How to make a startup become a scale up About today My background - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

How to make a startup become a scale up

About today…

• My background
• Latest startup tech trends
• The Nine Steps for Startup Success

1. Expectations 2. The Idea 3. Cash is King 4. Technology 5. Team 6. UAT 7. Branding 8. Promotion 9. The Ongoing

A bit about me…

Reload…

New ventures

Latest technology startup trends

Expectations – what everyone sees

Expectations – what it can be like

Expectations – first up, the tough

Timeframes vs reality - how long does it take to build a startup?

• 90% of start ups fail in the first 5 years.
• It’s really hard.
• Takes longer than you think. Sometimes 6+ months for the first sale.
• Plan for more time and money than you planned (add 1/3 contingency).
• Technology builds take longer than service builds.

Expectations – startups are awesome

Start up businesses are amazing

• Greater autonomy – be your own boss.
• Lead the strategy and growth of world

changing solutions.

• Build dynamic modern teams with your own

culture.

• There’s plenty of wins along the way – great

start ups celebrate them. Relationships

• Great long term networks.
• You’ll learn and educate yourself.

Expectations – startup community

The Brisbane start up community has great incubators.

The problem

What’s the problem you’re solving?

• Must be a world beating, globally scalable problem.
• Think global from day one, test MVP in Australia but look

global.

• Has your problem already been solved in a different way?

What will you achieve by doing your start up?

• What is the solution to your problem?
• Who will you impact?
• What industries are you disrupting?
• Who’s lives are you changing?
• What makes your start up unique?

Research

Research, research and then more research

• Don’t just Google it.
• Check on possible competitors.
• Look at surveys - Typeform, Google Surveys/Forms
• Talk to different people, go to industry meet

ups/events, travel and listen.

• Don’t stop researching as you’re building your start

up or during the growth.

• Many people change and “pivot” during the start up –

so new research might be needed.

Research - customers

Know your customers

• Who are they?
• How many are out there?
• What is their customer journey?
• What typical personas are represented by them.
• Where and how will you find them?
• What are their emotional triggers to purchase?
• What communication and engagement do they like?

Cash is king

Monetisation

• How will your startup make money?
• How much will people pay for it?
• Watch out for 30% app store fees…

What’s bootstrapping?

• Beg & borrow – self funded from any money you have
• Often means you go very lean in development and salaries
• Will help speed things up as you don’t have long to prove it

Funding lingo

Types of funding

• Bootstrapping
• High net worth individuals
• Private equity (PE)
• Venture capital (VC)
• Angel investors (angels)
• Bank/debtor funding – normally requires real estate equity
• Cash funded - reinvestment

Technology

“The Stack”

• Microsoft vs Linux (open source)
• Database - SQL vs mySQL
• Server - Apache vs IIS
• Code - PHP vs .NET
• Apps - Objective C – iOS
• AI - (C#, Python)
• Hosting – AWS, Azure, VentraIP

Team’s build startups

• Family & friends…you’ll need to work at it.
• Go for a written shareholder agreement.
• Set your purpose and values early.

Technology team

• Onshore vs offshore?
• Equity vs salary vs options?

Sales team

• Start selling from day one.
• Monitoring BDMs - measure KPIs/KRAs

Investors & suppliers are part of your team too.

Team – culture from day one

UAT – user acceptance testing

Don’t wait for the perfect product/service. Why is UAT important?

• Bugs can mean reputation problems.
• Users need to be involved and engaged – they test your MVP

.

Apps vs Websites

• Build a responsive website first.
• Prove app on iOS or Google Play.
• Apps can cost lots of money.

Branding

Start branding from day one…

• Founder is the best brand leader.
• Network, present & talk to many people.

Try branding yourself first

• Logo – Freelancer & Upwork
• T-shirt – wear it with pride ($15)
• Website - responsive before apps
• Founder social media presences – FB, Twitter, Instagram

activity

Promotion

Build a multi channel plan

• Digital / traditional / platforms / budget /

timeframe

• Match it to your customer personas and

journeys Low hanging fruit – social & digital

• Facebook still the “mother ship”
• Build chat bots through FB Messenger
• MailChimp for electronic marketing
• Buffer for social management & shares

Promotion, cont.

PR – it’s really important

• PRWire, SourceBottle,
• When you have some more money, hire a trusted & transparent PR

agent.

• They’ll need the right contacts in your target industries.
• They need to guarantee branding and engagement numbers.
• They must show clear reports.

Ongoing

Test & learn, fix mistakes. Most importantly learn from them.

• Revenue is everything. Watch cash bleeds too.
• Customers - type, behaviours & triggers.
• Technology – always enhance the platform. Is the hosting coping?
• Marketing – A/B split tests, dial up the channels that are performing the best.
• Team – people & hiring tweaks.
• Make it all about data – Analytics, dashboards & people pulse data.

A final tip…

Thanks!