Corporate Innovation:

What Corporations Can Learn from Startups

(and what startups SHOULD already know)Zachary Cohn

Partner at LIFFFT

So… how do you compete?

“To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.” – Sun Tzu

Lesson #1: Be Problem Focused, not Solution Focused

OLD AND BUSTED

Stuff people don’t care about:

Corporate initiativesInternal PoliticsIndustry TrendsFeaturesTechnology

Stuff people do care about:

Having their problems solved

NEW HOTNESS

Build What People Want To Build.

VS.

Build What People Want.

Lesson #2:What Eric Reis Got Wrong

Invalidate assumptions by talking to people…

Not by building MVPs.

Step 1: Talk to people, learn about their problems.

Step 2: ???

Step 3: Profit!

Just kidding.

Step 2 is build a product that solves their problems.

Arguing about whether to include Feature X or not?

Stop with the conjecture.

Instead…

Lesson #3: 100 Startups Tackle a Problem. 99 Fail.

Big companies have a big advantage.

Why be a cockroach, when you can be a

swarm?

You can try 100 things YOURSELF!

Lots of false starts.

Recap time

How can big companies stay

innovative?

Recap timeFocus on the Problem

Recap timeFocus on the ProblemDon’t jump to Lean Startup

Recap timeFocus on the Problem.Don’t jump to Lean StartupExperiment. A lot.

Corporate Innovation:

What Corporations Can Learn from Startups

(And what startups SHOULD already know)Zachary Cohn

Partner at LIFFFT