BEFORE YOU START THE STARTUP WORKBOOK

BEFORE YOU START

THE START-UP

WORKBOOK

100 Questions

that yo

u must answer

A Mimamsa Thought

BEFORE YOU START

THE START-UP WORKBOOK

100 Questions that you must answer

a mimamsa thought

A Mimamsa Thought

Raman Kalia

Innovation | Employer Brand | Brand Experience

Consulting | Workshops | Strategy

Domains

Services

[email protected] @rmnkalia

mimamsaconsult.com

Hi, nice to meet you

Learning | Training | Ideating | Creating

mailto:[email protected]

http://mimamsaconsult.com

A Mimamsa Thought

START-UPWORKBOOK

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Start-up name

My name

Start Date for this exercise

End Date for this exercise

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A Mimamsa Thought

CONTENTS

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Resources

Money

Idea

You

People

SELF DISCOVERY

COMPATABILITY

VIABILITY

TALENT

FUNDING

StrategyINTELLECTUAL & EMOTIONAL

All Rights Reserved. No part of this presentation may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system without prior permission in writing from Mimamsa Consulting.

A Mimamsa Thought

THIS IS A SPECIMEN OF THE DETAILED WORKBOOK.

WE HAVE TAKEN 25 RANDOMLY SELECTED QUESTIONS

TO GIVE YOU A FLAVOUR OF THE WORKBOOK. IF YOU

ARE INTERESTED IN THE COMPLETE e-WORKBOOK,

YOU CAN WRITE TO US AT THE MENTIONED E-MAIL

ADDRESS AT THE END OF THIS PRESENTATION

NOTE

COPYRIGHT 2014 MIMAMSA CONSULTING. PROPRIETARY INFORMATION. DO NOT COPY, DISTRIBUTE, OR SHARE WITHOUT PERMISSION.

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1 WHAT IS YOUR REASON TO START THIS BUSINESS?

YOU


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2 ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS IDEA? WHY?

YOU


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3 CAN YOU SEE YOURSELF COMMITTED TO THIS IDEA FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

YOU


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4 DO YOU BELIEVE YOU WILL HAVE THE SAME PASSION FOR THE IDEA 5 YEARS FROM NOW? 10 YEARS? 50 YEARS?

YOU


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5HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THE VARIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES ATTACHED WITH STARTING A BUSINESS? HAVE YOU MADE A MICRO LIST? ARE YOU SURE YOU CAN TAKE THIS BURDEN RESPONSIBLY?

T h i s w i l l i n c l u d e l e g a l m a n d a t o r i e s , f i n a n c i a l r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s , m o r a l responsibil it ies, setting-up office , buy ing fu rn i tu re , managing it everyday. Your employees and their families will depend on you for their livelihood, do you have it in you to keep the trust?

YOU


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6 HOW IMPORTANT ARE YOU TO THIS START-UP? FOR ITS LAUNCH AND FOR ITS SUCCESS?

YOU


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7 WHO ARE YOUR CO-FOUNDERS? WHAT HAS BEEN THE REASON FOR CREATING THIS TEAM?

PEOPLE

Many a times start-ups end up with a set of co-founders who are fr iends, re lat ives or colleagues from previous jobs. I t i s m o re a te am of convenience or a team of complimenting skills, attitudes and business needs.


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8 WHAT ARE THE SKILLS THAT YOUR IDEA NEEDS?

PEOPLE

These skills refer to the various levels of expertise that are linked to the idea. These can be short term skills to long term skills. The most important aspect here is the difference between hard skills and soft skills.


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9 WHAT IS DEPTH OF EXPERTISE REQUIRED IN EACH SKILL? AND HOW EXPENSIVE IS THE SKILL IF YOU HAVE TO HIRE IT?

PEOPLE

Many start-ups despite talking about long term commitment end up taking very short term dec is ions . These myop ic decisions end up biting them in the long term. It is very important that you choose your co-founders critically, basis their expertise, cost, long term bus iness integrat ion and commitment to the idea.


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10 WHAT PERCENTAGE OF SKILLS RESIDE WITH THE FOUNDERS AND WHAT PERCENTAGE WOULD NEED TO BE OUTSOURCED?

PEOPLE


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11WHAT IS THE MOST CRITICAL SKILL TO START THE BUSINESS? DOES ANY OF THE CO-FOUNDERS HAVE EXPERTISE IN IT? IF NOT, HOW DO YOU PLAN TO BUILD IT AND CONTROL IT?

PEOPLE


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11WHAT IS THE MOST CRITICAL SKILL TO RUN THE BUSINESS ON DAY-DAY BASIS? DOES ANY OF THE CO-FOUNDERS HAVE AN EXPERTISE IN IT? IF NOT, HOW DO YOU PLAN TO BUILD IT AND CONTROL IT?

PEOPLE


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12WHAT ARE YOUR INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL DEPENDENCIES (OTHER THAN THE CUSTOMER) TO START THE BUSINESS? HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU ON THE EXTERNAL DEPENDENCIES PARTICIPATION?

It will be useful to use the Porter Five Forces Model to understand the interna l and externa l challenges

PEOPLE


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13 HOW DID YOU GET THIS IDEA?

IDEA

Purpose of every business is to influence the market for better.


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14 IS THIS IDEA UNIQUE? HOW DO YOU KNOW IT?

IDEA

Is it a new idea? Rehashed idea? Redesigned Idea? Reworked idea? Global first? Country First? Industry first? Category first?


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15WHY DO YOU THINK THE MARKET NEEDS THIS IDEA? WHAT IS YOUR KEY INSIGHT? IS IT A PRODUCT INSIGHT OR A HUMAN INSIGHT?

