Startup & Venture Lessons

Jay Jamison Venture Partners, BlueRun Ventures

jjamison@brv.com | @jay_jamison | jayjamison.com

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Agenda

Introduction Top 10 Lessons Q&A

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Introduction
Employee Founder

Investor

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About BlueRun Ventures

Over $1.0B under management Investing out of Fund IV ($240M)

Focus: Mobile & consumer internet

Seed & Series A

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Stuff that surprised me

Having nearly 10 years at MSFT didnt matter at all.

Having an MBA from Wharton mattered even less.

Both were seen as basically negatives. But, several of the skills from both really helped.

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Top 10 Startup Lessons

1. Todays Golden Age For Founders & Its Double-Edge Sword. 2. Whats #1: Markets, Team, or Product?

3. Picking Co-Founders & How to Split the Baby.

4. The Whatever Works Principle 5. Getting used to No, and Being a Meat Eater 6. Hire Slow, Fire Fast 7. Distribution is Really Hard & Really Important 8. If You Stop Loving It, Make a Change. 9. Values and Value Add 10. Pitching & Fund-Raising 11. My go-to resources
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Lesson 1: Its a Golden Age for Entrepreneurs.

Cheaper than ever to start a company.
Better resources Incubators: Y-Combinator, 500Startups,

Resources: Startup Digest, Lean Startup, TC, VB

Technology is easier to learn, access, &c. Codecademy RoR AWS
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 And Investors Understand This.

I see lots of great companies that are: Capital efficient High velocity in coding and releasing Product in market with traction Clear customer insight on what works Battle-tested founding teams Clear, concrete ask on what $$$ they need

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Implication
While were in a Golden Age for Entrepreneurs, it is raising the bar for most very early stage companies
You need to prove more on very little money, because so many other start-ups are already doing so.

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Lesson 2: Whats #1: Markets, Team, or Product?

Which is most important?

A.Market
B.Product C.Team

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Which is most important?

A.Market
B.Product C.Team

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Analysis
75 pitches / quarter

Market Team

0-2 get to term sheet

Score each Multiple regression

Traction
Product

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How I think about Markets

Choose Any 4 Companies, Stack Rank Vision Worlds largest store Redefine social Organize & access information Reinvent money ????

Your Company

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How I think about Markets

Choose Any 4 Companies, Stack Rank Vision Worlds largest store Redefine social Organize & access information Reinvent money Teach English to children everywhere

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Lesson 3: Picking Co-Founders & Equity Split

What a tech founder needs in a business co-founder Someone who sells what you build Someone who can do all the important stuff thats not coding

Leadership and vision

Potentially you can raise money, while you code.

What a business co-founder needs in a tech co-founder

Someone who writes code and gets technical stuff done, and who ideally understands how to hire and expand the technical team over time.
Technical chops, CS/EE degree Nice to have: a track record building stuff Very nice to have: Ideas on how to hire devs

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Finding a Technical Co-Founder

More important than fund-raising

Requires almost the same skills

Pitching and salesmanship Capacity to speak enough geek Resourcefulness

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Default founder split: equal

50% 50%

33%

33%

33%

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Lesson 4: The Whatever Works Principle

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Anon.

Lean Startup
Revenue from Day 1 Building for Scale Scrum

If youre not embarrassed with your first launch, youre waiting too long. Reid Hoffman

Never stealth!
Everything Inhouse

Offshore

Minimum Viable Product

HTML5

StealthCo
Native Apps
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Customer Development
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Whatever Works
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Anon.

My Advice &
Absorb all this stuff

If youre not embarrassed with your first launch, Learning: youre waiting too long. Reid Hoffman

Revenue from Day 1 Use what works Building for Scale for you Scrum Everything Inhouse The key is work fast & economically

Lean Startup Listen to people you trust

Offshore

Never stealth!

Minimum Viable Product

HTML5

StealthCo
Native Apps
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Customer Development
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Lesson 5: Get Used to No

As Founder: Heard No a lot, especially fund-raising At least 150 times

From 5 different countries

As an Investor: I say No a lot, especially to fund-raisers Probably 1%

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Whats weird about this

These numbers are probably about average

Generally No coming from smart, polite person

(Not always the case, so be careful) Under 10% of founders really follow-up and stay after it Lesson: build a plan to deal with No

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Be A Meat-Eater
Speed

Swagger & optimism

Persistence Follow-through Showcase progress
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Lesson 6: Hire Slow, Fire Fast

Hire Slow Wait for real pain Everyone interviews Share feedback Do reference checks Fire Fast When perf lags, speak up Set clear expectations Set a crisp timeline Fire

Dinner w/ SO

Ensure lawyer is in loop

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Lesson 7: Distribution, distribution, distribution

This is by far the weakest part of your business at this point

And, it is also one of the most important

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Love It or Leave It

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Lesson 9 Values & Value-Add

Values are key from day 1 Set them & talk about them constantly.

No right way to do this, but doing it is important

Value-Add is also a key from day 1 If someone stops pulling their weight, deal with it

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Lesson 10 Thoughts on Fund-Raising

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Logistics : Pre-Meeting

Arrive 15 minutes early every time Have back-ups (2nd PC, Dongles, USBs) Treat everyone you meet politely Setup & preflight ppt & demo before meeting starts Bring ideally 2-3 people Remember: You are SELLING

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Logistics: During Meeting

Give everyone who attends a role

Script which person handles which slide(s)

Assign a scribe, every time

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Logistics: Q&A During Meeting

Often badly managed, and very important Answer questions directly

Script answers on the obvious questions

How much are you raising? How long does this last? What beachhead markets do you think are most promising? What holes exist in your team? Why wont Google, Facebook, Twitter, or someone else eat your lunch? What makes you the right team to do this?

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Logistics: Post Meeting

Scribe: Write down all new QA for FAQ Follow-up in email that day w/ thanks, etc. Do what you need to handle rejection Keep positive & keep in touch
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Go To Resources
TechCrunch, VentureBeat, TechMeme, etc. JoelonSoftware http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/ Startup digest Netflix on Culture Compstudy.com

Igor International Naming Guide

Paul Grahams blog.

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Thanks!

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