mistakes you are about to make

MISTAKES YOU’RE ABOUT TO MAKEBill Hunt

bill@thomlex.com

Why This Talk?

Worked with 10 of the first Fellows

These are the biggestareas of course correction

I observed.

DON’T THINK SO MUCH!

I Want My Idea to be Perfect!

“I better dedicate lots of time to planning and

getting it right.”

Right?

Plan Less, Do More

If you work everything out up front• You will waste time on un-important parts

• You will miss important parts

Learning Loops

Do Something

Learn From It

Reduce the time to learn by tightening loops

Build an MVP

Be small and focus on the real value

Focus on early adopters.• NOT full-featured• Potentially ugly

Remember: This is an experiment, where the goal is to validate the

business model

YOU ONLY THINK YOU KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING

I Have a Great Idea!

“I need to hunker down and build it.”

Right?

Your Idea is Only a Hypothesis

Your Idea is a first-stab at what you believe the market needs.

Treat it like an experiment, not a long-term plan.

Markets are Discovered

Typical thought process:

Reality:

“I have an idea. I need to build itand convince people to buy it.”

A market need exists.

You need todiscover what it is.

Before any human knew that 1+1=2, it was already true.

Someone didn’t

invent addition

and convince others.

They discovered an existing principle.

Your Only Goal:Discover What the Market Needs

Learning Executing

Product Market Fit

You are HereYou Want to be Here

IN THE DARK

My Idea is Wicked Cool!

“I better keep it a secret.”

Right?

Stealth is Generally Really Bad

Many first-time founders think“If I tell people, someone will steal my idea.”

“I need to highly refine my idea or even build a complete offering before showing the world.”

The value you gain by sharing your idea

is enormous.

The risk you take is minimal.

Getting someone to steal your idea is really hard. Try it.

Get Feedback

Share your vision - keeping it secret will fail!

Speak with confidence, but be

listening for what is broken

Getting others involved gets them engaged and makes them part of the process

Talk to People that MatterYour friends will all say you have a cool idea

Find the people that will have to pay money for your idea to succeed• Potential customers• Investors• People who have a vested interest in saying

‘no’. (or ‘yes’ if you have what they need).

You need potential customers

to say something like

“If only I had the XYZ widget, I wouldbuy 50 today. I need a solution to myproblem and XYZ has the best/only wayto solve it.”

Feedback Specifics

Get real feedback!“Would you use this?”

“Would you pay to use it?”

“What is most interesting to you?”

“What is not important to you?”

“Do you use a competitive product?”

“What do you pay?”

Bad is GoodThere are bad spots in your idea.

The faster you can uncover them, the better.

Trial Close Them

“If I can deliver this, would you buy it?”

Understand how the money flows

Which party actually has the need?

Do they have money?

How does the money flow today?

Be Prepared to Change

9 of 10 Ideas are Crap – be open to change!

It’s rare that a successful company ends up where it started

FOREVER ALONE

It’s My Project!”

“I better do it all by myself.”

Right?

Get a Co-founder

•Distribution of responsibilities•Peer pressure•Support•Idea validation

Conclusion

Plan Less – Do More!

Engage Customers - Discover Your Market!

Tell Everyone Who Will Listen About Your Idea!

Get A Partner!

Questions?

Bill Hunt

bill@thomlex.com