The Porter 5 forces of competitive forces: Assumes that participants are already in the market (not really effective with emerging startups) While competition is real, the largest player has more influence (economy of scale & scope) on the market than new entrant

TEV or Economic Value to a customer (EVC) is a measure of how much value an individual customer, or customer segment, gets from using a company’s products or services The higher EVC is to a customer, the more likely they will pay a higher price for a product/service EVC = Tangible value the product provides + Intangible value the product provides Functional (or utilitarian) needs. I buy a Sam Adams beer to quench my thirst. Social needs. I buy a Sam Adams beer to fit in with the people at my office holiday party. Ego-expressive (or symbolic) need. I buy a Sam Adams beer to make me look upscale and intelligent. Recreational needs. I buy a Sam Adams beer to have a prop to hold and something to fiddle with while I am at a bar. Absolute EVC = Your product’s EVC – Costs customer must incur to purchase the product Relative EVC = [Your product’s EVC – costs to customer to purchase your product] – [The next best alternative’s EVC – costs to customer to purchase that product] If a product relative EVC is negative, customer is unlikely to buy the product.

Marketing and sales drive revenue, not the other way: You'll need to know your Cost of Customer Acquisition, Traffic conversion rate, to predict revenue (not the other way round) Sales per agent per month --> Sales forecast

If you think you need an NDA before pitching your startup idea, you need to read this. Operating in "stealth mode" does more harm than you realised: 1. Little to no validation of your startup idea 2. No well-wisher to warn you of relevant trends or information that may help you correct your path 3. No potential talents working on the same problem know you 4. Nobody knows what you're doing - no good fortune comes to you 5. Makes you look silly

1. What we do. We all know what we are doing (product that we build, problems that we solve) 2. How - how do we do that? 3. Why - why do we do what we do? Do we know why we do what we do? https://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4

The slower you speak, the more we listen. Emphasize the keyword of each sentence. Pause at all the commas, and full stop. Take all the time you need, for the slower you speak, the more we listen. https://youtu.be/rrOnk0JnXW4

The main character with a dream or problem A conflict, challenge or obstacle the character must overcome A resolution, achievement or success (unless you’re writing a tragedy) Your customer: the beneficiary of the story

Plan your story starting with the takeaway message. Think about what’s important to the audience. The ending is the most important point of the story. This is the message we want to deliver, and the one that will linger with the audience. Keep your stories short for the workplace. Three to five minutes long is about what people can digest in today’s ADD world. Good stories are about challenge or conflict. Without these elements, stories aren’t very interesting. The compelling part of a story is how people deal with conflict–-so start with the people and the conflict. Think about your story like a movie. Imagine you are screenwriter with a goal to get your message across. The story has to have a beginning, middle, and end. Start with a person and his challenge, and intensify human interest by adding descriptions of time, place, and people with their emotions. Be creative. Create a storyboard; draw it out, while listening to music or reading something for inspiration. A good story always has ups and downs, so “arc” the story. Pull people along, and introduce tension, just like in a fairy tale. (“From out of nowhere, the wolf jumps onto the path…”) Intensify the story with vivid language and intonation. Tap into people’s emotions with language. Use metaphors, idioms, and parables that have emotional associations. (Note: For more on this, see Leo Widrich’s article entitled, “Which Words Matter Most When You Talk” and studies on intonation performed by Ingrid Johnsrude at Cambridge University). When using a story in a PowerPoint presentation, use appropriate graphics/pictures to convey your message. Stay away from text and complicated graphics. A single picture interlaced with emotional language will go a long way to convey your message. Most of us have not told stories in front of an audience since English class in high school. So you will need to practice. Tell your story in front of a friendly audience and get feedback. Gauge your pace, and take note of the story’s length and your use of language. It will be a bit rusty at first, but underneath it all, we are all born storytellers. The most important point is to make the switch within; because once you internalize that today’s “left-brain” communication style doesn’t work very well and you realize that stories are how people really communicate, you will find it a lot easier to proceed…because it’s authentic. And that is what really persuades.

Minimum Viable Product is a form of hypothesis testing Build minimum features in order to get feedback (e.g. mockup, wireframe, demo, etc.) Early feedback helps build a better product There’s no way to know what the customer needs without talking to the customer https://youtu.be/JyKe2wZKVuA

Customer Profile & the Value Map

Understand the value proposition to the customer. Figure out the minimum viable product to validate the need. https://youtu.be/6WLsXC9_IKQ

Common types of startups are: 1- Small Business Startup 2- Scalable Startup 3- Large Company Startup 4- Lifestyle Startup 5- Buyable Startup 6- Social Startup Of the various types, Scalable Startup is what most entrepreneurs are going after. In my experience, the Lean Startup Methodology is the preferred approach.

A summary of 6 phases: Create (VPC) Release (MVP) Morph (Product-market fit) Model (BMC) Scale (multiply success) Harvest https://youtu.be/jj1mwtPQ10A

Your Total Available Market (TAM) size are: NOT Top Down, NOT the size of the problem, NOT the size of the market today, ARE the number of customer multiply by your price https://youtu.be/M_RMTC2YmXY Estimated size should: be meaningful, somewhat achievable with the current business model & strategy. It should target your customer, not someone else's. Market size estimates is an aspiration and roadmap for a start-up to earn this market share.

In R&D, maybe you use net return on assets (and end up outsourcing everything), or IIR (and prioritise near-term returns), or Net returns on investment (and discourage risk taking). The selected unit of measurement rewards a narrow class of behaviour and outcome that is not necessarily beneficial to the larger good.