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Startup & Venture Lessons
Jay Jamison
Venture Partners, BlueRun [email protected] | @jay_jamison | jayjamison.com
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Agenda
Introduction
Top 10 Lessons
Q&A
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Introduction
Logistics: 30 minute talk, then Q&A
About me
Wharton MBA 98
Microsoft 98-07
Founder, Moonshoot 07-10
Venture Partner, BlueRun Ventures, 10-Present
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About BlueRun Ventures
Over $1.0B under management
Investing out of Fund IV ($240M)
Focus: Mobile & consumer internet
Multi-stage, though tend towards Seed & Series A Representative investments
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Stuff that surprised me
Having nearly 10 years at MSFT didnt matter at all.
Having an MBA from Wharton mattered even less.
Both were actually seen as basically negatives.
But, several of the skills from both really helped.
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Top 10 Startup Lessons
1. Todays Golden Age For Founders & Its Double-Edge Sword.2. Whats #1: Markets, Team, or Product?
3. Picking Co-Founders & How to Split the Baby.
4. The Whatever Works Principal.
5. Getting used to No, and Being a Meat Eater
6. Hire Slow, Fire Fast
7. Distribution is Really Hard & Really Important
8. If You Stop Loving It, Make a Change.
9. Integrity and Value Add
10. Pitching & Fund-Raising
11. My go-to resources
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Its a Golden Age for Entrepreneurs.
Cheaper than ever to start a company.
Better resources (YC, FI, SD, 500Startups,StartupCompanyLawyer, TC, etc.).
Technology is easier to learn, access, &c.
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And Investors Understand This.
Im seeing lots of great companies that are:
Very capital efficient to date.
Extremely fast in coding and releasing.
With working products, often in market.
Have clear insight on what works.
Have battle-tested founding teams.
Have a concrete ask on what $$$ they need.
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Implication
While were in a Golden Age forEntrepreneurs, it is raising the bar
for most very early stage
companies
You need to prove more on very
little money, because so many otherstart-ups are already doing so.
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Whats #1: Markets, Team, or Product?
Which is most important?
A.Market
B.Product
C.Team
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Which is most important?
A.Market
B.Product
C.Team
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Worlds largest store
Redefine social
Organize & access information
Reinvent money
????Your Company
How I think about MarketsChooseAny 4 Companies, Stack Rank Vision
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Worlds largest store
Redefine social
Organize & access information
Reinvent money
Teach English to children everywhere
How I think about MarketsChooseAny 4 Companies, Stack Rank Vision
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Internet Radio
Flash retail sales
User generated video & tv
Social local food media
How I think about MarketsChooseAny 4 Companies, Stack Rank Vision
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Co-Founders
What a business co-founderbrings that a tech co-founder needs
Someone who can do all the important stuff thats not coding
Leadership and vision
Business analysis
Potentially you can raise money, let them code.
Maybe some tech & maybe some concrete domain knowledge
What a technical co-founder that a business co-founder needs.
Someone who writes code and gets technical stuff done, and who ideally understands
how to hire and expand the technical team over time.
Technical chops, CS/EE degree
Nice to have: a track record building stuff
Very nice to have: Ideas on how to hire devs
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Finding a Technical Co-Founder
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More important than fund-raising
Requires almost the same skills
Pitching and salesmanship
Capacity to speak enough geek
Resourcefulness
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Default founder split: equal
50%50%
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33%
33%
33%
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WhateverWorks
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Lean Startup
Scrum
StealthCo
Never stealth!
Customer Development
If youre not embarrassed with yourfirst launch, youre waiting too long.
Reid Hoffman
Minimum Viable Product
Revenue from Day 1
Building for Scale
OffshoreEverything Inhouse
HTML5
Native Apps
You never get a second chance to
make a first impression. Anon.
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WhateverWorks
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Lean Startup
Scrum
StealthCo
Never stealth!
Customer Development
If youre not embarrassed with yourfirst launch, youre waiting too long.
Reid Hoffman
Minimum Viable Product
Revenue from Day 1
Building for Scale
OffshoreEverything Inhouse
HTML5
Native Apps
You never get a second chance to
make a first impression. Anon.My Advice & Learning:
Absorb all this stuff
Listen to people you trust
Use what works for you
The key is work fast & economically
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Getting Used to No
As Founder: Heard No a lot, especially fund-raising
At least 150 times
From 5 different countries
As an Investor: I say No a lot, especially to fund-raisers
Probably 1%
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Whats weird about this
These numbers are probably about average
Generally No coming from smart, polite person
(Not always the case, so be careful)
Under 10% of founders really follow-up and stay after it
Lesson: build a plan to deal with No
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Be A Meat-Eater
Speed
Swagger
Persistence
Follow-through
Showcase progress
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Hire Slow, Fire Fast
Hire Slow
Wait for real pain
Everyone interviews
Share feedback
Do reference checks
Dinner w/ SO
Fire Fast
When perf lags, speak up
Set clear expectations
Set a crisp timeline
Fire
Ensure lawyer is in loop
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Distribution
This is by farthe weakest part ofyour business at this point
And, it is also one of the most
important
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Love It or Leave It
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Values & Value-Add
Values are key from day 1
Set them & talk about them constantly.
No right way to do this, but doing it is important
Value-Add is also a key from day 1
If someone stops pulling their weight, deal with it
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Fund-Raising & Pitching
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Logistics : Pre-Meeting
Arrive 15 minutes early every time
Have back-ups (2nd PC, Dongles, USBs)
Treat everyone you meet politely
Setup & preflight ppt & demo before meeting starts
Bring ideally 2-3 people
Remember: You are SELLING
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Logistics: During Meeting
Give everyone who attends a role
Script which person handles which slide(s)
Assign a scribe, every time
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Logistics: Post Meeting
Scribe: Write down all new QA for FAQ
Follow-up in email that day w/ thanks, etc.
Do what you need to handle rejection
Keep positive & keep in touch
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Q&A
Often badly managed, and very important
Answer questions directly
Script answers on the obvious questions
How much are you raising? How long does this last?
What beachhead markets do you think are most promising?
What holes exist in your team?
Why wont Google, Facebook, Twitter, or someone else eat your
lunch? What makes you the right team to do this?
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Go To Resources
TechCrunch, VentureBeat, TechMeme, etc.
JoelonSoftware (MUST READ!!! Esp on functional specs)
Startup digest
Netflix on Culture
Compstudy.com
Igor International Naming Guide
Paul Grahams blog.
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Thanks!
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