The best ways

to drive your startup

into the ground

Anton Pirker

Disclaimer: The Amazon links are affiliate links

(and how to avoid them)

I was part of

● Shnitzl.org

● Jobulous.com

● UrbanGolf

● LoveStream

● eWorkout

I was part of

● Shnitzl.org - ✝ 2008

● Jobulous.com - ✝ 2009

● UrbanGolf - ✝ 2010

● LoveStream - ✝ 2011

● eWorkout - ✝ 2011

R.I.P.

What happened?

Areas where problems can arise

● Product Focus

● Team

● 'Management' Approach

Product Focus

Issues

Product Focus Issues (1)

● Building something nobody needs

● No specific target audience

Product Focus Issues (2)

● 'Featuritis' (→ bad quality)

● Getting lost in technical details

How to avoid Product Focus Issues

● Lean Canvas

● Procrastinate Programming

● Find clients (create Personas)

● Talk to future clients

● Wireframes

Team

Issues

Team Issues (1)

● The 'I do this all by myself' approach

Team Issues (2)

● The team is not 'right'

● The team is too big

Team Issues (3)

● Too much 'brain', not enough 'muscle'

Who to avoid Team Issues

● Small Team (ideally 2-3)

● Balanced Skill-set (Programmer, Designer,

Networker)

● Open, robust and honest relationship (Don't

be afraid to argue)

● ? External Advisor (Networking)

'Management' approach

Issues

'Management' approach issues (1)

● No plan at all

● Doing everything at the same time

'Management' approach issues (2)

● Running out of money while developing

● Too much money

'Management' approach issues (3)

● Not enough communication between team

members

● No or almost no marketing

How to avoid

'Management' Approach Issues

● Have a schedule

● Do daily stand ups

● Stay focused (What is best for the product?)

● Fail fast

Conclusion

Conclusion (1)

● Have a master plan

● Don't do it only for the money

● The focus of the product may change

at any time (pivoting)

Conclusion (2)

● Team with 2-3 people with balanced skill

set

● Build a minimal viable product

Conclusion (3)

● Show it as soon as possible to your

customers

● Build for your customers (get feedback!)

● Market your product right from the

beginning

Books!

Books

The Lean Startupby Eric Ries

The Lean Startup on Amazon

Books

Entrepreneur's

Guide to Customer

Development by Brant Cooper &

Patrick Vlaskovits

The Entrepreneur's Guide to CustDev on

Amazon

Books

Scrum and XP from

the Trenchesby Henrik Kniberg

http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/scrum-

xp-from-the-trenches

Books

Spin sellingby Neil Rackham

Spin Selling on Amazon

Web resources

● Lean Canvas (pdf)http://leancanvas.com/LeanCanvas.pdf

● Personashttp://www.usability.gov/methods/analyze_current/personas.html

● "Why you should market your startup earlier

than you think"http://leostartsup.com/2012/07/why-you-should-market-your-startup-earlier-than-you-think/

● My Pinboard with tag 'startup'http://pinboard.in/u:antonpirker/t:startup

Thank you!

Anton Pirker

anton@ignaz.at

@antonpirker

http://goo.gl/pVHjn

Any questions?