Trying to post useful general purpose stuff for fellow Fastlaners

[OliverR]

So I've been lurking around this forum for a while now, but haven't made any notable contributions. So I figured it's time to share some things that have helped me or I have found useful in some ways.

I won't be discussing what my business is or how much I make from that. Just sharing some things that have provided general value for myself.

NOTE: Some of the things might overlap with what might have already been discussed or mentioned on this forum. As I don't have the time to go over every single post ever made I'll just go ahead and post anyway

 

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[OliverR]

What to include in a business plan? (Should you ever have the need to write one)
This was sent to me by one of the top VC's in Silicon Valley after a question about business plans came up and have used this as a basic framework when the need to write one comes up. Hope this is of some use to some of you
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Thanks for the question. All I am getting from entrepreneurs recently are summaries and decks. The best business plans are written specifically for your own business, so no two are the same.



When writing your own business plan, some of the things to cover are:



Mission: We expect to be the premier company In this industry because

Vision: There is an opportunity to create a large business in this industry because, or there is a hole in the current thinking because

Ah ha moment: The founder discovered this opportunity when he was…

What you do:

How are you going to delight your customer. Who is your customer and how can you make it easy enough for that customer to adopt your product. Where is the friction to adoption. How many clicks does a customer have to make before customer satisfaction.

How you are going to make money:

Current state of the industry, market dynamics, market size, how you will redefine the market:

How you will gain a foothold, first year expectations:

What is your marketing strategy, ground game, air game, costs, virality, do customers become your sales people

Market segmenting: Who are your initial customers, what are their dynamics, demographics and psychographics

What is your pricing: High or low (only two choices) High margin and high service, or cost saving and standardization for customers

The big plan. What happens to your company over time. Does the product commoditize where you will have to continue to build new product, or is the product mission critical for the customer where you will add features to increase cost per customer

Manufacturing: Broadly defined, all great companies manufacture. They systematize what they do and make it a science. How will you systematize what you do.

Distribution: How do you get the product into customer’s hands. How do you find new customers. How do you more easily get existing customers to keep buying

Finance: How much money do you require for the next 18 months. What will you do with it. How many people do you need for the next 18 months. What are they going to do for you. What will your sales, costs and profits look like for the next 5 years. How will you collect money. Will you collect in advance like Tesla and Amazon, or will you collect after you deliver the product like Exxon or IBM. How will you pay your employees. How much stock will you give your 10th employee. Your hundredth.

How will you divide your stock. Who will be shareholders now. Who will be shareholders in the future, both employees and investors. How will the early investors make money. Show how your stock will go up in value on each round. Who will own what after four rounds of funding.

What is your offer for your stock now. Is it in the form of a convertible note or for stock.

What team members do you have. What are their backgrounds. How many of them are there. How many next year. What team members do you need to become successful. How are you going to find them.

 

[Mass]

Thank you Oliver

 

[OliverR]

Some of this might feel a bit too "start-upy" for some of you, but i'm gonna continue posting anyways.
So NEXT with what to consider when pitching an idea to investors:


You should be able to fit everything into 120 seconds
Cut everything that is unneccesary
4 main points (3 too little…5 too many)
Be concise
Adopt a persona….you are doing a performance
Be Confident…practice and control
Focus on your Presentation skills

Physical:
Mind your Posture
Align ears, shoulders and hips
use hands…palms up…shows openness
make eye contact…divid into sectors and pick someone from each sector (when pitching to a crowd)
No jargon….no fancy words that someone won't know
work on diction and pronounciation

On the night before:
be prepared….get into your zone…sleep…eat well…no partying
turn off the world … be by yourself…be nervous (little bit)
get a beer (only 1)


Organize your points very well:

NAMA
Need (25sec)
About us (40sec) (use visuals)
Market (40sec) (nuts and bolts…business model…who will use it…how we make money, identify a niche….who is our competition…impact) (Use visuals)
Ask (25sec) (how much we need….why we need it (last 15 seconds)

First 15 seconds are the most important

PRACTICE!!!

