What is the BIG Idea? by Paul Ahlstrom

The Kickstart Fund

BIGWHATS THEIDEA?PAUL AHLSTROM @PAULAHLSTROM

#Building a Vibrant Entrepreneur EcosystemA critical mass of entrepreneurs, innovation, and connectedcapital in a trusted, business-friendly environment.Can these 3 key drivers of Silicon Valleys success be engineered and replicated elsewhere?

EntrepreneurActivityInnovationCapacityInvestmentCapacity

Significant entrepreneurial activity and high-trust culture, deep bench strength, healthy social dynamics (e.g., ok to fail, ok to be rich, etc.) Robust investment capacity (i.e., full funding continuum) Significant Intellectual capital (e.g., Stanford, Xerox PARC, IBM Research Labs, etc.) Trusted, Business-Friendly Environment: Trusted informal networks, trusted service providers, shared community vision, predictable and supportive government.

Trust

#Utah & Mexico Case Studies

#US Mexico Border 1954 miles3

INNOVATIONENTREPRENURCAPITAL

#ENTREPRENUERSHIPIT ALL STARTS WITH AN IDEA.

#

1COS1

#Entrepreneurs responsibility to create successful deal flowFor many years I was not doing my part6

1COS1

#

1COS1

#

1COS1

#

1COS1

#

1COS1

#

1COS1

#

1COS1

#

YOU CAN DIG

DITCHESYOU CAN BUILDROCKETS.OR

#

1COS1

Wouldnt it be morefun to go to the moon?

#

WHERE IS THIS IDEA TAKING YOU?

THE STARS?A DEAD END?ITS BETTER TO SHOOT FOR THE STARS AND LANDON THE MOON THEN TO AIM FOR THE GUTTER AND HIT IT.

#

16

TOM(1988)FOLIO(4.5YRS)KNOWLIX(1993)

#Source: NVCA Yearbook 2013.VENTURE CAPITAL UNDER MANAGEMENT IN UTAH (millions)

18Almost 3 million people, no startup $Less than $20 million of Capital in Utah

#Launched Knowlix in 200818

Held 140+ meetings understand opportunities and challenges of doing business in Utah and create a unified visionGovernment IndustryCo-Investors & AngelsResearch/UniversitiesLPs/FinancialCenters of Excellence, Departments of Commerce and Economic Development, State Governor, Utah Office of Technology Development, Utah State Senate, Utah Technical Finance Corporation Dorsey & Whitney, Ernst & Young, Gamut Technology Group, Japan Works, Jones Waldo, KPMG, Merrill Lynch, Silicon Valley Bank, Snell & Wilmer, UITA, Utah Valley Venture Forum, Wayne Brown Institute, BizCradle, HP, Glen Media, Studeo, American Express, Convergys, Discover Card, Next Page, Novell, 10FoldVisited with more than two dozen of the most prolific co-investors and angel investors in Utah, including Mt. West Venture Group, Utah Angels, Accel Partners, Ash Capital, Benchmark, Cornerstone Capital Group, Dominion Ventures, Draper Fisher, Granite Capital Partners, Canopy Group, Bain CapitalBrigham Young University, University of Utah, Utah State University, Westminster CollegeSterling Financial Group, Chase Capital Partners, Deutsche Bank, Alpine Consolidated, APV, Boston Millenia Partners, Goldman Sachs, American Health Plans, Utah State Retirement Fund, McMann and Associates

19On-the-Ground Meetings

#

19

Source: United Way of Salt Lake and Stanford Social Innovation Review (Kanla and Kramer)

20Unified Vision Enables Real Change

#8VENTURE FUNDS$1BRAISED125COS INVESTED

#After I sold my company Knowlix, I moved to the other side of the table and started raising venture capital funds. 21

Buenos AiresLima, PeruMexico CityMonterreySan FranciscoLehi, UT

Santiago, Chile

#Investing in LATAM for 10 years22

Alta acts as a bridge accelerating Latin American innovation into global marketsLATAM Portfolio Companies

