Bubo box building new ideas

Koen Stevenskoen@bubobox.comwww.bubobox.com

Identifying good business ideas

13 Aug 2014 - Koen Stevens - BuboBox

Koen Stevenskoen@bubobox.comwww.bubobox.com

About me

Software Engineer/Master E-Business

Previous owner web content management and online video company (internet entrepreneur)

Word-Of-Mouth Director BuboBox

BuboBox: Scratch Your Own Itch

BuboBox Timeline

Team Prototype First client Market Research

for different verticals

Closed seed round (625k)

Running lean at night

The Four Steps to the Epiphany (Steve Blank)

The Lean Startup(Eric Ries)

Running Lean (Ash Maurya)

To lean or not to lean, that’s the question

Lean Startup Customer Development

Verticals 1 or limited multiple

Sales cycle short long

Sales process Online Offline

Customer type SMB Larger customers

Opportunity Normal Audacious

Definition of 'Market Research'

Market research is any organized effort

to gather information about target markets or

customers

Market Research: the classics

Market Research: online tools (1/2)

Identify trends: Google Trends/Zeitgeist, Adwords

Market Research: Gartner, Forrester Reporting, Surveys, Customer

Development (also see Lean Startup later)

Marketing plans: go-to-market action plan

SWOT: f.e. MindTools template SWOT Matrix

Location Analysis: Google Maps, Google 3D,

Internationalization: virtual offices (ex. iMinds GoGlobal program)

Market Research: online tools (2/2)

Competitive Analysis: LinkedIn, Job postings competitors, Magic

Quadrant (Gartner), Rivalmap.com, Engagor.com

Target Market Analysis: Market size, total addressable market

(TAM): bottom-up & top-down (based on research)

(Inter)national competitors: Crunchbase (part of TechCrunch),

LinkedIn, Blogs, Google Alerts, Twitter search terms

(“Know your competition, but don’t become a me too company”)

Price analysis: mystery shopping, online pricing (SaaS), case

studies, white papers

The power of the crowd

Kickstarter (f.e. OUYA Game Console)

Indiegogo (f.e. Scanadu)

AskYourTargetMarket (AYTM)

Is market research dead?

No, but it’s evolving...

Remember:

Your early assumptions are wrong

No competition = no market

Talk with key market players and

existing customers afterwards as

much as possible

Combine different techniques, do it

your way

Pivot

“The pivot. It used to be called, ‘the fuck-up.’ Taking the stigma out of

failure is very exciting,” he said. “But we see founders who give up too quickly. It’s permission to give up

very fast. Are they really going to do the heavy lifting over time?”

-Paul Graham (Y-Combinator)

Market Research: our findings (1/2)

Peer and expert influence (Founder Institute graduate)

People tend to look for validation of their own assumptions in surveys (we did use AYTM)

Focus groups focus on herd behavior (we did use PXL research through an innovation grant “Innovatiepremie” following the “Lean Startup” method and individual sessions) Lesson learned: DIY

Market Research: our findings (2/2)

You don’t need a business plan, but actually you do (no napkin investors in Belgium)

Sell without a product (personal examples: Netfood, Restox, BuboBox)

73.6% of all Statistics are Made Up: there is no right or wrong for market research: do it your way but do something and do it NOW!

Koen Stevenskoen@bubobox.comwww.bubobox.com

Q&A

Q&A