from innovation to a productfiles.meetup.com/495466/from innovation to product.pdf · • marketing...

From Innovation to a ProductPractical steps to go

Ehud Spiegel

[email protected]

M: +972 (54) 8181623

www.mobilliance.com

Twitter: @Innovation2P

©Ehud Spiegel All Rights Reserved

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.mobilliance.com/

https://twitter.com/Innovation2P

Topics

• Team building

• Company stages

• Product stages

• Making a good PoC

• Investments and Partnerships

• IP and Patents

• Subcontracting the noise


As You Start

The Garage Stage: • Pre-development (wait to start coding)• Phased feature set• Initial product map and go-to-market strategy• Outline PoC (Proof of Concept) • Elevator pitch & one pager• Initial Fundraising

Recruit Experienced Leaders• Part time, free-lancers or subcontractors preferred to full time• Focus Marketing and Business/Go-to-market

Think, think and re-think until you have the basis

Building the Initial Team

• In the first stage, insisting on 100% commitment might backfire

• Often its not needed in the early phases• dedicated staff is difficult to find early on…• …and will typically hesitate between alternative offers• Are expensive and beyond the pocket of pre-seed companies• Missed opportunities - full time staff might prevent the company

from using other resources with expertise that could accelerate time to market

• Drastically reduce costs by using part-time resources


The Leading Team

The Founder/s• A Beacon for leadership

• Committed – and obsessed

• 100% of time – At least 100% of the free time

• Practical tolerance to other members of the team/your volunteers• The aren’t charging you as much as they could get elsewhere

Leaders• Based on time/money capabilities but fully committed to the project

• Willing and capable of pushing opportunities

• Require REAL future rewards upon success

Leaders Rather than Managers are Required for Early Start-ups


Initial Product Stage

Pre-development

• Innovation IN GENERAL

• Competitors

• Competitive advantage

• Potential customers

• Innovation in more details and IP check (if relevant)

Product road map

• What is the MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

• Go to market plan

• Development plan

• Refine 1-Pager and a Pitch-Presentation


Company Stage 2

Product & PoC

• Stabilize product and go-to market plans

• Start/continue work on PoC:

• Minimize scenarios

Marketing and Business Development

• Create budget and milestones

• Improved 1-Page, elevator pitch, Executive Summary

• Marketing / Go-to-market polishing / Initial partnerships

• Successful PoC is a milestone for initial discussions on strategic cooperation

Next Investment Raise

FOCUS – Develop a PoC and set milestones for next round of financing


Investments and Strategic Partnerships

• Strategic partnership• Partnership with a joint offering – not just your product

• Partner with companies that have a pre-existing use base for your product

• Strategic investment without a partnership is tempting, but a bad idea

• Best Investors: Balance between don’t be choosy & trust• Pre seed

• Friends and Family - carefully• Israeli Government funding: Tenufa, EcoMotion, etc• European Funding: CSO, Horizon 2020

• Post seed/Round A – The Critical Raise


Making a ‘good’ PoC

Flow diagrams are the basis of all work going forward – accuracy will save time

• Applications, servers, Users

• No dead-ends, all major use-cases are covered

• The PoC should be evaluated against reference sets and case studies

• Consider that certifications / authentications / registrations can be 30%-40% of flow & coding issues

• Minimum Viable Document

Use sub-contractors for needed expertise that are not pure core

• Required expertise at lower cost than full time employees

• Use ready-made tools and infrastructure like Yee

• Spend with them at least half a day in a week. Do the ‘practical’ QA yourself.

A GOOD PoC IS NOT A PERFECT PoC, but it allows you continue to next stages


Product stages (2)

Development

• PoC (Proof of Concept)

• MVP (Minimum Viable Product) optimizing for future development

Marketing

• Initial customers

• Strategic customers

Closed trialsMarketing to refine MVP

Develop MVP

Live trials


Subcontracting

Marketing

• Refine the Elevator Pitch & One Pager

• Website development

• Marketing/Investor Materials

• UX and GUI

Focus on the Core Technology – consider subcontracting the ‘noise’

Business Development• Work with a good mentor on the business plan and

subcontract detailed plan• Have an external company with a proven success

records to write your Horizon 2020 proposal - The effort is huge, and the success rate is few presents. The reward is great!

• Some of the business development

Technology

• Non-core R&D

• Servers, IT, Cloud

• Core when there is expertise outside the company


IP & Patents

• Is there an IP?• What is the actual novelty?

• How is it compared to competing products?

• When is the right time to submit a patent?• First patent might also be a time bomb when going to next steps $$$

• Minimize on submissions (and locations)

• First patent might also be a poison pill if not written well

• … is it really THE FIRST? – or after a month of two the ‘real’ novelty is found?

• Where & how to submit first patent application?• PCT? Provisional?

• … following stage might be?

• Possible compromise: Provisional application, WELL WRITTEN, in US©Ehud Spiegel All Rights Reserved

Summary• If done right, ‘Innovation to Product’ can be efficient

beyond initial expectations

• Your team is the most valuable resource – lead them accordingly with utmost care and respect

• Stay focused while using others to help with the essential non-core elements

• Link the Go-to-product and Go-to-market strategies and implementation

• IP development, investments and partnerships should be carefully planed & executed


Mobilliance: Results-driven innovation leadership Contact: Ehud Spiegel M: +972 (54) 8181623

[email protected] www.mobilliance.com Twitter:@Innovation2P

Utilizing vast experience and out of the box-thinking, to shorten ‘Innovation to Product’ cycle along with drastically reducing costs

• Identifying and overcoming major technology barriers, evaluating the solutions and mentoring making them come through

• Combining technology and business aspects to go to market strategy

• IP research and promoting patents portfolios

• Product marketing, UX & UI, business plans and financials

• Strategic consulting for entrepreneurs and founders

• Joining forces with a superb team, and matching subcontractors as needed

Experienced in the fields of Smart Cities, Transportation, Advanced Networks, computer Vision, Media & Messaging, Mobile & Cloud-based products


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.mobilliance.com/

https://twitter.com/Innovation2P

from innovation to a productfiles.meetup.com/495466/from innovation to product.pdf · • marketing...

Documents