How To Win the StartUp Cup Business Model Competition! Read from slider and then share the following: If you follow the processes and techniques I am about to share in this presentation it will increase your chances of advancing and potentially winning the StartUp Cup. Let me start by sharing the first slide: www.uganda.startupcup.com

Starting A Company Is A Lot Like Making Sausage It is important to understand that starting a company is a lot making sausage – click to next slide

Not Pretty! Starting a company is just not pretty. It is important to make sure that you are only sharing the design and building process with your core team. No one wants to see you making sausage while starting a company, they want to see you showing up with a real company. Back home you can be riding a tricycle but when you come out in public you are riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Let people only see the best parts of your company. When you come back to your office or home you can back on your tricycle and starting making sausage again.

Starting a company is also like drinking from a fire hose Starting a company is also like drinking from a fire hose. You are going to be taking in a lot of information all at once. Prepare yourself and drink in as much as you possible - it will help you over the long run.

Not For Faint of Heart You will be challenged by experiences and situations you never imagined. Stay strong and be aware that starting a company is not for the faint of heart.

There is one consistent characteristic of successful entrepreneurs and that trait is persistence. You are going to have to dig deep within yourself to discover the place where your fire in the belly is. It takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to start and build a viable company. Remain persistent!

Never, Ever Give Up! Starting a company requires you to never give up. Even when the chips are down and you are not sure how you will survive it is important to keep on keeping on and never, ever give up!

If your business model advances in the StartUp Cup, one of the consistent themes you will hear from the Judges and Coaches is the need for FOCUS. It is a consistent trait of entrepreneurs to be attracted to “shiny objects” and get distracted by opportunities. In order to be successful with your startup you are going to have to focus intently on learning, growing and advancing your business model. Focus!

A common question that we are continually asked is what is the difference between a business plan and a business model? Let me share with you the major differences between the two.

Business Plans = Static The Business Plan is Dead Read from the slide: Emphasize that business PLANS are not typically flexible. They take a long time to research and write and are not connected to the realities of the current market, and business PLANS are based on conjecture, not reality.  A well written plan that projects an unknown future with detailed graphs and pretty pictures, generally, focused on raising money  Typically not connected to reality of current market conditions

Business Model = Dynamic Long Live the Business Model (Read off slide as a first step and then share the following): What you see here is the Business Model Scorecard, a self-guided visual thinking tool that can be found on the StartUp Cup Website (StartUpCup.com) for free download. This visual thinking tool will support you to work through the universal steps of designing and building any business. All of the questions found in the StartUp Cup business model submission form are tied directly to the Business Model Scorecard. We recommend that you download a copy today to use to prepare for StartUp Cup.  Supports going to market quickly and testing assumptions  Securing customers and generating revenue as fast as possible

The goal for an entrepreneur with a new business concept is to identify a business model, test assumptions, secure customers, and evolve their model as they grow revenue and market share. Read this very slowly so that everyone in the audience understands the goal of starting a company. This is so important to understand. It is not necessarily about raising money as a first step. It is about testing, evaluating and adjusting your model to meet the needs of your target customer. Growing customers and revenue is the key driver of a successful entrepreneur today.

What used to take years now takes months This is true for any type of business whether it is a restaurant, retail store, consulting firm, or web-based startup. Keep asking yourself “How can I get my product or service to market in the fastest way possible to start generating revenue and learn from my customers how to create repeatable revenue?” Ask, “How can I get my product or service to market faster?”

What took lots of money now takes less With less than 2% of all startups receive funding from Venture Capitalists, Angels, or Accelerator programs, you are going to have to identify creative ways to secure the money and resources you will need to start your business. Instead of asking yourself “how MUCH money can I raise?” ask yourself “how LITTLE money do I need to start my company and generate revenue?” This can be the difference between launching or not launching a new company. Ask “How little money do I need to get my company off the ground? What is the quickest path to generating repeatable revenue?”

“Entrepreneurship is the process of creating or seizing an opportunity and pursuing it regardless of the resources currently controlled.” Andy Timmons, Harvard University Research is showing it takes between 18 and 30 months to scale a business to profitability. Bootstrapping is a highly effective way to survive the long and challenging process of building a business. Focus on identifying what you have in your control related to resources and assets. Work to leverage those resources to grow new resources as you build your business. Bootstrapping is the fastest and most efficient way to accelerate to revenue and reinvestment back into your company.

Def_Business Model A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. Read from the slide: This is the definition of a business model as provided by Wikipedia.

