1. E102 Lecture 2 Introduction (continued)
Jan 10, 2012

2. Brief thoughts on choosing ideas

3. There are two types of people in the world. . .

4. There are two types of people in the world
There are two types of people in the world. . . Those who divide the world into two types of people

5. There are two types of people in the world
There are two types of people in the world. . . Those who divide the world into two types of people And those who don’t

6. There are two types of Businesses . . .
Technology Push Vs Market pull
There are two types of Businesses . . .
Technology Push
Market A
Market B
Market C
Consumer need example
Market Pull
Technology A
Technology B
Technology C
Market A

7. Types of ideas Technology – Driven An IP protected “cool technology”
“Barrier” areas such as
Batteries, more efficient turbines, solar power)
Energy efficient devices
Information
Right data at the right time to the right person
A product area you feel passionate about
A product you can learn from

8. Funding
Not necessary to be an Angel or VC idea as long as it can be self-funded.
But what if you want some outside investment?
What works . . .

9. Funding
Not necessary to be an Angel or VC idea as long as it can be self-funded.
But what if you want some outside investment?
What works . . .
And what doesn’t work

10. VC: “Thanks, but don’t call me- I’ll call you. . .”
An idea which affords you no competitive advantage and no barrier to entry from competition
Something that is “nice to have” rather than something which addresses a real market pain
An idea which requires a large infrastructure as a core competence
Something which is a “feature” on a present product
Something which attacks an entrenched competitor

11. VC: “Great idea- but not in our space. . .”
Something which requires a very large Capital Outlay
Something where it is very hard to prove the business model quickly
Something where the investment cannot be
returned in <5-7 years
Something where there is no “path to profitability”

12. VC: “What did you say your name was?”
Something which is unmanufacturable using current technology
Something where you are only 2X better than current product
Something where you say your unproven idea is worth 5 million dollars
Something which says that you will be successful in China if only you got 1% of the market
Etc, etc.

13. The biggest barriers to building a successful technology-based business are

14. The biggest barriers to building a successful technology-based business are Poor Management

15. The biggest barriers to building a successful technology-based business are Poor Management Poor Marketing

16. . Success is the ability to go from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm     
-Winston Churchill