The Art of the Start(for entrepreneurship)
1. Make Meaning, to change the world (the best reason to start) – Quality of life – Right a wrong – Prevent the end of something good
2. Make Mantra (not mission statement, slogan?) – Short, Unique, Memorable – Mantra is for employee, why do we exist – 3-4 words what we stand for
eg
Wendy’s – Healthy Fast Food
FedEx – Peace of mind
Nike – Authentic athletic performance
Target – Democratize design (great design at economical price)
Joke – Dilbert Mission Statement Generator
3. Get Going – Think different (not 10-15%, but 10 times better) – Polarize people (not for everybody, if a perfect product it is mediocre) – Find a few Soul Mates (to balance yourselves off)
4. Define a Business Model – Be specific (the Q: Who is my customer? and How can I get money from them? – Keep it simple! (Cost, Price, Gross Margin) – Ask Women (men just want to kill)
5. Weave a MAT (Milestones, Assumptions, Tasks)
(A pure beautiful ice or snow track, very difficult to Prioritize)
Milestones – agreement, finish design, shipping software
Assumptions – sales call per day, customer ROI, installation cost – write them down and test them
Tasks – rent an office – help accomplish milestones and test assumptions
6. Niche thyself
Marketing in one slide
Vertical Axis – Ability to provide unique product or service (so not to complete on price)
Horizontal Axis – value to customer
7. Follow 10/20/30 rule – 10 slides on Powerpoint (Title, Problem, Solution, Business Model, Underlying Magic, Marketing and Sales, Competition, Team, Projections, Status and Timeline) – shorter than 20 minutes – smallest font size is 30 points (only important point, you must know, do not read it)
8. Hire infected people – Ignore the irrelevant (work experience, education)
someone who love the product – Hire better than yourself (if you are A, hire A+) – Apply shopping center test (only hire people who you would jump at them!)
9. Lower barrier to adoption – Flatten the learning curve – Do not ask people to do something that you would not do yourself (wait – Embrace your Evangelists (someone who want to change the world with your product and bring good word forward, embrace them)
10. Seed the clouds (to make sale) – Let a hundred flowers blossom – Enable test drives – Find the true influencers (those who do the work)
11. Don’t let the bozos grind you down
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