Dr Sean Wise BA LLB MBA Ph D

Dr. Sean Wise, BA LLB MBA Ph. D Opportunity: Extraction, Multiplication, Evaluation

In this module you will learn: What is an Opportunity? Where founders find Opportunities? What makes a good lean startup opportunity? How to extract opportunities through Customer Development? • Idea multiplication vs. Double Dipping • Using new tools: BMC, Product Hunt, Cloning • •

The Changing Process 20 th Century 21 st Century Build in Secret Go to customers early and often Only focus group in Secret Share, share Only have 1 chance to make a first impression of customers Name it BETA and let customers shape it Engineering Driven Customer Driven Business Plans Lean Canvas 3

Startup Lifecycle Product Market Fit Scale now (LTV > COCA) Problem Solution Fit

Lean Startup Stages

Opportunity Introduction

Where to focus Passion Access To users 10 x Adv YOUR STARTUP GOES HERE

What’s an Opporutnity? • opportunity exists when customers struggle to get a job done. Indeed, addressing those unmet needs is the key to success. • Unmet market need • Focus on customers needs • Explore with customers: – What is the biggest challenge you are facing in your business? – Why is it important that you find a solution to this challenge now? – How hard have you worked to try to solve this challenge in the past? – What about this challenge makes it so hard to solve or answer? – How hard has it been to find an answer to your challenge?

Opporutnities are Subjective • Not all opportunities are suited for all founders • Not all opportunities are worth pursuing • Not all opportunities are startup worth building

Picking your Problem to Solve Access to Customers Domain Knowledge Your Opportunity 10 X advantage 11

Opportunity Generation

The 3 Sources of Opportunities

Why solving your own problems is often the best place to start? • • • You are your own customer You know you Your social network is filled with more “yous” Yields insight and credibility Makes for a comfortable narrative

First Steps

Picking an Industry 1. Lucrative industries are preferred 2. Profit driven businesses 3. Roughly 5, 000 to 10, 000 businesses (or more) in the market industry 4. Reachable by phone, email, facebook, linked in, twitter, or message boards. 5. Can get person with pain point on the phone 6. The average successful business earns at least $100 k per year in revenue, and ideally profit (guestimate this) 7. The industry currently pays for software of some kind 8. You are embedded in the Industry 9. You have an passion for the space

Idea Extraction Come up with a target market, and find out what problem they want solved. • Idea extraction is the process by which, having identified a target market, you extract an idea from them. • The brilliant thing about this method is you have already identified the buyers and come up with the “perfect” solution, since it was drawn up by the market itself. In theory, if you can find enough people who describe the same problem, then you have a winner (as well as a group of potential buyers). • If done right, you never have to worry about not having any customers – because you don’t build the software without them.

Customer Development Methodology

Customer Development:

Customer Discovery Questions • Tell me a little about your business and the test prep industry? • What does a typical day look like for you? • What do you like the most and what do you like the least? • What activity in your business takes you a lot of time? • What is the biggest problem in the industry? • Are you currently using any sort of software? • Are there any features missing in your current software that you wish existed? • How much time/income could that generate/save? • What would you pay for a solution to $$ problem?

Idea Multiplication • 4 basic steps in this process: 1. gather stimuli, 2. multiply stimuli, 3. create customer concept and 4. optimize practicality • To be sure of having strong opportunity, entrepreneurs need a deep understanding of their customer • entrepreneurs need to be students of the marketplace, learning what trends are converging, and how do these shape customer demand today and into the future

Opportunity Evaluation

Opportunity Evaluation

9 elements of a Good Lean Startup Opportunity • • • Enjoyable daily tasks Product / founder fit Can become a scalable business model Can operate profitably without the founder Can become an asset you can sell Large market potential They tap into pain or pleasure differentiators Unique lead generation advantage Ability to launch quickly

Don’t choose an opportunity unless: • • • You can easily access customers You LOVE the domain You have the ability to other a 10 x solution You are willing to do the leg work You have checked with the Market You have done a formal evaluation

In this module you learned: What is an Opportunity? Where founders find Opportunities? What makes a good lean startup opportunity? How to extract opportunities through Customer Development? • Idea multiplication vs. Double Dipping • Using new tools: BMC, Product Hunt, Cloning • •

Opportunity Evaluation

End of module 3

The 7 Habits of highly successful entrepreneurs 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. They meditate. everyday, 20 minutes They wake up early. 5 am They know when to say "no. “ if you aren't pumped, dump. They read. 20 minutes a day min They create To. Do lists the night before. sets the frame They set goals and visualize. daily, quarterly, annually, 5 year 7. Practice humility and gratitude daily focus on haves A habit is a choice repeated for more than 21 days.