IDEA


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16 WHERE, WHEN, HOW DID YOU GET THIS INSIGHT?

IDEA


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17HAVE YOU VALIDATED THIS INSIGHT? WHAT ARE THE MARKET EXPERIMENTS THAT YOU HAVE CONDUCTED? WHAT ARE THE LEARNINGS?

IDEA


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18 WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER? CAN YOU NAME 5 REAL PEOPLE WHO WILL BUY YOUR PRODUCT? DESCRIBE THEM IN DETAIL?

IDEA


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19HAVE YOU ACTUALLY SPOKEN TO THESE PEOPLE? HAVE THEY BOUGHT THE IDEA? HAVE YOU DONE AN ACTUAL MONETARY TRANSACTION WITH ANYONE OF THEM?

IDEA

The people you know are your customers have not transacted, then how do you plan to convince the strangers? Never start a start-up before making 5 transactions. Never believe ‘I will” only trust the money in the bank.


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20 HOW MANY CUSTOMERS HAVE YOU MET PERSONALLY?

IDEA

Many entrepreneurs end up outsourcing the market research to external agencies. This is the most important understanding for any start-up. Knowing the customer intimately. This cannot be achieved by reading reports. C u s t o m e r c a n o n l y b e understood by talking to her, by spending time with her in her natural environment


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21HOW MUCH TOTAL TIME HAVE YOU SPENT WITH THEM? DO YOU HAVE ALL THE CONVERSATIONS RECORDED? HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU HEARD THEM? DID IT IMPACT YOUR INITIAL INSIGHT? HOW CRITICAL WAS THE CHANGE?

IDEA


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22 HAVE YOU TESTED YOUR IDEA? HAVE YOU GOT CASH IN YOUR HAND EVEN FROM ONE CUSTOMER?

IDEA


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23 CAN YOU WRITE YOUR IDEA IN LESS THAN 100 WORDS? CAN YOU EXPLAIN IT IN UNDER 1 MINUTE?

IDEA

Executions can be complex, ideas articulations are always simple. Specially the ones which come from deep human insights. Find out if yours is one of them. If you can’t do it, that means it s t i l l n e e d s s o m e m o r e refinement.


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24 HOW MANY MONTHS CAN YOU SURVIVE PERSONALLY WITHOUT ANY CASH-FLOW?

MONEY

Not just your idea even you need money to survive. This is the most critical peg for the success of your effort. Do not get into a start-up phase if your short term financials are not in place. Write down all your personal in-flows and out-flows, discover how long or short is your rope.


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25 DO YOU HAVE AN ALTERNATE SOURCE OF INCOME?

MONEY

Sometimes an alternate source of income gives you a mental comfort to chase your dream harder and longer.


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We partner start-ups in their DISCOVERY JOURNEY through

our innovative MARKET EXPERIMENTATION process to DEFINE and REFINE their world

changing IDEAS.


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If you would like to have our BEFORE YOU START

THE START-UP WORKBOOK

or engage our services, please contact us at:

[email protected] ///[email protected]




A Mimamsa Thought

WHO WE ARE ///

We are an independent idea consultancy specialising in Designing Innovation Ecosystems, Brand Experiences, and Brand Engagements with employees and customers. We partner with organisations in their effort to bring commonality in their internal brand and external brand (communication delivery and service delivery) to build a branded experience and innovative thinking across all touch points.

Through our Mimamsa Creative-Conversations Model, Mimamsa Internal Brand Consistency Model and Mimamsa Experience Model we audit, evaluate and design a branded ecosystem that enable organisations to converse with clarity and connect with consistency with all stakeholders - current and future.

We practice an integrated process of research, development and crafting to build a collaborative framework pertinent to a defined environment and ecosystem to grow people, brands, businesses and profits.

AN INDEPENDENT INNOVATION FIRM

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A Mimamsa Thought

WHAT WE DO/// WE CREATE ROBUST BRAND ECOSYSTEMS

BRAND INNOVATIONBRAND BEHAVIOURSBRAND EXPERIENCE

Innovation is the new word for success. The discipline of innovation is emerging today because innovation is needed to drive market growth, but despite its pervasiveness and demand, innovation is an elusive concept. Innovation is a complex, multi-disciplinary activity that involves all the functions of an organisation, in-addition to its clients, suppliers, and its customers. We collaborate with organisations in their effort to answer the question- How should companies seeking to increase their innovative capacity make decisions regarding innovation-directed structures?=

In a world of commoditisation, organisations are realising their key asset today are their employees. It is not the products or services that make the difference but employee behaviour, actions and beliefs. Despite this, employee engagement is at its lowest. The journey of market success and brand differentiation is a journey of employee participation. Employee today is not just the first customer, he is also the first promoter and the first creator. Our engagement model brings the aspiration of organisations and employees on a common platform to energise internal culture with creativity and inspiration.

Brands today need to reinvent themselves and work towards creating memorable experiences for a relevant audience. The customer segments can no longer be identified just on the basis of traditional demographic or functional dimensions. Organisations today need to segment basis experience expectations. Brands must own experiences and build differentiations in the market place basis these unique experience promises. We help brands identify symbols and meaning by strategising around all “The five senses” to create differentiated experience promise

A Mimamsa Thought

thought collaborators

Raman Kalia Managing Partner

Mobile: +91 9742223518 e-mail: [email protected]

skype: rmnkalia blog: mimamsaconsult.com

@ Copyright 2014, Mimamsa Consulting, Bangalore


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BEFORE YOU START THE STARTUP WORKBOOK