In this session at George Washington University, Siavash Mahmoudian (@siavash) shares his experience on how to launch your startup as fast as possible.

1. How to Launch Your
Own Startup in 90 Days
Siavash Mahmoudian

2. Introduction
● Started computer programming when I was 10, built my first shooting game
with Pascal at 11, implemented my first Web Application at 13 sold it to my
school for $1600.
● Started coding remotely for companies in US at 15.
● Studied Industrial Engineering, Civil Engineering and Information Technology
in three different universities at the same time.
● Got 1st and 3rd prize in International Robotics Competitions
(Robocup 2007, Robocup 2009)
● Founded my first startup while I was at university.
● Came to US with H1B visa in 2011.
● Co-founded Breezio (formerly called Programming.com)
● Technical advisor of Company.com (Ranked #10 in the Inc 500 fastest growing companies)
● Have been speaker and mentor in Startup Weekend, Startup Grind, etc.

3. #GWUStartup @siavash

4. Startups!

5. Startups
vs
Small Companies

6. It’s very hard!

7. It’s very counter intuitive.
Like skiing. Lean back and you’ll fall.

10. (Idea + Product + Team + Execution)

11. (Idea + Product + Team + Execution) ⨉ Luck

12. Idea

13. Have an idea?

14. Does it matter?!

15. How to find it?

16. Explain your idea in
two sentences

18. You will spend your
next 5 years on it!

19. Define the market

20. Note Taking app

21. Validate your idea!

22. They will steal my idea.

27. Find a co-founder

28. Product

29. Build something that
users love!

30. Hand pick initial users
and talk to them

31. ● Build
● Show to users
● Support
● Get feedback
● Repeat

33. Start simple

34. Imagine the best
user experience

35. Do one thing
extremely well

38. “It drove hundreds of thousands of
people to the website. Our beta waiting
list went from 5,000 people to 75,000
people literally overnight. It totally blew
us away.”
Drew Houston, CEO of DropBox

41. Do things that
don’t scale

44. You can make something
that small group of people
LOVE, or big group of
people LIKE.

46. Focus on growth

47. Find the magic moment!

49. Define a metric

50. When your product
is ready?

52. Launch!!!

53. “If you are not embarrassed by the first
version of your product, you’ve launched
too late.”
Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn

61. The Algorithm

62. You Launch Quickly

63. Nobody Sees You

64. You Relaunch

65. Repeat!
Until they see you

67. Where to Launch?

68. ProductHunt

70. 1. Engage with a hunter
2. Ask them to post your product 5:00AM PST on
Tuesdays
3. Offer an exclusive deal to PH community
4. Do an Ask Me Anything
ProductHunt

71. 1. Betalist - 25,000+ early adopters, $129 to post
2. Erlibird - 40,000+ beta testers, $149 to post
3. Killer Startups - 5,000 potential users, $169 to post
Also answer relevant questions on Quora and
share your slides on SlideShare
Similar services

72. Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com

73. 1. My YC app: Dropbox - Throw away your USB drive (YC S07)
2. Show HN: Meteor, a realtime JavaScript framework (YC S11)
3. Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code (YC S11)
4. Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend (YC S11)
5. Show HN: Webflow - Design responsive websites visually (YC S13)
6. Show HN: We open sourced Lockitron's crowdfunding app (YC S09)
7. Show HN: We just built a site that saves lives (YC W13)
8. Show HN: Myth - CSS the way it was imagined (YC S11)
9. Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser (YC S12)
10. Show HN: Heap is a new approach to analytics. Just capture everything
(YC W13)
Hacker News

76. r/Startups
reddit.com/r/startups

78. Find Reporters
From Google News, Twitter

79. Find their emails
Use Mechanical Turk or Fiverr
https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome

80. Make a Press Kit

82. Send out Emails

83. Follow Up!
Follow Up!
Follow Up!

84. KickStarter

86. Things to do
before Launch

87. Gather Emails!

88. Share Buttons

89. Don’t Leave Popups
Sumo.com

91. Measure
EVERYTHING!

92. MixPanel

93. MixPanel

94. Google Analytics

97. International Student?
● International Services Office (ISO)
● GW Career Center
● GW Office of Entrepreneurship

98. Y Combinator
Startup School
Registration will close by March 27th

99. hexib.com/channel/startups

100. Questions?!

101. That’s it!

102. Backup Slides