Alta Investment Strategy

#

23

US Portfolio CompaniesFocused in LATAM

Alta accelerates distribution for proven technologies into Latin America

Alta Investment Strategy

#How Do we Do it?Minimizing risks by: 1) structure 2) Technology, 3) proven team 4) capital 24

CAPITALVENTUREINVESTMENT

MODEL

#BABE RUTH

714 Home runs

1330 Strike Outs

#

27Typically 1/3 of VC Investments will Fail

Total Write-OffsReturn InvestmentDrive Returns1/3rd1/3rd1/3rdTypically 1/3 of investments will fail

#We are looking for deals that are big enough to make an impact if they work.Be careful.. Dont treat VC model as the PE model, totally different investing models.

I have not been ok with the rate of failure and have spent considerable time researching how we can increase the odds of startup success

27

Wrong people?Disharmony on team?Lose focus?Lack passion?Burn out?Poor product?Product mis-timed?Failure to pivot?Legal challenges?Poor marketing?No market need?Get out-competed?Need/lack business model?Pricing/cost issues?

Run out of cash?No investor interest?Disharmony w/ investors?Bad advice?Startups Fail for Many Different Reasons

#

Source: Small Business Trends Published 2008. Data from Bureau of CensusMost Startups Fail!

#An 80% failure rate for startups is not acceptable. In which other industry in the world is this acceptable?

29

$500M Direct Investment(8 Funds)$850M Co-Investors$1.4B Total Invested

XXXXXXXXXXXXIPOIPOIPOIPOSOLDSOLDSOLDSOLDSOLDSOLDMy Failure Credentials: 100+ Direct Investments

#30I learned this the hard way. However as I started investing, I started seeing patterns of success and patterns of failureHere are a few of the patterns of success and failure I have observed over the years

The exits shown on the screen represent more than $4.9 billion dollars in exits or current stock value.

Comscore 1.3 Billion current market capControl4 $400 million Current market cap Ancestry.com $1.6 billion Altiris IPO then sold for $800 millionLanDesk sold for $400 millionMediconnect sold for $348 million

Senforce, Aeroprise, global sim $50M

Building products before you nail the painWriting marketing materials before you nail the solutionHires sales teams before you know how to sellSpending money before you understand the business modelPremature Scaling#1 Cause of Startup Failure70% of Startups Fail for this reason:

#This is where Nathan and I connected. His PHD research and my street level observationsDoing goo things, but doing them out of order. What is the right order and process we should follow to have consistent success?

31

Entrepreneurs are doing good things, but not doing them in the right order. More than 80% of the time entrepreneurs are ignoring customer demand the right product mix until after they have started to scale their business.* Harvard Business Review: Beating the Odds When you Launch a New Venture by Clark G. Gilbert and Matthew J. Eyring*Entrepreneurs mis-prioritize key activities

#Clark Gilbert & Matt Eyring.Why do entrepreneurs misprioritize their activities? That is how they have been taught human nature investors also contribute to the problem.

Too much money, too early encourages premature scaling.

32

They spent so much money on all this infrastructure, which was basically part of their business model. But what they hoped was going to be their advantage turned out to be their downfall. They got big fast, but size turned out to be an albatross when the demand wasnt there.One reason demand fell short was that Webvan wasnt as convenient as it billed itself.Source: SFGATE

Premature Scaling: Webvan $830M Invested

#$830 million invested before customer/product fit validation and business model validation.33

Premature Scaling: Kozmo.com Raised $280M

#Kozmo had a business model built around the delivery of small purchased goods within an hour by bicycle, car, truck, or public transportation for no delivery fee.[3] The model was criticized by some business analysts, who pointed out that one-hour point-to-point delivery of small objects is extremely expensive and were skeptical that Kozmo could make a profit as long as it refused to charge delivery fees34

The Roots of the Startup Failure Trace back to the Traditional Waterfall Product Development Model

