• Translation

Bob Dorf is a well-known entrepreneur (led 8 companies to IPO), consultant and mentor of the Startup Academy, who began his career in business when he was 12 years old. Today he is a welcome participant in many conferences, because like no one else he knows how to create successful startups, stand firmly on their feet and turn them into large companies.

Recently, Bob Dorf spoke at the Business of Software 2012 conference, where he spoke about the basic principles of living a "healthy" startup. To your attention are the main theses of his speech, in which I sincerely believe and try to use every day:

Why do most startups fail?

• Most of today's startups are impossible to scale, they fall apart due to the lack of a large number of loyal users and customers who are passionate about the product.
• Writing code is only half the job. Today, technology allows you to create almost everything that fantasy is capable of, so the ability to determine the exact portrait of a potential client, as well as find it in the general mass and “fall in love” with your product, comes first.
• If you are passionate about your idea, then after 20,000 hours of hard work, you will have a 1 in 8 chance of success. The only way.
• Each team needs 3 people: "hacker", "businessman" and "creator". Every morning, the "hacker" and "businessman" should have mini-meetings. After discussing the key issues, the "hacker" should devote himself to creating a product, and the "businessman" to finding the ideal client.
• Half a century ago, the success of a company depended on how the entrepreneur overcame obstacles, on the process. But times have changed.
• Most startups die because they think that:
  A) know their customer
  B) know their product
• Founders see everything as a linear process: “concept - prototype - test - launch”, and they make a lot of mistakes in doing so.

The business plan is the #1 startup enemy.

The business plan has to do with creating creative texts, but not to the development of a real business.

Don't stop asking yourself, "What can I change to make the product better?" Always try to get feedback from users and customers.

Test your business model! Any, even the most elegantly written, business plan will not stand up to scrutiny at the first meeting with a real client. The Webvan example is very instructive.

What is a startup for me? This is a gang of pirates who get together from time to time to match the pieces of the "map" and see if they are moving in the right direction. Always be on the lookout. Only after a detailed analysis will you be able to understand your "business plan" based on nothing but bare facts. There is no such “documentary” concept of “a startup with an expectation of 8 years”, there are real “several years of ups and downs”.
A startup needs an action plan rather than a business plan. In this sense, Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas fits perfectly. It has 9 components (main blocks of questions), the most important of which are:

• Benefits Offered – What problem are we solving?
• Consumer segments – Who do we solve it for?
• Relations with customers - Where do we find them, how do we make them loyal and how do we increase their number?
• Revenue Streams - How do we earn?

Customer segments should be defined as clearly as possible. Successful relationships with clients are the constant fulfillment of our duties to them, the justification of their expectations.

Build a business model with multiple partners. When you're done, you end up with a product that satisfies the needs of the market. But your canvas is just 9 thoughtful guesses! How to turn assumptions into facts? That's right: go to your potential customers and ask them! This is how good customer relationships are built.

Customer Relations

Customer relations is the process of setting the criteria for an "ideal" customer, justifying and approving them, adapting the product, finding customers and, finally, building a company around their needs. The first three stages are classic stage"search" in the process of company development. The turning and key moment, as a rule, occurs just at the “search” stage. The very process of searching and building a company is already the “action” stage.

"Search" is the defining stage. How to put your plans into practice correctly, you will be taught in any decent business school. And only in the process of searching, you yourself must choose those of your assumptions that, in your opinion, are correct.

Prototype / "pilot" sample

The entire search process begins with the creation of a prototype. Create a product with a minimal set of features, a test sample for new ideas.

If you want users to start interacting with your product, create a “toy” for them as soon as possible! Even if it doesn't work to the end: the reaction of users to the prototype is many times more valuable than their reaction to your words about the imminent launch of the ideal product. After all, it is their feedback that invaluably helps to improve the product itself!

