An overview of how to reach Minimum Sellable Product (MSP) for early stage startups and Labs. Class offered via NY Fashion Technology Accelerator at AlleyNYC, course contributed by Koombea.
Koombea is a product development agency specializing in mobile apps and technology.
More information at koombea.com/MVP
6. 1. Understand a Current and Urgent Need:
•Do you understand the space and market?
(What direction its headed)
•Do you have one potential client already?
•Can you easily integrate with existing
systems? (software or otherwise)
7. 2. Provide Immediate Value:
•Do you ADD value? (revenues or profits)
•Can you bring something hard to get? (traffic,
sales leads, inventory)
8. 3. Strong Marketing Proposition:
•Can you explain what you want to do?
•Can you adapt your pitch easily?
•Do you have “the basics”? One pagers, page
link, email templates, a website…
12. Do not built it yet:
•If you cannot replicate the messaging for 10
other clients
•If you don’t know the “core features”
•If you don’t know how much you can charge in
the alpha or beta (otherwise you cannot
calculate a ROI)
13. Start building ASAP:
•If you have a list of core or minimum features
•You need an estimate or quote for technology
costs
•You can leverage existing technologies:
Mailchimp, Twilio, Sketch etc
14. …but… but…
•Beware of enterprise sales cycles
•If your app or solution “saves money” you are
not urgently needed
•Time is the enemy of all deals
•A signed contract is not the same as getting
paid
15. A Pitch Gone Wrong
“But Ellie… I’m on a rocketship”
Kent Anderson, Macys
16. Most startups don’t know how to make money
•Can you accept multiple types of payments?
(credit card, paypal, wire etc)
•Do you have an invoicing or billing system?
(Recurly, Stripe, Freshbooks…)
•Have you thought about pricing or terms of a
pilot program?
17. Exercise: Make an Invoice
As surprising as this may
sound, figure out how you
would describe what you are
doing and how it would look
with charges.
18. Have you found the gaps?
•Competitor products?
•Existing Systems (Enterprise)
•What are your main hurdles?
19. What Kind of Company Are You?
•Service: Uber, deliveries, logistics
•Product: Clothing, lotion, tangible goods
•Saas: web app, mobile app, something that
can be downloaded
•Backend: hardcore tech. Another story.
20. Newsflash: in an Agile world of
MVP and MSP we all start as a service.
The Question is:
How smart is your customer?
23. Smart Customers = Smart Success
If you don’t respect your customer or
understand their niche and important value,
then your customer isn’t “dumb” your market
isn’t big enough
24. “But I want to disrupt”
Don’t slip.
Remember Rule #1
27. If You Cannot Make Money
• You are not solving a problem
• You have not convinced someone of your ability to
execute
• You cannot “disrupt” if you cannot pay your bills
28. Are You Your Own Customer?
How many of “you” are out there? 10 or 10,000 or
10,000,000?
29. Short Checklist
• Do you already have a customer?
• Do you know what you do?
• Is this in your are of expertise?
• Can you poach expertise?
• How fast can you build?
• Do you have time or money?
30. How Do You Accept Feedback?
Have you setup a system yet to track feedback
and organize notes from your users and
customers?
Smart Feedback = nothing without implementation
32. Orange Flags
•Feedback takes more than three (3) business
days
•The customer has never done this before or
worked with a small company
•More than one signoff is needed for changes
•You tell the customer what they want
33. Red Flags
•The customer doesn’t like to use email
•The company doesn’t or hasn’t worked with
startups before
•There are expensive old systems to overhaul
•You need a lot of “inventory” first
34. Fake Red Flags
•The company or enterprise wants you to meet
or work with their accelerator or lab
•Diligence around company valuation and IP
•Customer list is requested
35. Disclaimer to Founders:
•If its easier to copy your idea than work with
you, then your idea isn’t good enough.
45. Customer Validation Resources
“How to talk to customers & your
business is a good idea when everyone
http://momtestbook.com/ http://www.stevenblank.com/books.html
The Lean Startup approach to new ventures.
46. 3. Ideas to stay away from
Marketplaces “Social network for x”
Feature driven softwares
47. v
More than 1000 companies
funded for the Instagram
vertical…
Only one got acquired.
49. • Concierge MVP.
• Start small & solve one
problem.
• Reduce risks.
4. Getting started
50. Getting started Resources
Paul Graham talks about not letting your ego get in the
way and to do things that don’t scale.
“Doing things that don’t scale.”
http://paulgraham.com/ds.html
56. 3 Costly Mistakes
1. Worrying about problems you don’t
have.2. Spending too much time on your first
release.
3. Not validating the problem enough and
showing the value you provide.
58. It’s important to find a partner or agency that
will drive you to achieve in your objectives.
59. Or you can learn to code
http://teamtreehouse.com/ https://www.codeschool.com/
60. Stop waiting and start doing. You
don’t need to be technical to start it.
61. The first 2 steps.. You NEED to do
1. Pick a person/niche
2. Do a Sales Safari/consumer behavior
research
62. *Make a list of potential websites,
channels, places & sources.
Coffee shops, parks
Train stations, bus stops
Mom blogs
Facebook groups
Websites
63. Make a list of keywords,
problems, & phrases
• What are your keywords?
• Is your branding aligned with your customers?
(ie. Blues or reds or language)
• SEO: start thinking now
64. Focus on the people you’d like to help
3. Their current solutions
2. Their goals & problems
1. Type of
customer
66. Going from “Service” to “Automation”
2. Tasks & Processes in those
jobs
1. Jobs they hire
you for
Example? Dashable, checkins
67. Bridge the real-world w/ the digital world
2. Inefficient processes
and pointless problems
1. old industries
68. Be careful with your Costs for
Acquisition.. It’s usually much more
than you think.
69. Example:
• HR software costs a lot
• You think you could make it for a lot cheaper
than that.
• So what happens?
70. Make something w/ less steps
Human Desire Steps in current
process
Example? Blogging, which is web publishing with fewer steps
Communication, self-
expression, travel,
shelter, education,
dating,
entertainment,
showing off, gaining
wealth, creativity,
71. What will be huge?
Growing niches
Example? Digital media
Rising cultural
trends
Rising tech trends
Strongly held
beliefs about the
future
73. Selling Checklist:
1.Can you quickly train a sales rep?
2.Is there a central place for product
information?
3.Could your grandma sell it? (Family is the 1st
referral source. Friends second)
75. Tips for Selling:
•Don’t be afraid to cold call
•If you don’t want to tell strangers what you are
doing, its not a big enough idea
•Make it EASY for the customer to pay and
move on