Waterfall Product Development Model

#Why the high failure rate? Roots of startup failure go back to the model we have been following as entrepreneurs. The difference is the companies are leveraging and building off of their core competency.Known problems, known core competencies35

Traditional Startup Model Based on Execution Not ResearchEscalation of Commitment StageAmerican Idol StageMidnight Genius StageFeature Lock-in StageRussian Roulette

Sales Pipeline Problem StageXThe Startup Process Copied The Waterfall Model

#Nathan Furr, PhD

Paul Ahlstrom, VC

www.NailThenScale.com Available on Amazon.com

Nail It Then Scale It (NISI)&Big Idea Canvas

#Nathan Furr earned his PhD from Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University and is currently an entrepreneurship professor at Brigham Young University (recently ranked in the top five entrepreneurship programs nationally). Nathan has acted as the founder or advisor to startups in web 2.0, clean technology, professional services, retail and financial services industries. Nathan also sits on the investment board of the Kickstart Seed Fund, an innovative early-stage venture fund and is an expert contributor to Forbes. Nathan also worked as a consultant at Monitor Group, a premiere international strategy consulting firm, working with senior executives on a range of strategic and market discovery initiatives. Nathan writes a blog for Forbes, The New Entrepreneur. http://blogs.forbes.com/nathanfurr

Paul Ahlstrom is an entrepreneur and investor who focused most of his career on the early-stage startup process. Paul has founded multiple high-technology startup companies and investment funds in the United States and Mexico. Pauls current focus is opening up capital sources to Mexican entrepreneurs and supporting Mexicos vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. As a leader of Mexicos venture capital industry, Paul and his partner, Rogelio de los Santos, have launched Alta Venture Mexico located in Monterrey, Mexico. (www.altaventures.com) Prior to founding Alta Ventures Mexico, Paul co-founded vSpring Capital (www.vspring.com) (2000) and Kickstart Seed Fund (www.kickstartseedfund.com) (2007) in the Rocky Mountain region and Alta Growth Capital (www.agcmexico.com) (2007) in Mexico. As an entrepreneur and through his funds, Paul has founded and invested in more than ninety startup companies. Some of these companies include Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com, NASDAQ:ACOM); GlobalSim (www.globalsim.com), which was sold to Kongsberg Maritime (KOG Oslo Stock Exchange); Senforce, which was sold to Novell (www.novell.com, NASDAQ: NOVL); and Altiris (NASDAQ:ATRS), which went public and was then sold to Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC). Paul has also served on the boards of many successful venture-backed startups. including Rhomobile (www.rhomobile.com); Public Engines (www.crimereports.com); Aeroprise (www.aeroprise.com); 7degrees (www.mypeoplemaps.com); The American Academy (www.TheAmericanAcademy.com); and FamilyLink (www.familylink.com ). In addition to fund creation and investment experience, Paul has direct entrepreneurial and operating experience, having personally founded multiple startups, including Knowlix in 1997. Knowlix was a knowledge management IT company which raised venture capital financing in 1998 and sold to Peregrine Systems in 1999. Peregrine in turn sold to Hewlett Packard (www.hp.com) (NYSE: HPQ). Paul was a founding advisory board member of Brigham Young Universitys Rollins eBusiness Center, and he is listed as one of the Founders of Brigham Young Universitys Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. Paul also serves on the executive committee and board for the University of Utahs Technology Commercialization Office (http://www.tco.utah.edu), which is ranked number one in university-generated spinouts in the United States.37

Customer Centric Innovation.NISI Model: Put the customer up front in the process

#NISI is put the customer up front in the startup process & Big Idea Canvas is improve the quality of the idea you start with.

38

Big Idea Canvashttp://www.bigideacanvas.comMONETIZABLE PAINEXIT STRATEGYMARKET-ENTRY STRATEGYPROPOSED SOLUTIONMARKET POTENTIAL

1

2

3

4

5

#

39

ONCE YOU HAVE A GREAT IDEA,STOP!!!

#Describe Your Big IdeaIn one sentenceWhat is your story?What makes this interesting?If you were a reporter, where is the news?Why should anyone care about this?

