Lessons from a failed startup
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1) The document discusses lessons learned from the failure of the author's startup. 2) It provides advice in four areas: team, product, execution, and general lessons. 3) The advice includes focusing on the target market, having clear roles and a shared vision of quality for the team, acquiring early users to drive growth for the product, and prioritizing activities that provide immediate value for execution.
Lessons from a failed startup
- 1. Lessons from a failure (mindigno.com) Heard many times by many startups, but I feel like saying it again. All the following things happened to our startup. Stefano Uliari
- 2. TEAM
- 3. #1 You must know (or be part of) the target market “We invented a car without ever driving one before” ! • At least one person in the team must be involved in the target market. ! • “I will get involved” does not work.
- 4. #2 When you think of dream team, think of boat race teams We had different rhythms, different styles, different paths. ! • founders should have already worked together ! • ideally a startup should be the prosecution of a path begun much before ! • roles should be clear, no overlapping
- 5. #3 Define quality “Ok, the report is finished”. “Don’t you see that it’s mess?” ! • Founders must share the same definition of quality: otherwise it’s very hard to define it later and it is an infinite source of discussions.
- 6. #4 Lack of experience ! Experience is a turbo: it really helps when the road is steep.
- 7. PRODUCT
- 8. #1 Segment your market and find your early adopters ! We were convinced people (yes, I said people) would just need our product. Period. • Marketing to everybody is like marketing to nobody. You need to convince a specific group of people first. ! • Satisfying your early adopters is the engine of growth and it will create your unfair advantage.
- 9. #2 Define a value proposition and be ready to change it Value proposition does not reflect your vision. Only investors care about your vision. • The value proposition must convince users that your product is useful now, not as soon as more people will subscribe. ! • Product/solution fit and market fit define your value proposition.
- 10. #3 Your lean business model canvas is the product All pieces in the canvas must fit together like a puzzle. • If you keep this in mind, you’ll better control your startup and be ready for changes.
- 11. #4 Users drive the product Do you want to accomplish your vision (with a big risk of failure) or is it ok to end up with a totally different successful product? • Less dreams and more flexibility (this was hard to accept..)
- 12. Execution
- 13. #1 Acquiring users/customers is super hard, and it is your aim Learn for traditional activities: they do everything to get customers, they never stop. Their product alone is not enough. ! • Internet is no different: if you want to get users/ customers, you must work on it day by day.
- 14. #2 Go Agile “We are only 3 people, we can avoid using a kanban”. No! ! • A team needs total transparency. “I’m in charge of this and I will let you know” leads to argues. ! • Measuring your team productivity is the only way to get it better.
- 15. #3 Do only what gives you an immediate value to your startup ! “I migrated to a new database in order to be ready for the day we’ll have 1.000.000 users” • Everything not strictly necessary to the definition of your business model and the creation of the MVP should be left outside. ! • It’s hard to decide when something has a value, but it’s worth thinking about it.
- 16. #4 Don’t hire interns when you’re so small: your business need expertise and you don’t have time to waste “This programmer looks promising, we’ll definitely need him when we’ll be big” ! • hire or contract somebody who can bring value to your startup immediately. !
- 17. Finally .. ! A startup is a business which needs to grow fast. It’s that simple, but it’s worth repeating it.