A prime example of the value of prototyping is Diapers.com. The creators launched a website and began taking orders for diapers even as long as they actually had them in stock. Entrepreneurs just wanted to see if their idea was worth developing further. As a result, they spent a lot of time buying diapers from all over the city and delivering them from other parts of the country. The number of orders was growing, and the project already needed a truck to deliver the orders. The founders lost money in the process, but they didn't set themselves the goal of self-sufficiency. They were just testing the chosen business model. The benefits offered are what they took as a basis in the process of communicating with customers.

Decreased sales are only a small price to pay for the information you get from testing.

The prototype is your primary communication tool with the client. The faster you create it, the faster you will get answers to questions:

Is it all that bad?
What qualities allow our competitors to meet your needs?
What can make our product better?

A turning point

Pivot is the essence of customer relationship. Pivot is an iteration between creating a client profile and searching for it. A “pivot” is always swift, but it opens up new opportunities.

Change only if 20-40 of your customers say something is wrong. Ignore one-time complaints

For any changes, go back to evaluating the business model, then go back to your customers and see if things are getting better. The product adaptation process cannot be delayed, it cannot be avoided. As the creator of the product, you MUST go through it!

Usually changes in the process of product adaptation in large companies lead to the dismissal of employees. In a startup, this process is a “holiday” because it helps to modify the product in order to attract even more customers.

The main problem here is hasty decisions. Make sure you have collected enough data feedback to make changes? 3 people said bad things about your product, and you are already in a hurry to change something? Take your time: find a dozen more similar opinions before making life-changing decisions.

The faster you manage to change, the less money you lose: the pivot is a ticking time bomb.

How to stop in time?

There is really no end point in the process of creating a product, but you can always slow down the modifications when you understand who your client is and how he uses the product to meet his needs.

The business model canvas is your landmark, the map of your business and the road to your customer.

Make sure that all your assumptions are tested on the client - test runs are the main ones in determining the degree of product readiness.

And remember: the most important client is a passionate client, because he, like you and your investor, wants to bring your product to perfection.

October 20, 2012 at 04:27 pm

Bob Dorf: How to work on a startup

• Startup Academy Blog

• Translation

Bob Dorf is a well-known entrepreneur (led 8 companies to IPO), consultant and mentor of the Startup Academy, who began his career in business when he was 12 years old. Today he is a welcome participant in many conferences, because like no one else he knows how to create successful startups, stand firmly on their feet and turn them into large companies.

Recently, Bob Dorf spoke at the Business of Software 2012 conference, where he spoke about the basic principles of living a "healthy" startup. To your attention are the main theses of his speech, in which I sincerely believe and try to use every day:

Why do most startups fail?

• Most of today's startups are impossible to scale, they fall apart due to the lack of a large number of loyal users and customers who are passionate about the product.
• Writing code is only half the job. Today, technology allows you to create almost everything that fantasy is capable of, so the ability to determine the exact portrait of a potential client, as well as find it in the general mass and “fall in love” with your product, comes first.
• If you are passionate about your idea, then after 20,000 hours of hard work, you will have a 1 in 8 chance of success. The only way.
• Each team needs 3 people: "hacker", "businessman" and "creator". Every morning, the "hacker" and "businessman" should have mini-meetings. After discussing the key issues, the "hacker" should devote himself to creating a product, and the "businessman" to finding the ideal client.
• Half a century ago, the success of a company depended on how the entrepreneur overcame obstacles, on the process. But times have changed.
• Most startups die because they think that:
  A) know their customer
  B) know their product
• Founders see everything as a linear process: “concept - prototype - test - launch”, and they make a lot of mistakes in doing so.

The business plan is the #1 startup enemy.

A business plan is about creating creative texts, but not about developing a real business.

Don't stop asking yourself, "What can I change to make the product better?" Always try to get feedback from users and customers.

Test your business model! Any, even the most elegantly written, business plan will not stand up to scrutiny at the first meeting with a real client. The Webvan example is very instructive.