If you think you have something then... go to the BigIdeaCanvas.com and refine your idea & generate a hypothesis to go out and test

#

BigIdeaCanvas.com

#

#

#Show PDF & Online Version

#

#

#

Shark Bitevs. Mosquito BiteWhat is the Level and Frequency of the Pain?

#48Shark Bite not a mosquito bite

Need to find a pain that it so interesting that you would return a cold call if someone from an unknown startup left a message on your voice mail wanting to discuss it.

At least 4 out of 5 on the pain scale.

Easier to apply to B2B but certainly also applies to B2C Focus on delightersMeet needs of love, friendship, diversity, entertainment, to look cool, etc.Maslows hierarchyMovie theaters solve a need for entertainmentFacebook fulfills the innate desire for social connectionSame concepts apply rapidly iterate and look at engagement and retention to see if your customers actually care or not

FrequencyGoogles Tooth Brush Test: Do you use it once or twice a day and does it make your life better?

#

Entrepreneurs role is to innovateCustomers role is to validate

Entrepreneurs Job vs Customers Job

#This is the perfect partnershipUse the Big Idea Canvas to create a hypothesis and go out and validate your hypothesis

Getting the story right

50

INVENTIONMARKETINSIGHTINNOVATIONScienceIndustry

INNOVATORS JOB

#All are working hard to innovate, but few can give me the definition of innovation.Innovation means connecting your invention with the customer (putting it in context)51

Different Types of Innovation

#

Disruptive Innovation the Best Market Entry Strategy

#

53

Market AdoptionTime

Market Entry

Best way to take enter a Market?

#Greenfield (need whole product solution)54

Market AdoptionTime

Market Entry

$1B

Best way to enter a Market... Disrupt!

#How do you disrupt a disruptor?

As Facebook becomes the established market leader, it be definition becomes vulnerable. Trying to satisfy many markets and move upstream to new customers with the same application, it is bound to alienate some of its previous customers.

The true definition of disruption is that it comes from targeting a unserved or underseved low end of the market with a technology that is beneath the current markets expectations.

55

Market AdoptionTime

Market Entry

$15B

Best way to enter a Market... Disrupt!

#Disruptive innovation Blue Ocean Innovation (need whole product solution)As Facebook becomes the established market leader, it be definition becomes vulnerable. Trying to satisfy many markets and move upstream to new customers with the same application, it is bound to alienate some of its previous customers.

The true definition of disruption is that it comes from targeting a unserved or underseved low end of the market with a technology that is beneath the current markets expectations.

56

?What does Disruptive Innovation Look Like?

#

Hey! I got this great idea.We are going to let people rent their couches.

#

Ok, how about his one?We are going to help people take the bus.

#

Lets help teenagers text each other while standing next to each other without wifi.

#

Soyou know when you want to stick all of your wedding ideas on a corkboard?

#

How does it feel to be aVisionary, Disruptive Innovator?

#What does it feel like be be a disruptive innovator? --- Lonely.62

The Couch Surfing Business

#

The Couch Surfing Business

#

AirBnB Stats

#

The Help People Take the Bus Business

#

Wanderu Wins the CES Startup Award

#

Wanderu Growth

#

Millennials are 74% of Intercity Bus Riders

#

The Help Teens Text Without Wi-Fi Business

#The Help Teens Text Without Wi-Fi Business

#

#

The Cork Boards for Weddings, etc. Business

#

The Cork Boards for Weddings, etc. Business

#40%20%0%-20%60%80%100%TOP SOCIAL PLATFORMS:GROWTH IN MEMBERS AND ACTIVE USERS DURING 2014

Growth in MembersGrowth in Active Users54%97%35%95%32%47%20%38%7%13%10%7%5%6%1%-9%

Source: GlobalWebIndex

#Key Outcome Drivers of Silicon ValleyA critical mass of entrepreneurs, innovation, and connectedcapital in a trusted, business-friendly environment.Can these 3 key drivers of Silicon Valleys success be engineered and replicated elsewhere?

