16.09.2015

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Squeng®

Entrepreneurshipthere's a book for that

Paul E. Sevinç, Dr. sc. ETH Zürichhttp://blog.squeng.com/

Squeng®

Parts

• Start-ups• Doodle (doodle.com)

• Nezasa (nezasa.com)

• Standing on the shoulders of giantsdwarfs

• Ready, get set, go!• Founders

• Ideas

• Business models

• Starting up

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Start-upsDoodle (doodle.com)

Nezasa (nezasa.com)

Standing on the shoulders of giantsdwarfs

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Doodle (doodle.com)

• Keep it simple, Sevinç!

KISS

• No registration

• No installation

• No cost

welcoming

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Nezasa (nezasa.com)

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"A Startup is not a Small Version of a Big Company"

• Remember Iridium?

• Remember Webvan?

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"it is not the spoon that bends"The Matrix, 1999

• As it turns out, start-ups should not imitatebig companies

• Big companies shouldimitate start-ups

• We've come full circle: from Lean Startup to …

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Ready, get set, go!Founders

Ideas

Business models

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Founders

• A joy that's shared is a joy made double

• A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved

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Ideas

• The proof of the pudding is in the eating• http://paulgraham.com/altair.html

• http://avc.com/2015/02/is-this-a-good-startup-idea/

• Don't look for brilliant ideas, look for interestingproblemshttp://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

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There's no such thing as a freelunch• Free services and free products need to be

financed, too• by you (e.g., by not drawing any salary)

• by investors

• by third-parties ("multi-sided business model")

• Investors vs. Third-parties• https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1941-press-release-

37signals-valuation-tops-100-billion-after-bold-vc-investment

• http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2011/12/27/should-startups-focus-on-profitability-or-not/

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Pondering business models

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Advertising

Advantages

• The advertising pie isvery big

• Advertising works verywell for a few servicesand products

Disadvantages

• The competition is even bigger

• Advertising works badly for many services and products

• User ≠ Customer

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Freemium

• Free: basic features arefree

• Premium: advancedfeatures cost

• Flavor: x uses (in y time) are free, further uses cost

• Premium Doodle• launched in 2009

• continuous experiments wrt packaging, pricing, payment, trials, etc.

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And that's just the tip of theiceberg• According to Gassmann et al.,

"90% of the world's strongest business innovations spring from just 55 different business models"http://www.bmi-lab.ch/fileadmin/images/home/The_St.Gallen_Business_Model_Navigator.pdf

• Business-model innovation may be more important than product innovationhttp://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/creating-value-through-business-model-innovation/

• Apple's iEcosystem• Automattic's WordPress (~20% of the Web!)• Nestlé's Nespresso (or printers or razors or …)• Netflix's DVD rentalstreaming• etc.

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Starting upIn the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king

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Before incorporating

• "Do not start a startup in college. [...] There's not even a tradeoff here. You're not sacrificing anything if you forgo starting a startup at 20, because you're more likely to succeed if you wait."http://paulgraham.com/before.html

• Attend courses

• Look for free money:https://www.kti.admin.ch/kti/en/home/unsere-foerderangebote/fuer-start-ups/finanzierungsplattformen.html

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After incorporating

• Don't loose your sleep

• Keep looking for free money

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Software

• Before licensing any software, check whether you can subscribe to the MS Action Pack and/or participate in MS BizSpark

• Or go into the cloud:• http://office.microsoft.com/

• https://www.apple.com/iwork-for-icloud/

• http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/

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Learn to negotiate and sell

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Coaching

• Apply for CTI Start-up:http://www.ctistartup.ch/

• Apply for Venture Leaders:http://www.venturelab.ch/"I was worried that we would waste time on chitchatting and sipping cocktails. As it turned out, «venture leaders» is an intense business-training program that will help me much better face various challenges that still lie ahead for our company."

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Users and customers

• Listen to your users and customers• Good support for your users and customers is good

research for you

• "Everything is resolved...thanx so much for your help...that is, if you're a real person and not a computer generated response."

• But learn about their problems, not their"solutions"• "If I had asked people what they wanted,

they would have said faster horses." Henry Ford

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Never mind the unicorn

Innovation (overtaxed) Disruption (overrated)

• sufficient (really?)

• not necessary (really not!)

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Financing: family & friends

• Let family & friends invest in your company only if your family & friends are aware that in all likelihood they will never see their money again

• The terms of financing must be in writing

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Financing: BAs & VCs

• Don't sign any term sheet, participation agreement, or shareholder agreement without the blessing of an expert of your trust

• Valuating a start-up company is not an exact science• Too high a valuation could be disadvantageous

• Be clear about whether you prefer active or passive investors

• http://paulgraham.com/convince.html

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Financing: BAs vs. VCs

Business Angels

• Build to Flip

Venture Capitalists

• Swing for the Fences

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Recruiting

• http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/07/22/the-talent-myth

• "Here's a tip from someone who has read thousands of resumes. When you're applying to a startup, or a software company with less than, say, 100 employees, you may want to highlight the Banging Out Code parts of your experience, while deemphasizing the Middle Management parts of your experience."http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/01/02b.html

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Carrot and stick are a thing of thepast

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B-list celebrities

• Who represents the company outwardly?

• For lack of time, only one representative should do it if possible

• Are there personal reasons ("Look, ma', mypicture's in the news!") for more than onerepresentative?

• Are there business reasons (third parties have a relationship with the company and not with oneperson) for more than one representative?

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Get rich—but don't die trying

• You can feel good about founding a company to make boatloads of money

• You must not found any company only to make boatloads of money

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One more thing

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