Utilize the Business Model Scorecard Utilize the Business Model Scorecard. Self-Guided Visual Thinking Tool Specifically Designed to Accelerate StartUp Business Model Design This is the Business Model Scorecard which was designed specifically to support entrepreneurs with ANY type of business idea to work through the universal steps of designing and building a viable business model and reducing the time to go to market and start generating revenue. Let me go into more detail about the steps you need to work through.

Step I: What is the Value Proposition? Read from the slide and then share the following: Your idea has to create value and you need to be able to articulate that value as simply as possible. Write down in as few words as possible what value your business is creating or will create. See if you can define your value with a collection of single words. Be specific! How Are You Different? What Need Are You Filling?

Step II: Customer Development Who is your target customer? Everyone is NOT your customer Why will they buy your offering? Product/Service What are you selling? Be specific Market How big is your market? What is the growth potential? Vehicle/Channel How are you going to get your product or service to your customer? Read from slide and then share the following: Be as specific as you can be and use as few words as possible to describe each segment. Without customers there is no business. The key is to focus in on who your main customer is. Work to identify one major/main customer and then secondary customers. Focus on building your main customer first. Keep in mind the world is not your customer. Think in smaller segments and focus.

Step III: Revenue Development How will you generate revenue? How many revenue streams are there? Expenses What will you spend money on? Phone, travel, legal, tech, design, etc. Resources What connections can you leverage? What resources do you need? Read from the slide then share the following: Your goal is to identify as strong a revenue opportunity as possible. Once you identify the revenue opportunity for your business idea your goal is to go out into the marketplace and work towards generating repeatable revenue. Unlike an operating business, as a startup you are not focused on creating profitability as much as you are searching for consistent and repeatable revenue that will help you move to profitability.

Step IV: Team Development What talents and skills do you require? Legal, designer, developer, marketing? Promotion Getting your message and story out Internet, events, direct marketing? Sales How are you going to close the deal? How will you turn potential into sales? Funding How are you funding your startup? Friends, family, fools, credit cards? Nothing of greatness happens without a team. It is an illusion that people do anything of significance without team. Your new startup is no different. Each of you have a strength. Focus on your strength and go find people who fill your weaknesses so that you can focus on what you do best and your team members can do what they do best. Research is showing that lack of team is the number reason for startup failure not lack of funding. Who do you need on your team?

Step V: Action and Testing Read from the slide and then share: Action is where a great majority of startups fail. They don’t take action by going out to secure customers and generate revenue. Be different and start doing and testing your assumptions as quickly as possible. Your business model will never be finished so it does not need to be perfect to start building your new company. If you can start selling right away. Find out what it would take for the potential customer to buy your product. Do research that will help you understand what your customer wants and how to reach your customer. Find ways to bootstrap your company forward using the resources you have at your disposal instead of always looking for what you don’t have to get started. Do it with less. Build your team right now. What gaps do you have on your team? Make a list of your needs and get out there and find them. Ask people with the skills you need to help you out. The key is to stop talking and start doing.

Your Job Remain open to different thinking Look for solutions that increase value Search for ways to accelerate to market Experiment on different ways to create revenue Celebrate successes Read from the slide. Emphasize the need to celebrate. As entrepreneurs we tend to move on to the next activity without celebrating the wins as we go along.

Engage Business Model Thought Partners Through StartUp Cup you have a tremendous opportunity to connect with business leaders and entrepreneurs from your local community to make new connections and gain a wealth of business insights. Take advantage of this opportunity and ask as many people with experience as you can to support you in growing your new startup. The thing is that people like to help people who are starting companies. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Grow A Team & Collect People We have said it before - Nothing of greatness is created without a team. It is a myth that any one person has built or created a company. You will want to become a collector and enroller of people if you are to build a successful company. As part of StartUp Cup the Judges and Coaches will be paying close attention to the quality of your team members to execute on your business model. Pay special attention to building a solid team.

This a painting by StartUp Cup CEO and Founder, Sean Griffin, that was commissioned by Xeta (ZAYTA) Technologies to inspire their employees to think more like an entrepreneur. In the end being entrepreneur means that you are going to have to always be expanding your world, stretching yourself, pushing yourself to new limits, remaining open to new ideas, and continually looking for opportunities to grow.

It is now time to get to work. Let’s stop talking and start doing It is now time to get to work! Let’s stop talking and start doing. If you are holding a workshop you can pass out the Business Model Scorecard prints and/or the StartUp Cookbook and have participants start working on designing their business models. Have Coaches and Mentors walk around and help answer any questions that come up. The goal is to help the entrepreneurs to advance their business model as quickly as possible. Less planning and more doing. Remind them to get out and start testing assumptions, sell products or services, engage customers, and generate revenue.