EntrepreneurActivityInnovationCapacityInvestmentCapacity

Significant entrepreneurial activity and high-trust culture, deep bench strength, healthy social dynamics (e.g., ok to fail, ok to be rich, etc.) Robust investment capacity (i.e., full funding continuum) Significant Intellectual capital (e.g., Stanford, Xerox PARC, IBM Research Labs, etc.) Trusted, Business-Friendly Environment: Trusted informal networks, trusted service providers, shared community vision, predictable and supportive government.

Trust

#How do we bring this together. The entrepreneurial activity, innovation capacity and investment capacity? 76

TRUSTED INFORMAL NETWORKS DRIVE POSITIVE OUTCOMES

Startups happen at the Speed of Trust!

#Startups happen at the the speed of trust. Solid, high trust networks, allow things to happen much faster.

77

78TRUST is Key to the development of any Venture Capital IndustryHonesty & Integrity.....TRUST (enables speed & flexibility) FLEXIBILITY (Provides freedom to fail) CREATIVITY INNOVATION (Deal flow)INVESTMENT (Fuels growth)

#78What does this mean for Latin Americas Equtiy and Venture Capital Industry?Trust leads to innovation, innovation leads to investment

TRUST is like the air we breath. When its present, nobody really notices. But when its absent, everybody notices.- Warren Buffett

#80Could increasing TRUST accelerate the Development of Puerto Ricos Venture Capital Industry?

TRUST(enables speed and flexibility)FLEXIBILITY(provides freedom to fail)CREATIVITYINNOVATION(deal flowINVESTMENT(fuels growth)Funding Gap in Developing RegionsStartups Happen at the Speed of Trust

#80What does this mean for Latin Americas Equtiy and Venture Capital Industry?Trust leads to innovation, innovation leads to investment

Can the key drivers of Silicon Valleys success beengineered and replicated in Mexico?

81Case Study: Mexico

#

81

Guadalajara & Monterrey60 student teams participated in the first year (2013)Launched in partnership with the Tec de Monterrey

April 2010Launched April 20, 2010

Guadalajara & Monterrey

82Mexico Case Study

#

Mexican PE investment grew to $1.3B (USD) in 2014, up from $651M in 2013.

0481216202428323640200820142012

2

1420# OF VC FUNDS IN MEXICOASSORTMENT OF INSTITUTIONALFUNDS IN MEXIOSource: LAVCA.

372013

422015Mexican Venture Capital Funds

#

83

84Case Study: State of Utah

#

84

THE UTAH VENTURE REPORT

85Phase 1: Market Research

#In 2000 We started to research next steps and then set out to build upon the solid foundation that had been laid and identified programs to accelerate the growth of Utahs Entrepreneur Ecosystem

Brought in the Kaufman foundation:You have all of the raw ingredients for success, but have not been able to mix them together an make soup yet.Trusted informal networks drive positive outcomes.85

1. Develop a Friends of Utah and affiliation group database.2. Request alumni information from local universities and include in database.3. Promote more educational opportunities for entrepreneurs.4. Assist business schools in organizing business treks.5. Encourage local universities to create evening education devoted to entrepreneurship.6. Sponsor meet-up events to share ideas and get feedback.7. Strengthen local venture capitalists by helping to raise capital.8. Strengthen local venture capitalists by providing introductions to coastal venture firms.9. Champion the formation of local angel networks.10. Strengthen R&D efforts at all state research institutions.11. Expand engineering programs in high education to grow technologists base.12. Lobby one of the four major securities law firms to establish an office in Utah.13. Lobby the Silicon Valley Bank to open a branch office in Utah.

