Tom Evans 1 Hour Creative MBA on Startup Thinking, Making & Funding

@TomEvans | @BleepBleeps
Startup
School
1 Hour Creative MBA
 
Tom Evans

Today
45min talk
15min Q&A
Tweet your questions to @TomEvans

Hands up!

A bit
about
me…

@TomEvans
A family of little friends
that make parenting easier

business
technology
creative

Everything I’ve learned
In 1 hour

Think it
Make it
Fund it
People that…

Think it
Make it
Fund it
What is this thing?
Who is it for?
How is it good?
How does it make money?
Why should anyone care?
Why are we doing this?

Think it
Make it
Fund it
Physically create the thing!
Who makes it?
Where?
How is it made?
What other things do you
need to make the thing?

Think it
Make it
Fund it
Who pays for this thing?
You?
Investors?
Businesses?
Consumers?
Where/how do they discover you?
When/where/how do they pay?

Think it
Make it
Fund it
Simultaneously and constantly

Think it!

Think it
Purpose
Why does our company exist?
What’s our role in culture or society?
What do we believe (that others don’t)?
Why should anyone care?
Resources: 
Simon Sinek: Start With Why

Think it
Brand
How do we act on our principles/beliefs?
What is our personality like?
How do we behave?
Where/how do we communicate?
Resources: 
Seth Godin’s blog
Believer’s Pyramid: Designing purposeful brands

Think it
Business Model
How do we create value or make money?
What/who is our market?
How/where do they discover us?
Where/how do people purchase?
What partners and resources do we need?
Resources: 
Business Model Canvas
Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki

@TomEvans | @BleepBleeps@TomEvans | @BleepBleeps

Think it
Design Strategy
How do we express our purpose/brand through
our products and services?
How will we actually execute our ideas?
How are we diﬀerent/better?
What experience will we create?
Resources: 
Design Kit - What is Human-Centred Design?
Value Proposition Design

Make it!

1% Inspiration
99% Perspiration

Make it
How? (Hardware)
R&D, NPD, CX, UX, UI, ID, FSD
Prototyping (ID, iOS)
ME, DFM, EE
Tooling, T1, T2 etc
MFG
Certiﬁcation, CE, EMC, QA
Shipping, Fulﬁlment, 3PL

Make it
Who?
You. But you can’t do it all.
Getting help depends on your resources/cash:
1. DIY
2. Favours and/or Sweat Equity
3. Mates rates
4. Freelancers and Consultants
5. Agencies and Partners

Make it
Create your
network
Resources: 
Upwork
Meetup

From:
Busking-one
man-band
To:
Conductor of
the orchestra

Make it
How?
Ship as quickly as possible
Everything changes when you have a prototype
Build, measure, learn - repeat*
*Caveat: you have to innovate before you can iterate
Resources: 
The Lean Startup

Make it
If you are not
embarrassed by the
ﬁrst version of your
product, you’ve
launched too late”
“
- Reid Hoﬀman

Make it
Some techniques
Do it now
Optimise everything: look for shortcuts or software
For focus: close all other apps!
Diary
Schedule everything (including free time)
Different days/half-days for different types of work
Capture to-do’s for later (I use Omnifocus)
Delegate
Hire smarter than you (especially your co-founders)
Outsource everything vs build internal knowledge
Remote working = no office
Get a virtual assistant while you build your team
Dump
Get rid of every non-essential task
Stay on strategy with OKRs

Make it
Tools
Lots of tools!
Resources:
Tim Ferris - Podcast, Four Hour Work Week and Tools Of Titans 
Tom Evans - 99 reasons why I'm more productive than you
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Getting Things Done
Personal tasks: Omnifocus, Siri, Alexa
Notes: Mac OS Notes (Evernote)
Company tasks: Trello (Jira)
Objectives and Key Results: Perdoo
Company Messaging: Slack
Audio Calls: Slack, Skype
Video Calls: Skype, (Zoom, Appear.in)
Company Email: Polymail, G Suite
Calendar - phone: Google Calendar
Calendar - desktop: Mac OS Calendar
Scheduling: Polymail, YouCanBook.me,
Calendly, Doodle
Filesharing: Dropbox, Google Drive,
MS OneDrive
Content, Design and Marketing
Docs, Spreadsheets: Google Drive, MS Oﬃce
Presentations: Keynote, Google Slides
Photo editing: Google Photos, Photoshop
Video: Adobe Premiere, iMovie
UI/Design: Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch
ID: Solidworks, Rhino, Keyshot, Modo
Prototyping: InVision, Bugherd
Forms, Surveys: Typeform
Typing shortcuts: aText, iOS Shortcuts
Brand Assets: Brandfolder
Ecommerce: Shopify
eCRM: Mailchimp, Tout
Customer Service: Freshdesk
Social: Hootsuite
Admin and Financial
Accounting: Xero
Cashﬂow projections: Float
Timesheets, invoicing: Harvest
Travel Itineraries: Kayak
Virtual Assistants: Zirtual, 24/7, VA Assistant
Freelancers: Upwork
Gantt Charts: Team Gantt
Gear
Home: iMac
On the go: MacBook, iPhone 7 Plus
Headphones: good ones! (essential)

Make it
Stay zen!
Create habits: knowledge is pointless without action/behaviour
Remember to zoom out and keep perspective
Keep “the business” separate from “you”
Get some coaching
Daily journalling/gratitude (5MJ)

Fund it!