Be polite, cordious, respectful

 

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[OliverR]

Some things to consider when starting a company/start-up

TEAM:
Equity (will you give your employees equity?)
Who (who do you need and what positions do you need to fill to become successful)
Location (Will you have an office where employees are based or can working remotely work for you)

LEGAL:
Vesting (when giving equity to someone make sure it's based on vesting)
clerky.com (Don't want to advertise, but use smart ways to decrease your potential legal costs)

PRODUCT:
Get it out fast and wait for feedback
Launch
Measure your product….use the right analytics (I use mixpanel for some stuff)
Get your product into the hands of real people. You can use Craigslist for honest feedback, post an ad for product testing, pay them 25USD for 30min user testing, min 5 people, no friends, if possible invite them to your office and see how they use your product
3 week product cycle (collect data and update)
Build
Iteration (prototype, test, analyze, and refine your product or process)
Anything can be prototyped in 2 weeks (90% complete)
Fast cycles
Use your own shit (own your product and be proud of it, if you're not it will show...ie. CEO of Coca Cola can't be seen drinking Pepsi)

GROWTH:
Have a technical co-founder (If you are a business/marketing/sales person your life will be a lot easier if you have a someone who can prevent bullshit from contractors etc.
Good team
Quick product iteration
Use your product multiple times a day and share it with the rest of the world

FUNDRAISING:
Convince them (investors) to give you a term sheet
VC's chase 80% of deals and only 20% walk in door
Create a desirable package for what people will want to give money to
Talk about your product…grow quickly
Fundraise when you have growing product (you'll increase your chance of getting an investment and greatly enhance the terms)
Always ask yourself: How do I get growth? How do I spread the word?
Most people don't get funding
Getting a term sheet is a big deal


How to split equity?
Co-founders….equal (90%)
Reserve 10% total for:
employees
advisors 1/8 percent

TEAM:
Less then 10 people (Try to stay lean for as long as possible)

 

[OliverR]

Thank you Oliver

You're welcome

 

[Kevin Peter]

One gets completely involved reading the post. Thank you buddy!

 

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[OliverR]

Some thoughts on GROWTH:

Create the products that people love
Get a lot of people to touch that product

Lead generation:
Grow account from within SaaS
Organic traffic
Word of mouth
PR
Referrals
Viral loops…sharing…collaboration
SEO
Social
Freemium….in product promos
Forrest and gartner….analysts have influence
Track all the data…clicks etc.

Paid traffic
adwords…bing…social ads
Re-market to lost visitors…try to get people back…drop cookies…adwords…adwhirl

Partnerships
Affiliates….commision junction...
Co-marketing
Smb resellers….contact small resellers…so they know who you are when someone asks
Large resellers

Land account
Optimize website for self serve (trials…low price)….a/b testing for self serve
Webinars for lead capture
Trials conversion team…after trial engage with them aggressively…so they will convert
Lead nurturing…automated e-mails to leads…if no response in 1 month…do again etc. automate this process
Let people connect with you in different ways….e-mail…chat…phone…twitter
Have a buy now button next to the trial option
Expand account
Measure usage…engagement
Upsell licence or features
Renewals

Key metrics:
Customer Sat or NPS (net promotor score)
Monthly active users
YoY user growth

Marketing, sales, success and support are all connected!

Revenue is a result of acquiring and maintaining happy users

It's all about measuring metrics and experimentation

 

[OliverR]

One gets completely involved reading the post. Thank you buddy!

Glad you're enjoying this!

 

[OliverR]

A hack/tip for scrolling through this forum.

So from time to time I stumble upon threads that are 10,20 etc pages long. There's no real point to read through all of the posts in a thread. So what I do is only look at posts made by the OP or other relevant/high profile users. Usually the OP addresses the most relevant questions/issues that have been asked therefore you can grasp a lot more useful information in less time

 

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