86Harvard Study Recommendations

#Held 140+ meetings understand opportunities and challenges of doing business in Utah and create a unified visionGovernment IndustryCo-Investors & AngelsResearch/UniversitiesLPs/FinancialCenters of Excellence, Departments of Commerce and Economic Development, State Governor, Utah Office of Technology Development, Utah State Senate, Utah Technical Finance Corporation Dorsey & Whitney, Ernst & Young, Gamut Technology Group, Japan Works, Jones Waldo, KPMG, Merrill Lynch, Silicon Valley Bank, Snell & Wilmer, UITA, Utah Valley Venture Forum, Wayne Brown Institute, BizCradle, HP, Glen Media, Studeo, American Express, Convergys, Discover Card, Next Page, Novell, 10FoldVisited with more than two dozen of the most prolific co-investors and angel investors in Utah, including Mt. West Venture Group, Utah Angels, Accel Partners, Ash Capital, Benchmark, Cornerstone Capital Group, Dominion Ventures, Draper Fisher, Granite Capital Partners, Canopy Group, Bain CapitalBrigham Young University, University of Utah, Utah State University, Westminster CollegeSterling Financial Group, Chase Capital Partners, Deutsche Bank, Alpine Consolidated, APV, Boston Millenia Partners, Goldman Sachs, American Health Plans, Utah State Retirement Fund, McMann and Associates

87On-the-Ground Meetings

#

87

Source: United Way of Salt Lake and Stanford Social Innovation Review (Kanla and Kramer)

88Unified Vision Enables Real Change

#E |100Startup Grind Meet-upsiTuesday Meet-upsInternational Business Model CompetitionStartupcore.coKickstart Seed FundVenture Capital ConferencesUtah TechX AcceleratorAlta LabsEcosystem Analysis & AssessmentGlobal Investor NetworkService Provider Assessment & IntroductionsBig Idea CanvasBig Idea CompetitionsStudent-run VC FundsUtah Accelerator LinkCapital Formation Analysis Consulting (Univ. Venture Program, Fund of Funds, Angels, etc.)Entrepreneur Mentor Network (Endeavor)Corporate Strategic Partnerships (Spin-in, Spin-out, Build-to-Suit)Technium

89Alta Innovation Institute Ecosystem Catalyst Toolkit

#

Kickstart: Trust Experiment Filling the Early-stage Funding Continuum GapSEED/START-UPFUNDINGDEVELOPMENTFUNDINGEXPANSIONFUNDINGOPPORTUNITYDEVELOPMENTCONTINUEDGROWTHANGELS, FOUNDERS & SEED FUNDSVENTURE CAPITAL GROWTH EQUITYPE - PUBLIC MARKETS

VALUATIONS INCREASEBUSINESS RISKS DECREASE

MENTORING NEEDS DECREASE$5M-20M$500K-5M$50K-500K>$20MSweatCommunity Fills Seed Gap

#Kickstart Ecosystem Alignment Invest into early stage as a community91Capital, value add, syndicationTechnology transfer, student opportunities, economic developmentDeal flow, clean dealsDeal flow, economic alignment, coinvestment and follow-on rightsDeal flow, outsourced R&D, executive involvement & education

#Follow the Winners Model

#Source: NVCA Yearbook 2013.VENTURE CAPITAL UNDER MANAGEMENT IN UTAH (millions)

93Utah Results: Capital Under Management Up

#Launched Knowlix in 200893

VENTURE DOLLARS INVESTED SINCE 1995 (millions)Source: NVCA Yearbook 2012.

94Utah Results: Beating Other Regions

#Utah: 1995 Population: 1,959,000, GDP: $46.7B; Per Capita GDP: $23,8382012 Population: 2,763,885, GDP: $130.4B; Per Capita GDP: $47,178Kansas: 1995 Population: 2,601,007, GDP: $65.3B; Per Capita GDP: $25,1052012 Population: 2,853,118, GDP: $136.7B; Per Capita GDP: $47,914Nebraska: 1995 Population: 1,656,992, GDP: $45.1B; Per Capita GDP: $27,2172012 Population: 1,855,525, GDP: $98.7B; Per Capita GDP: $53,207Iowa:1995 Population: 2,867,373, GDP: $73.1B; Per Capita GDP: $25,4972012 Population: 3,074,186, GDP: $157.3B; Per Capita GDP: $51,171

94

0.00%Source: PWC, MoneyTree Venture Capital Report 2014; US Bureau of Economic Analysis.

