life cycle
2. From concept to company
3. Useful tools

Innovative startups: quick recap
During last lesson we investigated some laws,
regarding 3 areas:
1. startup regulation
2. labour agreements
3. intellectual property

Innovative startups: quick recap
We went through the definitions of:
• startup
• innovative startup
• startup with a social goal
• limited company (particularly ssrl, srlcr)
• liquidation & bankruptcy

Innovative startups: quick recap
Two examples of startup with a social goal
• Movie Reading
• HelpTalk

Design a project
• no ToDo list available
• every project is different, according to its story, your
team, the chosen field, etc.
• we can just identify some good practices and useful
tools

Design a project
Starting a project implies
• to have clear goals (both quantitative and qualitative)
• these goals must be reached in a fixed time
• using available resources (human and monetary)

Concept
Discuss your hunch as much as possible, and
evaluate every single feedback you receive.
If you want to patent your product don’t offer too many
details.

Life cycle
Planning
Analysis
Maintenance
Maturity
Design
Decline Implementation

Strategic planning
Prior questions:
• may I make money from my hunch?
• is it scalable?
• does it answer to a market need or am I trying to
create a demand for my product?
• Have I any competitors?
• Which is my target?

Product Vs Market
According to Steve Blank:
• new product new market
• new product existing market
• "existing" product segmenting an existing market,
acting on cost
• new product segmenting an existing market, creating
a niche
They differ for consumers, needs, perfomance,
competitors and risks.
http://blog.nicolamattina.it/2011/03/i-quattro-tipi-di-startup-sencondo-steve-blank/

Analysis
• Feasibility study
• Requirements
• Outline analysis
• Financial assessment
• Technology outlook
• Use cases

Feasibility study
A feasibility study is an evaluation and analysis of
the potential of the proposed project which is based
on extensive investigation and research to give full
comfort to the decisions makers.
Feasibility studies aim to objectively and rationally
uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an
existing business or proposed venture, opportunities
and threats as presented by the environment, the
resources required to carry through, and ultimately the
prospects for success.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feasibility_study

Use cases
Img by Kishorekumar 62, CC-BY-SA 3.0

Design
• Physical design
• Performance
• Usability
• Security
• Cross platform
• Certification

Outputs
• Placement
• Promotion
• Price

Implementation
• Prioritization of features (must have/nice to have)
• Testing

Maintenance
• Evolutionary maintenance
• other possible outcomes: maturity and decline of the
product

From concept to company
1. A great team with clear leadership
1. Never forget that "content is king“
1. Strong business model
1. Communicate, communicate, communicate!
http://marketingarena.it/2011/05/25/5-step-per-costruire-unimpresa-partendo-da-unidea/

http://bit.ly/912l9G

Formalization

Write my project
If everything is clear and well defined in my project, I
can write it down.
Main points:
• Abstract
• Idea (what's the key idea? Which target/market?
what's my goals? what's new in my product?)
• Action plan (people, time, space, equipment)
• Team
• Timeline (milestones)
• Budget
http://www.progettokublai.net/guida-alla-scrittura-del-progetto/

Help needed!

What is Kublai?
It’s an incubator for territorial project.
Implemented by:

Inside Kublai
A community where designers and experts meet together.

Which kind of projects?
• At any development stage (from hunch to project needing to be
redesigned from scratch)
• Economically sustainable
• Linked to the territory
• Offering (job!) opportunities

Activities
• Sharing project
• Collaborating to fulfill projects
• Looking for & finding partners
• Writing project documentation

What Kublai offers
• Tutoring & coaching
• A multi-skilled community
• Periodic information on grants, announcements, etc.
• A guide to useful tool
• Lifelong learning (learning by doing)
• Web conferencing meeting
• Real life meeting
• Common sense

Target
Everyone. Mainly interested in:
- 4 regions “obiettivo convergenza” (Calabria,
Campania, Sicilia, Puglia)
- Women
- Young people looking for their first job
- Second youth (40-50s + silver economy)

What Kublai does not offer
- Money
- Ghostwriter
- (designers!)

Project coaching
Project coaching is a professional consulting activity, providing
developmental support for individuals, project teams, enterprises and
communities, with the goal of supplementing and improving project
management capability.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_coaching

Business incubators
Business incubators are programs designed to support the successful
development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business
support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator
management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of
contacts. Incubators vary in the way they deliver their services, in their
organizational structure, and in the types of clients they serve. Successful
completion of a business incubation program increases the likelihood that a
startup company will stay in business for the long term: older studies found
87% of incubator graduates stayed in business, in contrast to 44% of all
firms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_incubator

Seed accelerators
Seed accelerators are a modern, for-profit type of startup incubator, with an
open application process, taking in classes of startups consisting of small
teams, supporting them with funding, mentoring, training and events for a
definite period (usually three months), in exchange for equity.
While traditional business incubators are often government-funded, generally
take no equity, and focus on biotech, medical technology, clean tech or
product-centric companies, accelerators are privately funded and focused on
mobile/Internet startups.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_accelerator

Next week
Value analysis.
(with Emma Tracanella)