1.
Startup 101 - what I
learned the hard way
Pieter Eerlings (@pietereer)

2.
For who?
● Thinking about starting your own business?
● Just started?
● Running a business but working hard for
little money?
→ This presentation is for you!

3.
Goal of this presentation
● Make you earn more
● Make you work less
→ If I knew all of this before I started, I would
earn more today, and work less.
→ I learned most of it by making mistakes.
→ I'm fine with that. Bouncing your head
against the wall is the best way to learn & never
ever ever ever make the same mistake again.

4.
About me
● Pieter Eerlings
● Founded web application and mobile agency
Zorros 3 years ago (service business)
● 7 people today
● Working on some SaaS applications
(product business)
● Bootstrapper
● Saxophone player
● Father

5.
The mandatory emo slide to make a
connection with the audience

6.
BEFORE
STARTING

7.
If what you are doing now is not
making you happy,
you have nothing to lose.

8.
YOUR
COMFORT
ZONE
WHERE MAGIC
HAPPENS

9.
What is your goal in your life?

10.
Your business has to serve you.

11.
Have a cofounder? Prepare your
divorce before getting married.

12.
HAVING A
THE
BRILLIANT IDEA
FIRST $
SUPER HARD WORK
An idea is worth
NOTHING without execution.

13.
The best way to learn to swim
is to dive.

14.
"Don't start a company unless it's an
obsession and something you love.
If you have an exit strategy, it's not
an obsession"
– Marc Cuban

15.
Product or service?

16.
Don't try to be the next...
Don't try to be the next Facebook.

17.
Lazer focus on a niche.

18.
YAY! YOU
STARTED

19.
People who tell you to write a big
business plan did probably not start
a company themselve.

20.
A mountain? A bear? A river?
Lions? A big forest?
Planning is guessing

21.
Focus on the next small thing

22.
Find your customers PAIN

23.
Solve their PAIN

24.
Build the minimum your customer
wants to pay for. Then (try to) sell it.

25.
Fail early, fail often (and cheap)

26.
1. present your solution
2. ask if clients would pay for it
3. NO? tweak your idea & back
to step (1)
4. YEP? congrats, you have a
business

27.
"Serve average food
to a hungry market."
– me, just now.

28.
Your job is to find a product/market
fit before you run out of cash.

29.
The first $ is the hardest.

30.
Cash is like air. You need it, period.

31.
It's about solutions,
not about features

32.
Keep it
SIMPLE

33.
How you build it is completely
irrelevant. It's about the SOLUTION

34.
"Many of life's failures are people
who did not realize how close they
were to success when they gave up"
– Thomas Edison

35.
ONCE YOU
HAVE YOUR
PRODUCT/
MARKET FIT

36.
Ignore competition.

37.
It is a rollercoaster.

38.
Work ON your business, not IN your
business

39.
Don't burn your time. Outsource.

40.
Investsetting up a money generating system. Don'tup your time
Invest your time in
your time in setting burn a
money generating system.
selling hours for money.

41.
It takes as much time to run a crappy
hamburger restaurant as to run
McDonald's.

42.
It takes as much time to be a full
time carpenter as to run IKEA.

43.
Being cheap is a great way to attract
toxic and greedy clients.

44.
Don't pray for unicorns.
Force your luck.

45.
VALUE
TIME
Done is better than perfect.

46.
Build up recurring revenue (in), cut
recurring costs (out)

47.
It's a marathon, not a sprint.

48.
Get 8 hours of sleep, sport and don't
drink liters of coffee.

49.
Wanna know more? Complaints?
Gossip? Suggestions?
http://blog.eerlings.com
http://twitter.com/pietereer
pieter@zorros.be