CA0.10%0.20%0.30%0.40%0.50%0.60%0.70%0.80%0.90%1.00%0.95%

0.64%MA0.59%UTNYWAWVHINDMTMS0.27%0.20%TOP 5 STATES0.00%0.00%0.001%0.001%0.002%BOTTOM 5 STATES

952014 & 2015 Utah Results: No. 3 in VC as %GDP

#Utah is almost #2 in VC invested as a % of GDP.95

2009 Acquired by Adobe for $1.8 billion; 1200 employees2012 $1.6 billion exit; 850 employees2010 Acquired by PE Firm Thoma Bravo (currently $1B+ valuation)2007 Acquired by Symantec for $830 million; 600 employees

2011 IPO exit of $1.5 billion; 450 employees 2012 Acquired by Blackstone Group for $2 billion; 5500 employees 2013 IPO exit of $500 million; 500 employees 1985 IPO exit in Jan 1985 Acquired in 2010 by Attachmate for $2.2 billion1994 Acquired by Novell for $885 million.

96Utah Unicorns

#Domo, 10k Jobs, generating $750M annual salaries, $9 Billion Exit ProceedsOmniture, Ancestry, Viviint and Fusion-IO we founded by entrepreneurs who didnt finish their undergraduate college studies96

2014 Raised $150 million at $1 billion valuation 2014 Raised $100 million at $1 billion valuation2014 Raised $113 million at $1 billion valuation2015 Raised $200 million at $2 billion valuation

2015 $1.68 market capitalization at IPO.

2014 $1.5 billion current market capitalizationOn Deck Fastest Growing Startups

2015 Raised $70 million at $500 million valuation2015 Over $100 million revenue run rate

2015 #11 on the Inc. 5000 list (18,787% 3-year growth)

97Utah Unicorns

#Domo, 10k Jobs, generating $750M annual salaries, $9 Billion Exit ProceedsOmniture, Ancestry, Viviint and Fusion-IO we founded by entrepreneurs who didnt finish their undergraduate college studies97

98Utah: The Next Silicon Valley

#

99Utah: The Next Silicon Valley

#YOU!THANKPAUL AHLSTROM @PAULAHLSTROM

#Monetizable Pain. Understand the job the customer is trying to perform and then identify the problem the person is experiencing in context of doing that job. Context matters. Frequency matters.Rapidly Growing Market. The market doesn't have to be large today, but it must be rapidly growing and have the potential to be huge.Focus on the problem. "Fall in love with the problem not the solution." Uri LevineFree. Good enough and free wins every time. Difficult to sell consumer apps, if you have critical mass, there are other ways to monetize the installed base.Value for single user. Must provide enough value to a single user. (in other words a single user must get value out of the app and not require a network effect in order for it to be useful)Data. Goal is to create critical mass of crowd knowledge - Accumulated or automatically generated (data is the end game)Frequency. Must use it two or more times a day. (toothbrush) (Frequency of use trumps level of pain)Think Big. You are not thinking big enough if you are not putting someone out of businessEmotion drives WOM. If there is no emotional engagement with your product, there is no word of mouth. (must meet or trigger a basic human need- Need to feel loved, feel important, food, shelter, clothing, need for variety, entertainment, need to create)Good enough MVP. The enemy of good enough is perfect. In a can vs can't scenario, good enough wins. (MVP ok) 10 Rules for Consumer Apps

#Ideas to take Puerto Rico VC Industry to the Next Level Policies. Continue positive investment friendly government policiesEcosystem Development. Support Entrepreneur ecosystems to accelerate the development of innovation, entrepreneurship and investment capacityThink Globally. Help entrepreneurs think globally. Liquidity. Increase Liquidity options for companiesTrust. Increase Trust to Increase Foreign Direct Investment

#MILA, Pacific Alliance, 102