building startups: investor and entrepreneur perspective with peter james

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Building Startups: Investor and entrepreneur perspective

Majoran Distillery

Background

Majoran Distillery 2Peter James

Computer Power Group

A Clear Message

The business proposition

Your competitive advantage, innovation, technology

The market, barriers to entry

Scalability

The team

The numbers... You must know these, regardless


‘Spray & Pray’ vs the ‘F word’

FOCUS the ‘F word’ Don’t try to do too much too quickly

Reduce complexity

Minimal viable proposition

Measure results regularly

Listen to customer feedback

Communicate with a simple, clear message



The Costs of Starting a Business

Have fallen dramatically

Social Media

Cloud Computing

Bandwidth

An increasing long-tail of startups

But smaller number of entrepreneurs with big ideas!

How to stand out in the crowd

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder What your customers want to see is far more important than what you want to show

The connected world Every business is now a potential publisher

So is every consumer

Getting the message out has never been easier But when everyone publishes content, how does yours get noticed?



Managing Growth

Don’t scale too quickly Prove the model first and fast!!

Start up Genome - www.startupgenome.com “Inconsistent Startup”

Keep your team lean and mean

Don’t raise too much money too early

Understand your customers first, get your product right!

TOO BIG TOO EARLY!


Exit Stage Left

You shouldn’t plan for it Running the business successfully is more important

Lifestyle or building equity = cash

Need to build value; IP = Intellectual Property

Scaleable

Have an exit strategy; but focus on running the business successfully

Jump On It & Living Social


iinet: Luck o’ the Irish


Content marketing Active blog. Whole team contributes articles Thought leadership PR on relevant topics Informative presentations, videos, white papers Highlights selling points Removes common barriers to adoption

Social Media Building an engaged audience Identify & respond to customer issues Monitor and join relevant conversations Rapid spread of Ninefold messaging Feedback Reputation management


Ninefold

Digital marketing Regular digital campaigns and promotions Search engine optimisation and advertising Banner ads via the Google Display Network

Events and networking Developer & digital meetups & conferences Approx 50 events attended every month Build brand awareness via speaking opps Supported by advocates at the events T-shirts, beanies, hoodies & promo codes


Ninefold


Adelaide vs The World v

Australian and Adelaide tech companies can compete on the world stage

We are early adaptors

But our markets are small

Connected world, NBN Co, Customers and Competitors

Silicon Valley is a Mecca, - but not the “holy grail”; e.g. Startup Saturday Bangalore

Great Local (Australian) support for innovation and entrepreneurs

Need to network: online/offline


Just do it!

Every year it is going to get harder. So there’s no excuse to say “I’ll just wait another year.” If you’ve got an idea, no matter what it is, then the thing you’ll regret is not doing it.

Michael Malone: Founder, iinet

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Twitter @kilcareninefold.com

Majoran Distillery