My $100ml Startup Success & Failure - Oxford Inspires 2016

My Startup Successes & Failures: How my first startup was valued at $100ml from usingjust $40k and a purple and how I built a website for $500 that had double the conversion rate than one that cost me $500k and how we failed at Mailcloud.

Founder Zaggora & MailcloudEIR Harvard Business School

@malcolmbell

Part 1 – Who’s this dude? @malcolmbell

Zaggora @malcolmbell

Mailcloud @malcolmbell

EIR Harvard Business School @malcolmbell

Why are you here today? @malcolmbell

I’ve always been an entrepreneur @malcolmbell

A few quid @malcolmbell

Education @malcolmbell

Investments @malcolmbell

Reading @malcolmbell

That Purple Cow @malcolmbell

This was a purple cow @malcolmbell

Website @malcolmbell

Not my wife @malcolmbell

Fast forward 2 years andwe have sales in 133 countries

$100,000,000

1,000,000

My wife @malcolmbell

Disruptive times @malcolmbell

Some important stuff @malcolmbell

There’s a lot we don’t know @malcolmbell

You have to jump @malcolmbell

There is no spoon @malcolmbell

Person Message Fit @malcolmbell

‘You’re in search mode, looking for a scalable, repeatable, business model.’

– Steve Blank

This was me @malcolmbell

You’re looking for growth? @malcolmbell

Gonna go viral? @malcolmbell

Nope. Look for this guy. @malcolmbell

Why is he hiring you? @malcolmbell

Confucius (probably) says @malcolmbell

Back to dude. He determines a lot. @malcolmbell

Women who like sports? @malcolmbell

Nope, women who want to lose weight @malcolmbell

This changes everything @malcolmbell

Everything. @malcolmbell

Features @malcolmbell

Marketing channels @malcolmbell

Tone of voice @malcolmbell

Product imagery @malcolmbell

Brand imagery @malcolmbell

Language @malcolmbell

No wonder Transferwise is winning @malcolmbell

Unknown Unknowns @malcolmbell

All you have is ideas. Test, to have facts. @malcolmbell

Getting started @malcolmbell

Start with friends @malcolmbell

The power of social @malcolmbell

25#Amplify @malcolmbell

What happens at PMF? @malcolmbell

Organic traffic goes up @malcolmbell

Customers email to say thanks @malcolmbell

40% of customers very disappointed@malcolmbell

Early adopter @malcolmbell

People with problem will suffer BETA @malcolmbell

People with need will suffer BETA @malcolmbell

People with want will suffer BETA @malcolmbell

Who’s your customer? @malcolmbell

Who has problem? Earliest adopter? @malcolmbell

Ask people. Start with hypothesis. @malcolmbell

Get a lean canvas at leanstack.com @malcolmbell

Bear in mind, people are weird. @malcolmbell

Incentivise @malcolmbell

Offer free BETA version (free works) @malcolmbell

Look at your data @malcolmbell

Send personalised emails, 5-10% CVR

Hey John,Why don’t more people do this?

@malcolmbell

Fun Fact: Microsoft surveys @malcolmbell

Blog.modeanalytics.comWho’s using your features and why? @malcolmbell

Which are most popular features? @malcolmbell

Heard of Burbn? @malcolmbell

How about Instagram? @malcolmbell

Focus segments (efficiency) @malcolmbell

Respect this curve @malcolmbell

Respect this curve

Chasm to cross

@malcolmbell

Take the beach head @malcolmbell

Facebook started at Harvard @malcolmbell

Ebay in San Francisco @malcolmbell

Groupon in Chicago @malcolmbell

Amazon with Books @malcolmbell

Let’s talk about mistakes @malcolmbell

Taking a break @malcolmbell

Mailcloud @malcolmbell

Great team @malcolmbell

Vision @malcolmbell

@malcolmbellTough Competition

@malcolmbellNobody cared

@malcolmbellHail Hydra!

@malcolmbellBe fast, not slow

@malcolmbellAre you the person to do this?

@malcolmbellSmell what sells

Do things fast and cheap @malcolmbell

@malcolmbellEveryone wants yo money

It’s all about the follow up @malcolmbell

Books

1. Startup CEO – Matt Blomberg2. Crossing the chasm – Geoff Moore3. Positioning- Al Ries4. Managing Startups, Tom Eisenmann5. Hooked, Nir Eyal6. Startup Owners Manual, Steve Blank7. Purple Cow, Seth Godin8. Lean Startup, Eric Ries9. Traction, Gabriel Weinberg10. Lean Analytics, Ben Yoskovitz

Follow me on Twitter @malcolmbell

Blogs

1. Get Buffer App 2. Matermark daily blog3. Andrew Chen Blog4. The Drawing Board5. Kissmetrics Blog6. Marc Andreesen Blog Archive7. Paul Graham Blog Archive8. Growthhackers.com9. Ycombinater Hacker News10. Twitter, follow the right people.


Youtube

1. Steve Blank on customer development2. Stanford How to start a startup series3. Alex Schultz – Lecture 6 Growth4. Ycombinator5. Marc Andreesen6. Simon Sinek Start with why7. Al Ries8. Seth Godin – Inbound9. Seth Godin - TED



Good luck!