How to win Startup Weekend Spokane November 7th - 9th, 2014

!Marsh Sutherland

StartupWeekend Organizer !

Pitch Clinic

Agenda

• Friday night pitches - 1 minute

• Lean Canvas to develop your startup idea

• Sunday afternoon pitches - 5 minutes

About me!

My name is Marsh Sutherland

• Spokane native. Boston tech entrepreneur

• Brought StartupWeekend to Spokane in 2012 with Brett Noyes

• Founder of 5 tech startups. Sold 2.

• 2012 SXSW Accelerator Finalist

• Former AngelHack Boston Organizer

• Pitch judge for MassHack & Princeton alumni startup pitches

Who are you?

• Name?

• Business idea?

• Expectations from this seminar?

Friday Night Pitches• You only have 1 minute….

• “Hi, my name is ______ & my startup is _________”

• Problem - Tell a user story “Rob is frustrated because…”

• Solution - Tell a user story “Rob learned about …”

• How it works - Tell a user story

• Your impressive background and/or “why you care” for an emotional connection

• What team member profiles you are looking for • “Tech stack” developer

• Marketer

• UI/UX Designer

Lean Canvas!

Areas of FocusProblem Solution Key Metrics Unique Value Proposition

Unfair Advantage

Channels

Customer Segments

Cost Structure

Revenue Streams

Lean Canvas Template at https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/

1h47KVLjkUdEazpgi-6KAe1jpZx3AIpVaR3RUJxDfYOU/edit?usp=sharing

SW Spokane Judging Criteria• Business Model

• Customer Validation

• Technical - Execution

• Design - Execution

Business ModelHoly Grail: Is this innovative & disruptive in a big market?!

• Can this idea make money?

• Is there positive customer growth or revenue?

• Is there a customer acquisition / rollout strategy?

• Has a revenue model been defined & is it realistic?

• Is the idea/team ready for capital and execution?

• Would you invest in this company at this point?

Customer ValidationHoly Grail: Did you get users or paying customers?!

• Did the team identify customers (demographic, location etc)?

• Did the team get out and talk to customers? See Elizabeth Yin’s Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/dunkhippo33/lean-startup-circle-boston-april-28-2011

• What is the value proposition to customers?

• What channels of communication are used?

• How is the Product/Market fit?

Technical - ExecutionHoly Grail: Did you launch???!

• Is there a functional product (e.g.in the case of an app, did they build one)?

• Were architecture diagrams and API signatures included?

• Which services did they integrate with?

• How much of the product is running on a real server with non-sample data?

Design - ExecutionHoly Grail: Does it have an intuitive & professional look and feel with an obvious value proposition?!

• Does it deliver a compelling and captivating user experience?

• Is it memorable?

• What key insights were gathered over the weekend to go in this creative direction?

Sunday Final Pitches• Slide 1: State the problem in a user story

• Slide 2: State your solution in a user story

• Slide 3/Demo app: SHOW how it works

• Slide 4: Explain your customer validation & rollout strategy. If you have customers, give metrics

• Slide 5: Explain how big your market is & how you will beat competitors

• Slide 5: Explain your revenue model

• Slide 6: Tell about your team & backgrounds

• Slide 7: Explain your next steps & future milestones

Questions??Contacts:!

Marsh Sutherland, @marshsutherland

marsh@charitycheckin.com

(617) 999-9211

!

Karen Thurston

kthurston@uidaho.edu