1. Michael Montano
FOUNDER, BACKTYPE

5. IDEAS
The value of an idea is
approximately equal to the
time it takes to come up with
another one

6. Entrepreneurs spend too much
“
time worrying about protecting
their ideas and not enough
time launching them!”
—Mike Speiser, Sutter Hill Ventures

7. PRODUCTS
Most startups fail because they
don’t build something people
want

8. The minimum viable product is
“
the product that only has core,
tent-pole features so you can
ship a product that resonates
with early adopters; some of
whom will pay you money or
give you feedback.”
—Eric Ries, IMVU

9. ITERATION
Successful companies iterate in
response to reality

10. runway
# iterations =
speed of iterations
cash
runway =
burn rate

11. FAILURE
An entrepreneur’s education
comes from failure

12. “As an entrepreneur, you have
to get used to failure. It's just a
part of the path to success.”
—Mark Pincus, Zynga

13. VALUE
Create more value than you capture

14. Our mission is to organize the
“
world’s information and make
it universally accessible and
useful.”
—Google

15. TRACTION
Fear not getting traction

16. “The biggest problem facing
any website is distribution.”
—Reid Homan, LinkedIn

17. RISK
Tolerance for risk is a massive
advantage startups have over
incumbents

18. When PayPal first launched, it
“
was pretty clear that their
product violated the operating
rules for Visa, Mastercard and
American Express — and
violated banking regulations is
more than 40 dierent states.”

19. MONEY
Raising money is like finding a
black swan

20. http://www.venturehacks.com/

22. ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Be realistic about what you want

24. THANKS
E mm@backtype.com
T @michaelmontano