A checklist for start ups

[teacup64]

Hello people,

I was thinking of a crash-course/checklist for someone who has a start up idea, i.e. the fastest way to get the person to understand what the start up world is like.

1. Apply to Y combinator, and contact 150 VC/Angel investors in the first month - write down your pipeline. This process will force you to understand the requirements of the "start-up crowd" and also help you focus the idea (you get to learn new concepts e.g. market thickness, pitch deck);
2. Find a Cofounder, think of the guy who always did things (I instantly thought of my friend who make the program we were thinking about the day after we talked about it);
3. Set some weekly goals that will push you towards a MVP (For example talking to potential customers, specs, be ambitious and try to get lots of things done);
4. Make sure you understand: 1. Market size, i.e. that it is big enough (500million in revenue to 1 billion); 2. why cofounder equity should be even; 3. How your product is defendable; 4. PMF;
5. You should have: 1. A pitch deck (with a loom), 2. a 1pg memo on your start up, 3. an idea of what your MVP should look like (an you should be building a part);
6. Understand what type of business model you will have. Contacting investors and filling out forms you'll have understood the most popular "SaaS, Marketplace, et.c....";
7. Try to build something that makes the customer want to share it with everyone (in my case, when I learnt of calendly I shared it with my whole team and friends instantly - I always have to zoom people and it saved me so much time);
8. Try to understand how your product can be the monopolist (watch a peter thiel video);
9. Don't worry about anything other than: 1. Talking to customers, 2. Writing code, 3. possibly trying to sell - all the fancy other stuff comes later (I wasted so much time on cap tables, etc...);
10. Check if you have done you'r weekly goals, set a monthly one and ALWAYS SET GOALS!!!

Any comments?

It's for my friends daughter (practially a niece who wants to start a pizza selling business "start up").

I know 1 month is ambitious, but high standards means effort and creative solutions (hopefully).

 

[ricky3369]

@teacup64 All good apart from the first step, applying to YC and contacting a bunch of VCs and Investors right away is not the right move in my opinion, try to first spend some time on validation of the idea, before even building anything, then try to build at least a visual demo or a conceptual representation of what you have in mind. Then find a co founder and just then, contact investors, you will have already found out about many problems you could have had before working on it a bit. If you contact them right away you just cut off your routes to funding from the start

 

[teacup64]

@ricky3369 Do you think I'm forgetting any thing else?

While I get your point, I think starting to tap into the community knowledge is important - also after, when you achieve PMF or when you have a MVP I don't investors will just refuse to see you.

Do you think I'm missing anything else in the list?

 

[ricky3369]

@teacup64 The concept of getting introduced to those concepts is right indeed, but I don’t think talking to investors about a product you have not validated yet is the right idea ( even though that’s exactly what I did myself Ahahha). A “No” can stop many people from continuing the idea and maybe it was just right but not validated yet. There are models to respond to the essential questions you are referring to, for example the Business model canvas.

I also think that in the step where you tell people to inform themselves about the key concepts you included too many different stages. For example PMF is something you can’t comprehend until you start selling, I would try to focus on learning things based on the stage you are at, either you are selling or seeking investment it’s hard to get started on both things simultaneously.