Startup (back)Stage #2 with Tanuj Parikh: Business Development at a Startup

BD at a Startup Adding Product Value &

Getting Deals Done August 14, 2014 – Startup Stage Krakow

Tanuj Parikh

Estimote, Senior Director of Business Operations @tanujparikh

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Who Am I?

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What is GroupMe?

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Talk Overview If I do a good job, this is what you will learn:

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Topics

•  The role of BD at a (consumer) internet startup •  How business can & should add value

•  Macro overview of executing a deal from start to finish •  Real examples throughout

•  (BD Toolkit + how to get a job in BD)

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•  What exactly BD is – and isn’t •  How to add value to your company’s product

development cycle •  Basic tactics and resources for deal-making

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•  “Lecture” + Q&A •  Ask lots of questions!

Format C

Takeaways

What is business development?

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Business Development “Wat d benefit?”

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Business Development “Wat d benefit?”

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Is BD different than sales? Yes, but they are complementary

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“Strategic business development is an investment in systematically mapping and networking your ecosystem to drive transformational opportunities… Although very complementary to Sales, it’s also very different in that it doesn’t follow a quarterly cadence. It’s focused on a very few high-impact events a year rather than a large volume of quarterly transactions… Strategic BD should be low headcount and high impact…”

- John O’Farrell, A16Z

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Other Distinguishing Factors

Separate goals & incentives than sales

Not the CEO’s role, though she will be heavily involved at times

Well-executed BD cannibalizes itself (Shaival Shah @ Hunch blog post)

Operates at peer level to – and in conjunction with – Sales, Product,

Engineering, & other functions

Do things that don’t scale

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Being Good at BD Be an “external product manager”

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BD+Product & Engineering How to not be “just the business guy”

Instinct Sense of Product Craft

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•  Sit in, ask questions, listen •  Bring an engineer to work day

•  Leverage your business background / skills •  Always be sketching

•  Lurk in your company’s Design [Dropbox] & [Pivotal Tracker]

Tactics

•  Tech Press (Techmeme) •  Hacker News

•  Pen & paper / Gimp / Photoshop •  Balsamiq

•  Jason Shah – “Technical Chops for Non-Technical PM’s”

•  Google Ventures startup lab workshop & Design Staff

Resources

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Group Chat

GroupMe

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USER B USER C USER D

Wireless Carrier

DID

USER A

Users B, C, and/or D can respond by originating 1 new message

Messages processed through carrier-provided DID & bind with GroupMe

Terminating message delivered to every other member of the group (3 total)

Messages processed through carrier-provided DID & bind with GroupMe

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Brand X

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Stores I’ve visited

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Break

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Deal-Making 101, 201, 301

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The Timeline of a Deal An Overview

1. Ideating Design Your Product

2. Strategizing Design Your Product

3. Contacting Reach out to initial list of targets and build pipeline for long tail targets

4. Pitching Research, pitch, repeat

5. Negotiating Research, pitch, repeat

6. Launching Go to market with a defined PR & media strategy

7. Managing Be friends

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Product-driven business development 1. Ideating

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Product-driven BD 1. Ideating

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What is BD’s role? What do you need?

•  Do you even need partners?

•  If so, what types?

•  Define partnership parameters

•  What leverage do you have?

•  What can you offer?

•  Set goals

2. Strategizing

32!2012 © GroupMe. Commercially Confidential.

MARKETING, EVOLVED ~3 YEARS AGO: THE TRADITIONAL MARKETING FUNNEL!

Familiarity

Consideration

Conversion

Loyalty/Advocacy

Awareness TV, Print,!

OOH, !& Social!

Digital Advertising!

Evaluation

BUT TODAY, THE CONSUMER JOURNEY STARTS AT CONSIDERATION!WHAT’S NEEDED IS A WAY TO INFLUENCE CONSUMER EVALUATION!

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Every day I’m hustlin’

•  Be structured

•  Your network + investors

•  LinkedIn

•  Twitter

•  Requesting intros

•  Cold emails

3. Contacting

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Cold Emails More of an art than a science

•  Brevity, above all else •  Pay attention to subject line

•  A/B test (be product oriented) •  Tailor the pitch (research!) – to company & person

•  Tailor the tone

•  Make yourself valuable •  Signature: KISS

•  Follow up

Tactics

•  American Express •  Technology provider

•  Product offering Exercise

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Your Collateral Standardize it…then scrap it and start over

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“Sign the contract!”

•  Get smart about the space

•  Draw org charts

•  Find your champion; put yourself in their shoes

•  Get reference checks

•  De-risk your story

•  Don’t lie, don’t overcommit

•  Timing

•  Playing people off each other

•  Buffering (legal)

•  Know when to walk away

4. Pitching

5. Negotiating

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Term Sheets & Contracts A Sample List of Items

•  $ •  User data & privacy •  Branding •  Co-marketing •  Effective date & length of agreement •  Termination •  Renewal •  Exclusivity •  Confidentiality

•  Indemnification

General Term Areas

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Success! Now what?

•  Proactive and early press outreach

•  Unified messaging

•  Anticipate promotion pitfalls

•  Be friends with your partners

•  Regular touch points 6. Launching

7. Managing

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If All Else Fails… Bieber!

Talk Wrap-Up

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Topics

•  The role of BD at a consumer internet startup •  Working with product & engineering

•  Macro overview of executing a deal from start to finish •  Real examples throughout

•  (BD Toolkit + how to get a job in BD)

A

•  What exactly BD is – and isn’t •  How to add value to your company’s product

development cycle •  Basic tactics and resources for deal-making

Takeaways B

Class Recap Any Last Questions?

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BD Toolkit

Design & Product Pipeline CRM & Email To-Do’s & Project Management

•  Pen & paper

•  PowerPoint

•  Balsamiq

•  Gimp

•  Photoshop

•  Prototype on Paper

•  App.io

•  Google Docs

•  Excel

•  Streak

•  Stride

•  PipeDrive

•  RelateIQ

•  Salesforce

•  RelateIQ

•  Rapportive

•  Yesware

•  Falcon.io

•  FollowUp.CC

•  Boomerang

•  Google Alerts

•  Newsle

•  LinkedIn Contacts

•  Refresh mobile app

•  Google Docs

•  SimpleNote

•  Wunderlist

•  Asana

•  Trello

•  Pivotal Tracker

•  JIRA

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General Advice

•  Educate yourself

•  Be product oriented

•  Be patient / open-minded

•  Get used to “try before you buy”

Getting a Job in BD A Quick Overview

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•  Alex Taub’s (Dwolla) blog

•  BD Newsletter + BD Playbook (Scott Britton)

•  VC job boards, AngelList, MappedInNY.com

•  StartupDigest newsletter

•  Soundboy: “Talking to people you don’t know”

•  Elad Gil: “How to hire great BD people” (2/1/13)

•  AVC Holger guest post: “Startup BD 101” (1/16/13)

•  John O’Farrell (A16Z) blog posts

•  Scott Pollack – “David & Goliath: a love story”

•  Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Resources

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Need to have

•  Raw intelligence

•  Raw intelligence

•  Something to prove (i.e., tenacious /

relentlessly resourceful, etc.)

•  Ability to communicate precisely, concisely

& persuade in writing & in person

•  At least some consumer Internet

experience professionally and consumer

Internet addiction personally

What Keith Rabois looks for

Nice to have

•  Technical background

•  Facile with metrics

•  Polished UI intuition

•  Creativity

Thank You @tanujparikh

[email protected]

Startup (back)Stage #2 with Tanuj Parikh: Business Development at a Startup

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