What is a startup for me? This is a gang of pirates who get together from time to time to match the pieces of the "map" and see if they are moving in the right direction. Always be on the lookout. Only after a detailed analysis will you be able to understand your "business plan" based on nothing but bare facts. There is no such “documentary” concept of “a startup with an expectation of 8 years”, there are real “several years of ups and downs”.
A startup needs an action plan rather than a business plan. In this sense, Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas fits perfectly. It has 9 components (main blocks of questions), the most important of which are:

• Benefits Offered – What problem are we solving?
• Consumer segments – Who do we solve it for?
• Relations with customers - Where do we find them, how do we make them loyal and how do we increase their number?
• Revenue Streams - How do we earn?

Customer segments should be defined as clearly as possible. Successful relationships with clients are the constant fulfillment of our duties to them, the justification of their expectations.

Build a business model with multiple partners. When you're done, you end up with a product that satisfies the needs of the market. But your canvas is just 9 thoughtful guesses! How to turn assumptions into facts? That's right: go to your potential customers and ask them! This is how good customer relationships are built.

Customer Relations

Customer relations is the process of setting the criteria for an "ideal" customer, justifying and approving them, adapting the product, finding customers and, finally, building a company around their needs. The first three stages are the classic "search" stage in the development of a company. The turning and key moment, as a rule, occurs just at the “search” stage. The very process of searching and building a company is already the “action” stage.

"Search" is the defining stage. How to put your plans into practice correctly, you will be taught in any decent business school. And only in the process of searching, you yourself must choose those of your assumptions that, in your opinion, are correct.

Prototype / "pilot" sample

The entire search process begins with the creation of a prototype. Create a product with a minimal set of features, a test sample for new ideas.

If you want users to start interacting with your product, create a “toy” for them as soon as possible! Even if it doesn't work to the end: the reaction of users to the prototype is many times more valuable than their reaction to your words about the imminent launch of the ideal product. After all, it is their feedback that invaluably helps to improve the product itself!

A prime example of the value of prototyping is Diapers.com. The creators launched a website and began taking orders for diapers even as long as they actually had them in stock. Entrepreneurs just wanted to see if their idea was worth developing further. As a result, they spent a lot of time buying diapers from all over the city and delivering them from other parts of the country. The number of orders was growing, and the project already needed a truck to deliver the orders. The founders lost money in the process, but they didn't set themselves the goal of self-sufficiency. They were just testing the chosen business model. The benefits offered are what they took as a basis in the process of communicating with customers.

Decreased sales are only a small price to pay for the information you get from testing.

The prototype is your primary communication tool with the client. The faster you create it, the faster you will get answers to questions:

Is it all that bad?
What qualities allow our competitors to meet your needs?
What can make our product better?

A turning point

Pivot is the essence of customer relationship. Pivot is an iteration between creating a client profile and searching for it. A “pivot” is always swift, but it opens up new opportunities.

Change only if 20-40 of your customers say something is wrong. Ignore one-time complaints

For any changes, go back to evaluating the business model, then go back to your customers and see if things are getting better. The product adaptation process cannot be delayed, it cannot be avoided. As the creator of the product, you MUST go through it!

Usually changes in the process of product adaptation in large companies lead to the dismissal of employees. In a startup, this process is a “holiday” because it helps to modify the product in order to attract even more customers.

The main problem here is hasty decisions. Make sure you collect enough feedback data to make changes? 3 people said bad things about your product, and you are already in a hurry to change something? Take your time: find a dozen more similar opinions before making life-changing decisions.

The faster you manage to change, the less money you will lose: the pivot is a time bomb.

How to stop in time?

There is really no end point in the process of creating a product, but you can always slow down the modifications when you understand who your client is and how he uses the product to meet his needs.

The business model canvas is your landmark, the map of your business and the road to your customer.

Make sure that all your assumptions are tested on the client - test runs are the main ones in determining the degree of product readiness.

And remember: the most important client is a passionate client, because he, like you and your investor, wants to bring your product to perfection.

