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History of Entrepreneurship
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The New Lean Model, and
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Why Accelerators Suck
1) Entrepreneurship 3.0 is of historic importance to you
For nearly three hundred years entrepreneurship has changed very little, even as it adopted many advances in technology.
Today there is a shift that represents the culmination of the history of entrepreneurship, technology, and the psychology of innovation
Entrepreneurship 1.0
1723 - 1950
Entrepreneurship goes through mercantilism, the industrial age, and into the information age. The basic model of plan, build, and sell remains the same.
1951 - 2000 (Entrepreneurship 1.5)
The computer chip and personal computing creates many new opportunities, but does not fundamentally change entrepreneurism
Entrepreneurship 2.0
2001 - 2013
Social media, an increase in the outsourcing of tech labor, agile development, lean startup, and the advent of accelerators does create a new type of entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship 3.0
2014 - Present
All new approaches to business development have emerged. Along with this are numerous, new support industries that have radically altered what is available to the entrepreneur. This has created a new entrepreneurial ecosphere that is:
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Auto-didactic
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Conspicuous for its low capital requirement
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Leveraged by huge amounts of automation
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Supported by growing number of SAAS
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reliant on science and psychology to enhance innovation and culture
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and for the first time, a truly dialectical approach to fostering innovation
The most important advance is the opportunity to bring the “Lean” process into every stage of growing a company. This is called, “Full Stack Business Development”.
2) What is Full Stack Business Development?
It is now possible (and recommended) to bring the lean framework (originally defined as: making obvious what adds value by reducing everything else, and currently defined as: using the least amount of resources to prove or disprove assumptions) to the entire business development cycle.
This full stack of lean business development includes the following
7 Disciplines:
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Lean Mindset
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Lean Product Development
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Lean Testing Cycles
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Lean Customer Acquisition
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Lean Marketing & Branding
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Lean Funding
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Lean Culture
It is now possible (and recommended) to bring the lean framework (originally defined as: making obvious what adds value by reducing everything else, and currently defined as: using the least amount of resources to prove or disprove assumptions) to the entire business development cycle.
Breakdown of the 7 Disciplines
Lean Mindset
Assumption detection, bias avoidance, creativity enhancement (exploiting constraints), capacity assessment, precise resource allocation, scientific journaling, cultural onset and early team development (MVT), natural language partner agreements
Lean Development
Rapid prototyping, single feature assessments, MVPs (elevator pitches, explainer vid., landing page, wizard of Oz, concierge, Kickstarter, webinars, etc…), generative grammar mind mapping, Lean UX , Lean design, lean usability, user stories, backlog, agile development for teams, agile time management for individuals, Framework assessment: app development (python, ruby, php, java, wp, bootstrap), manufacturing (3D printing, China, manufacturing clubs…)
Lean Testing Cycles (validation)
Copy writing, landing pages, explainer videos, FB ads, keyword planning, Adwords, LinkedIn & Twitter ads, Google Analytics, web hooks, stochastic analysis, incremental ad budgets, surveys, ethnographic interviews, idea validation, market validation, growth model validation, creating a culture of discovery
Lean Customer Acquisition (scale)
Pipeline development, CRM, acquisition through continual A/B testing of the funnel (first points of contact), testing across multiple channels, viral acquisition, paid acquisition, earned acquisition, inbound tactics (content creation, CTA, follow up) outbound tactics (trolling want ads, call rooms, postcards, paid media, etc…) SMM, remarketing, cultivating engagement, retention tactics, testing revenue streams, repeat/cross/up/sales, referral generation and support,
Lean Marketing & Branding (Contiued growth)
How to contextualize data points, how to apply narrative methodology, SMO, SMM, SEM, SEO, blogger relations, newsletters, content creation, mailing list management, event sponsorships, novel types of engagement, and community development, the importance of creating meaning, the era wherein the Means Justifies, the Ends, virtue as capital
Lean Funding
Pitching, the lean business model & canvas, 3 card pitch deck, 10 card pitch deck, demos, financial models, fundable criteria check list, ringing the cash register, A/B testing prices, levels of funding (bootstrap, F&F, accelerators, seed funding, Series A - D…., Reg A+ crowd funding, IPO, M&A, institutional loans…)
Lean Culture
Agile management, autonomous- self managed teams, knowledge sharing culture, high-level collaboration, reciprocal benefit incentives, flat management models, lean hiring methodology, stress management, psychological empowerment, affective commitment,
3) Startup Ecology Disrupts the Traditional Accelerator Model
Our Model
Traditional Accelerator
Full stack marketing, lean product dev., UX, design, and growth strategy
Cradle to Exit (until you succeed)
We focus on you, the entrepreneur
Easy to get in, but,
Hard to stay
We take equity slowly, as we earn it
Collaboration with a network of like-minded entrepreneurs
Extensive training in entrepreneurship 3.0
Mentors provide advice, but NOT execution and growth support
3 months to build and pitch (too little time)
On the product - when most products fail
Leaves great potential on the table
Too much equity taken for too little (ouch)
Too much time pressure to collaborate well with others
Limited training