Presented at Kyiv FTW on December 1st, 2014

1. DON’T BE A F***ING WANTREPRENEUR
VITALY M. GOLOMB
@VITALYG
#KYIVFTW
DEC 1st, 2014

2. +Investor

3. cccstartups.com
@cccstartups

4. corporate
people
startup
people
P experts in one area
P years climbing ladder
P stable lifestyle
P real responsibilities
P life balance
P generalists
P early start
P cheap lifestyle
P nothing to lose
P nothing else matters

6. SO WHAT THE F***
IS A STARTUP?

7. A STARTUP IS...
an experiment in search
of a business model
- steve blank

8. SCALABLE
STARTUP
TRANSITION COMPANY
business model found
product/market fit
repeatable sales model
managers hired
break-even
profitable
rapid scale
new senior management
~150 people
“a startup is not a smaller
version of a large company”
- steve blank

9. A STARTUP IS A COMPANY
THAT IS CONFUSED ABOUT:
1. WHAT ITS PRODUCT IS,
2. WHO ITS CUSTOMERS ARE,
3. HOW TO MAKE MONEY
- DAVE MCCLURE

10. “A STARTUP’S DEFAULT
STATE IS #FAILURE. AS A
FOUNDER, YOU HAVE TO
WORK TO UNFAIL IT.”
- VITALY M. GOLOMB

11. why would you want to
start a company?

12. retire, play golf, die
get regular promotions
get in a good company
go to a good college
get good grades
normal career

13. startup career
if successful
what people think
it looks like
what it really
looks like

14. entrepreneurship
is a mental disorder

15. but it takes a
little crazy...
to change
the world

16. so, why are you doing it?

17. for the
money?

18. for the IPO money?

19. 250
200
150
100
50
number of tech
ipos since 1999
26
<50
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

20. funded startup
success rate
30%
unprofitable
30% fail
30%
somewhat
profitable
10% big
success

21. BY THE WAY...
#FAILURE IN
STARTUPS IS
OVERGLORIFIED

22. FAILURE IS
a hard lesson

23. the odds are against you
1st time founder 18%
repeat failed founder 20%
repeat successful founder 30%

24. you’ll get acquired if
you are lucky and good

25. freedom?

26. normal job:
one boss

27. startup:
every user
is your boss

28. have a family?
they will suffer

29. “as a startup ceo, i slept
like a baby. i woke up
every 2 hours and cried.”
- ben horowitz

30. feeling
defeated
yet?

31. founder and team morale
jess lee - “why startup founders are always unhappy”

32. good news:
you can improve
your chances

33. find a problem
you can’t live
without
solving

34. don’t build technology
looking for a problem to solve
solve a painful problem

35. what is all this lean bullshit?

36. lean = quick iterations

37. more chances to
solve the problem

38. more chances to #unfail

39. so what’s a good startup?

40. first things first

41. NOTHING MATTERS
MORE THAN TRACTION

42. solves a painful problem
for a specific customer

43. how can you be sure
you’re solving a problem?

44. HOW IS IT CURRENTLY
BEING SOLVED?

45. no competitors
=
no problem
=
no market

46. stop coding
get out of the building
talk to your customers
face your fears
validate assumptions

47. HARD? EXPENSIVE? SUCKS?
HOW ARE YOU DIFFERENT
AND BETTER?

48. F’IN

49. A RISING TIDE
LIFTS ALL BOATS

50. what’s your business model?

51. symmetric
customer pays
for experience

52. asymmetric
3rd party pays
for customer

53. DOES IT scale?

54. $4,000,000
$3,000,000
$2,000,000
$1,000,000
revenue
per employee $3.6M
$2.15M
$1.25M
$1.1M
$691K
$64K
Craigslist Apple Google Facebook Amazon McDonalds

55. don’t forget:
you are building a
repeatable business

56. measure everything

57. internet-driven
customer acquisition

58. main ingredient: team

59. hiring is hard

60. O much money
O stability
O support structure
O a long-term plan
P stock
P flexibility
P chance to make
a difference
what you
don’t have
what you
do have

61. BUSINESS
with domain expertise
DESIGN ENGINEERING
balanced startup team

62. what is your
unfair advantage?

63. ACCOMPLISHMENTS
MONEY RAISED?
PARTNERSHIPS?
GROWTH?

64. THE SILICON VALLEY FUNDING STACK
circa 2014
M&A / IPO
GROWTH EQUITY
$100M+ VC FUNDS
ANGELS/SEED VCs
ACCELERATORS
BOOTSTRAP/Friends Family & Fools

65. EUROPEAN FUNDING STACKcirca 2014
M&A / IPO
GROWTH EQUITY
$100M+ VC FUNDS
ANGELS / SEED VCs
ACCELERATORS
BOOTSTRAP
/ FFF

66. 2001 DOT COM CRASH
US VC FUNDS RAN AWAY FROM EUROPE
few, STRONG EUROPEAN VC FUNDS SURVIVED

67. IT IS EASIER TO STARTUP
ANYWHERE NOW THEN IN
SILICON VALLEY IN 1999

69. the new tools
of the trade

70. VENTURE
CAPITAL
IS CHANGING

71. YESTERDAY’S SEED IS TODAY’S SERIES A/B

72. YESTERDAY’S IPOs ARE TODAY’S ACQUIHIRES

73. SOURCE: STEVE BLANK

74. MEDIAN EXIT = $20M
SOURCE: SEED DB

75. WHY HERE?
WHY NOW?

76. EUROPE PRODUCES HIGHER
VENTURE EXIT MULTIPLES THAN U.S.

77. EUROPEAN EXIT ARE 25% SMALLER, BUT…
ENTRY VALUATIONS ARE 3-4X LOWER

78. EUROPE PRODUCES
1/2 AS MANY EXITS AS U.S.
AND 1/3 OF $100M+ EXITS
WITH ONLY 20% OF U.S. VC

79. MEDIAN CASH-ON-CASH
$100M+ EXIT MULTIPLE
4.5X
US
7.2X
EUROPE
2005-2011 SOURCE: EARLYBIRD, DOW JONES VENTURE SOURCE

80. EUROPEAN INVESTED
CAPITAL UP OVER 35%
IN 2014 ALONE
SOURCE: PITCHBOOK

81. BRACE YOURSELVES
INVESTORS ARE COMING

82. THE FUTURE FOR
EUROPEAN STARTUPS
IS BRIGHT

83. LOOKING FORWARD

84. WIN YOUR HOME
1MARKET FIRST

85. support/mentor
2the next generation

86. help build
the ecosystem
www.goo.gl/Y2nOL2
3
source:

87. want theSE slides?
follow @vitalyg

88. one more thing…

89. COMING IN 2015
download
1ST CHAPTER
free now
www.founderco.com
@vitalyg