There are two elementary truths from which the actual case is read. It's first things first tell yourself "Let's go!" and write a business plan. Which would determine the direction of development, estimated costs and profits, take into account the risks and additional income. But if it’s easier with the first one, they grabbed grandfather’s checker from the wall and forward through the garden in order to chop cabbage. Then with the second - everything is very difficult - sometimes a swing for a ruble, and the effect is for a penny. In the end, it turns out that not planned and there is no idea what to do now and tomorrow.
It should be borne in mind that there are two types of business plans: a simple one that is drawn up rather for oneself and a complex one for investments and bank loans. But when compiling any of them, an understanding comes of what my beloved needs, what I can master, and where I will have to seek help or even abandon some part of the direction in my activity.

I will not bother anyone with complex business plans yet, since there are advanced resources on corporate management for this, and more complete information can be obtained there - however, sometimes for a penny. But us on the Internet home business and close to it - small - is interested in a simple business plan for a startup. Because it is most in demand on the Internet and in particular in the blogosphere.

As an example, let's take the desire of any blogger to become the owner of the portal. "There is no such soldier who does not have a marshal's baton in his knapsack." That is, to grow your own tiny enterprise, where he himself is an editor, journalist, designer, optimizer, programmer, administrator, moderator, cook and gatekeeper all rolled into one - to the size of a grandiose resource with a decent staff of employees. And it is the business plan that will help him very quickly move from normal to development, suggesting ways: what exactly visitors are paying attention to, what own skills are more convenient and easier to use, how to optimize your own business. And it's not just about the need to optimize own resource, and how much time to spend on it - what efforts, how seriously to take it. It can help promote simple selling costs, perhaps even predict profits and losses. “Based on this, it is easy to plan how to manage your resources and how to use operational funds.

To be defined, this is an elementary development plan in which there are only a few elements of a startup: goals, ways to achieve, analysis of the environment and break-even analysis. This gives, though brief, but still an understanding own business.

And yet, not every startup is as simple as we would like. Some of them require attracting investments, more detailed consideration and correspondingly planning, which cannot be done without sufficient analytical work. I was offered to somehow redo the old already working investment project for a new one, but in an ordinary way - to rewrite and slightly correct the numbers in techno-economic justification (feasibility study) to get a loan for promotion. But although there are clerks in banks, they sometimes have brains - they would easily figure out that this is half fake without researching the relevant issue. investment project. The questions posed to oneself of some complexity also require a somewhat detailed approach.
In any case, even in a simple startup plan, there should be enough information to attract partners and sponsors, deciphering the focus Internet resource. Earn online using There are several ways to use a resource and you should not mix them, because one direction will interfere with another - a team of plumbers will hardly be able to combine work in a supermarket.

Here is an example template that a startup business plan can consist of:
Plan Theme Essence Schedule
1 Summary Essential
1.1 Goals
1.2 Ways to achieve
2 Resource summary launch launch
3 Description of activity
4.1 Market segmentation
4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
4.3 Segment specifics
5 Implementation of the strategy and summary
5.1 Competitive advantages
5.2 Sales Forecast Competition Strategy
6 Resume management
7 Financial plan
7.1 Determining the break-even point
7.2 Profit and loss forecasting
7.3 Forecast financial result

Ultimately, it is not the start-up stage itself that becomes decisive for the content of the plan, but its type, financial needs and goals. But some of the most important planning steps you need to know:

• Some points from a simple business plan can take shape in the head of the owner, but every business has a plan. Anyone can benefit from creating a document if the ideas are written down because the process of preparing the plan is rewarding and valuable.
• As soon as the other person is interested in the necessary parameters of an already drawn up plan - it is crucial for conveying an understanding of the goals, strategy and detailed implementation.
• As soon as someone from the external environment is interested in the features of a startup, although this not foreseen at the beginning, then you must provide additional information. When the plan is for internal use only, you can't describe the history of the startup, the features of the resource, for example. Sticking to topics that create added value will help you achieve your goal in the long run. When you attract people, partners, sponsors, you need to provide more detailed background information within this plan.
• For the purpose of discussing the prospects, it is sufficient to obtain an initial plan. Try to describe your goals, ways to achieve, target market, competitive advantages, and basic strategies. How well does it overlap with the business idea?
• Even if you are able to mentally engage financial analytics related to the activities of your startup - however, it is much easier using some tools that can put you in front of a clear sequence of actions, and add and subtract them automatically. This is where the plan helps.
• Do you really know the market in which you have chosen a niche? Good market analysis can help you see opportunities that might not be obvious. Understand why people turn to others and visit their resources. What are the needs of visitors? How many of them are there as potential customers?