¥£$

Fund it
Who pays
for this thing?
You?
Investors?
Grants?
Businesses?
Consumers?

Fund it
The best
investor is
your customer”
- Esther Dyson
“

Fund it
How do people
discover you?
Then what?

Fund it
A tool for thinking
about customers
Or…
CX Framework?
Brand Experience Wheel?
Customer Journey Tool?
Inﬂuence Model?
Thingamajig?

Encounter
Explore
ActExperience
Share

Do we convert them to
buy or do something?
Encounter
Explore
ActExperience
Share
How do they meet us?
Do they actively
engage with us?
Do we delight them with
our product or content?
Do they actively talk about
us and recommend us?

Do we convert them to
buy or do something?
People
Encounter
Explore
ActExperience
Share
How do they meet us?
Do they actively
engage with us?
Do we delight them with
our product or content?
Do they actively talk about
us and recommend us?

Fund it
Less Tenpin,
more Pinball”
- Somebody in marketing
“

Fund it
Marketing
Direct (or Growth Hacking - yuck!) - create, measure and
optimise:
Ads: Facebook, Amazon
SEO/Blog, PPC
Email
Referral
Brand:
Instagram
Blog
Email
Resources:
Growth Hacking eBook: 100 Days of Growth

Fund it
Pricing
Bottom up: 3 to 5 multiple of BOM
Top down: decide MSRP ﬁrst then MFG for 20 - 30%
Agents ~5%
Distributors ~12%
Retailers 30-50% (VAT!)
Marketplaces ~15%
Direct - less CPA, ecom fees
BOM vs FOB vs Landed Cost
Marketing costs (POS etc)

Fund it
Crowdfunding
2 types:
Reward - Kickstarter, Indiegogo
Equity - Crowdcube, Seedrs
It’s a marketing campaign! Get traﬃc to your page, convert it.
33% your network
33% PR/Marketing
33% the platform

Fund it
Investors
Bootstrapping (self-funding)
Friends and family
Angels/individual investors
Private Equity
Venture Capital Funds

Fund it
Rounds
Seed: £50k to £150k-ish (more for hardware)
Series A, B, C etc: £millions
The company issues shares, investor buys them, gives the
company cash (not you!)
Exit: IPO or Acquisition
(Or don’t exit! But investors won’t like that)

Fund it
How much
do they get?
Triangulate the three values:
(Pre-money valuation)
Get lawyered up!
Valuation
Cash
Percentage

Fund it
Other ﬁnancing bits
SEIS and EIS - investor tax incentives (UK)
Convertible Note - 20% discount next round
Debt Financing - borrow against income
Banks/lenders are rubbish at startups
Startup Loans (personal loans!)
Accelerators:
6%, $100k, 3 months of mentoring, demo day

Fund it
10 slide pitch deck
1. Title
2. Problem/opportunity
3. Value Proposition
4. Underlying Magic
5. Business Model
6. Go-to-market Plan
7. Competitive Analysis
8. Management Team
9. Financial Projections and Key Metrics
10.Current Status, Timeline, Use of Funds
Resources: 
Guy Kawasaki

Set goals but…
Enjoy the journey!

The secret?
Learn to be happy.
To be happy, learn.”
- Me (or maybe Yoda)
“

The Art of Presence
Chaos Monkeys
The Obstacle Is the Way
Ego Is the Enemy
Life Leverage
Who Stole My Spear?
The Tao of Seneca
Inﬂuence: Science and Practice
The Dip
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
The Laws of Simplicity
Delivering Happiness
Entrepreneur Revolution
Getting to Yes
Flash Boys
Eating the Big Fish
Thinking, Fast and Slow
The 4-Hour Work Week
A Fine Line
David and Goliath
Megachange: The Economist
Do More Faster
The Power of Habit
(Be)
Content
Listen while you walk/run/travel/work
Podcasts
Tim Ferriss
Dan Carlin
Debbie Millman
Adam Buxton
Kevin Rose
Freakonomics
Blinkist
Key insights from 2,000+ bestselling
nonﬁction books, transformed into
powerful packs you can read or listen
to in just 15 minutes
Music
Repetitive electronica for tasks
Audible
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Stealing Fire
Sapiens
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
The Tools
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
Goodnight Smartphone
The Inevitable:
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
The Magic of Thinking Big
The Daily Stoic
If I Could Tell You Just One Thing
Anything You Want
Messy
The Age of Absurdity
We Learn Nothing: Essays
They Call Me Supermensch
Made to Stick
Zero to One
Elon Musk
Originals
Losing My Virginity
The Code of the Extraordinary Mind
Growth Hacker Marketing

Q&A
Tweet your questions to @TomEvans

Tom Evans 1 Hour Creative MBA on Startup Thinking, Making & Funding

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Tom Evans 1 Hour Creative MBA on Startup Thinking, Making & Funding

Similar to Tom Evans 1 Hour Creative MBA on Startup Thinking, Making & Funding (20)

Tom Evans 1 Hour Creative MBA on Startup Thinking, Making & Funding