This way you decide whether your business plan is very important, even at an early stage of launch, and even if you can keep it in your head. Before you buy business office supplies, phones, or rent out spaces, you must make a business plan. Although it is possible in another way - as always - first launch the resource, and then fly over others and read posts on moneymaking. - Also more interesting - adrenaline, because it is always on the verge of failure.

"Startup" - with in English literally translated “launch” and means a new, newly created company, while it may not even be legal entity. The company is just starting from scratch. This term can also refer to a company that is still in the process of being created. It can be engaged in both the sale of goods and the provision of services in any field of activity: trade, construction, transport, manufacturing, information technology, nutrition, education and others.

What is a startup

Startup implies that the company has a specific original business idea that it is going to introduce into the market. In addition, the project has a business plan, where the tasks of promoting a given product or service on the market, sources of financing, analysis of competitor market monitoring and calculation of the profitability of the enterprise are solved. The main questions at the initial stage: What to sell? How and where? Where to get money? To whom to sell? Will the product or service compete in the market? Will the project be profitable?

Successful examples of a startup are: Internet projects of social networks VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, as well as Google, Microsoft, Apple Computer inc.

Every year a rating of the best start-up projects is held in Russia. In 2016, the leading places were won by such successful startups as: women's Viagra, an infinite flash drive, a sofa made of thin air (bevan), a cube with cartoons, a children's football club, a program for recording employees' working hours, mobile app for processing photos and other equally interesting ideas.

Important: A real startup, unlike a regular project from scratch, has its own unique idea to create a completely new product on the market.

Stages of startup development

Any business in its development is going through several similar stages.

1. stage: The birth of an idea; On this stage I have an idea and maybe a trial sample of the product. A business plan is being created. Often, most projects are limited to this stage, due to the fact that they cannot find investors to implement the idea.
2. stage: Formation; The company was founded and production started. Incomes at the same time are minimal or even unprofitable.
3. stage: Development; Technologies are improving, the staff is expanding, sales volumes are increasing, the company's income and its competitiveness in the market are growing. The company may have its own recognizable brand.
4. stage: Maturity; The company becomes a leader in its field, it has high profitability and competitiveness, staff of highly qualified employees.

Types of startups

1. "Dark horses". A new unique product on the market. This type represents a huge risk for investors, it is justified by the expected high income. Examples: Facebook, IKEA, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adidas, Danon and others. trade marks, like Adidas and Puma were also created as a startup. In a small German town, two "weirdo" brothers were trying to create sports shoes, New Product On the market. The business was created from scratch and eventually developed into two global brands. Until now, the children and grandchildren of the pioneers of brands continue the work of their parents and receive excellent profits.
2. "Clones". No longer new business ideas are being used on the market. For example, Russian developments copied from Western models. At the same time, everything is copied: Internet projects, cars, shows, series, and so on. So the social network VKontakte is a copy of Facebook, the Darberry coupon is a clone of Groupon. The Russian series "Voronins" is copied from the American "Everybody Loves Raymond. Created in 1932, the Soviet car GAZ A is a copy of the American Ford-A, and everyone’s favorite show “Field of Miracles” is an analogue of the American show “Wheel of Fortune”. The examples are endless.
3. "Invaders". The introduction of new technologies into an existing product and the displacement of competitors from the market are used. We all remember how bulky computer CRT monitors were replaced by liquid crystal monitors, push-button phones were replaced by touch-sensitive ones, mechanical washing machines were replaced by automatic machines, film cameras were replaced by digital ones from the market, and there are many such examples. Competition in the market is growing every day and everyone is fighting to increase the number of their customers. Characteristic features of startups at the initial stage of development:
   • Availability original business ideas
   • young team
   • lack of funding
   • minimum yield
   • precarious position in the market