IDEATION 💡

The ideation stage is the start of your business. You’re likely identifying the problem you plan to solve and defining your unique solution. This is the best stage to talk to real people about what you are building, do preliminary mind-mapping, and assess what resources you need to start. The key to the ideation stage is validating the problem, solution, and value proposition. (Pre-revenue)

TEAM-BUILDING 🙌

If you’re ready to start building your team, you’ve identified the problem & main pain points, and secured a better understanding of the solution you plan to provide. You’ll need to identify the key skills you are looking for, and what skills you already possess or can work to develop. Every well-balanced startup team has a visionary, executor, and creator, who work to spark innovation while driving progress.

Read our article on How to Engage Your Team Effectively

BUSINESS MODEL ‎💼

Your business model is a clear canvas that shows how you plan to generate revenue for the company. This may include product features, subscription plans, and the services you offer.

PROTOTYPE ✏️

A prototype can be as simple as a sketch or as complex as a front facing software application. Prototypes are used for testing and iteration to bring your ideas and concept to life.

Read our article on the 10 Week Product Development Plan

MVP ⚙️

An MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product, or a more refined version of your initial prototype. If you’ve developed an MVP, you have created the first and simplest solution to a potential customer’s problem. An MVP can be used to beta test with your first customers and establish a feedback loop with your target market prior to launching your product or service.

PRODUCT-MARKET FIT 📈

If you’re trying to find Product-Market Fit, this must mean your product or service has launched and is already in the market! As you work to draw traction, grow beyond development and inch closer to operational success, your product or service will undergo a series of iterations, and you’ll have to experiment with a variety of marketing strategies to pinpoint your target market.

Read our article on Mapping the Customer Journey

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS 💸

If you’ve received seed funding and plan to bootstrap your startup, you’ll want to prioritize your funds and ensure you have the necessary runway to operate. Do you need inventory? Marketing spend? Which is most pressing and necessary? In Financial Projections, you’ll want to take future spending and revenue into consideration

PITCH DECK 📢

Now that you’ve effectively mapped a problem, solution, and tested & validated your solution, you may be seeking future investment. A pitch deck allows you to explain your company and how you plan to enter & win the market to investors, mentors, and supporters in a clear, concise manner. From our research, we’ve seen the impact 1 minute pitches can make on any audience, compared to a written pitch — almost 5x the usual hit rate, which is why we ask for all startups on our platform to upload a 1 minute pitch video for increased visibility.

REVENUE 💰

There are many ways you can bootstrap your way to revenue. But what do we mean by the revenue stage? We mean clear, consistent revenue streams for your business, a revenue model that allows for future projections, and positive gross income through the sale of products or services.

To start, you’ll want to conduct ample market research and survey the population. Remember, you want to be able to niche down your market size.

1. What do you already know? 🧠

Goal: Identify your assumptions about your target market/audience through conducting research online and gathering information readily available to you.

Let’s say you’re selling pins and stickers to an audience you know very well, fans of a popular band. What do you already know about the people you plan to reach? Look through online community forums like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter. How many followers do they have? What activities do their followers engage in? Where are they concentrated? Is the Band located in California, or Puerto Rico? This type of foundational information matters because the more you know about your audience, the easier it will be to find and connect with them.

Now that you’ve identified your assumptions, it’s time to ask questions. Questions like “What do you love most about X Band? Do you purchase any of their products? Is there a particular product you love? How much do you spend on…” can help you get a good look at the spectrum of customers you’ll be servicing.

2. Ample Market Research + Preparation 💪

Goals: Now that you’ve identified your assumptions, it’s time to start talking — get to know your audience and reach out to schedule a quick phone interview, ask them to fill out a form, or even have a quick zoom call! Conduct research to gather Qualitative AND Quantitative information on possible pain points your solution will address, and who needs this solution.

Conduct ample Market Research, which means conducting interviews, gathering data via forms (you can use tools like google forms, typeform, monday.com to gather responses and analyze your findings) now that you know what questions to ask.

Refer to our article Market Research Tips: How to Avoid Bias

3. Building a Customer Persona 🤯

Goal: Understand your customers’ needs, experiences, behaviors, and goals or desires.

Analyze your Market Research and Organize your findings by different categories: demographic, financial information, engagement, etc. Do you notice any patterns?

Let’s say you’re interested in making motherhood easier. You want to design and sell a toy that can keep a toddler distracted, isn’t messy/doesn’t require a lot of cleanup, and teaches the toddler fine motor skills.

Follow this example for more clarity:

Step 1) You assume your target market is mothers, who value convenience and when put to the test, will buy a pricier toy if it teaches their child new skills. You learn all of this through flipping through 10 Facebook Pages for mothers trying to get through their child’s terrible twos and toddler stages.

Step 2) After conducting market research by interviewing 30 mothers in those groups and receiving 52 responses on your google form, you find out you have a largely:

Female Audience, Millennial, Working Mothers, Reside in West Coast, Median Salary $80,000, Owns an Apartment, Median 2 children

What do they do on a daily basis?

Drop kids off, Grab a Coffee, Run to meetings

What do they struggle with on a daily basis when with their kids?

Not enough time to clean, always sleep deprived, their kids have too many toys strewn all around the house, not enough time for themselves, and have a hard time engaging their children in educational activities in an outdoor setting

What do they value?

Down time, Convenience, Education, Nature & Outdoor Exploration

Step 3) Create the customer persona. It should tell a story of your customer’s experience, why they need your product, who they are, and include information such as but not limited to:

• Name
• Age/generation
• Location
• Likes and dislikes
• Hobbies
• Aspirations
• Pain points
• Experience
• Education
• Favorite brands

For founders, teams, and startups who are ready to dive into development, use these suggestions and tips as a guide to maximize 10 weeks! Feel free to switch anything around based on your personal preference. No startup is the same, so tailor your experience to your needs. Something that worked for my team may not work for yours! This 10 week Product Development Cycle is a sample plan for software development teams.

Ample Market Research + Preparation 💪

Conduct ample Market Research prior to your Product Development Cycle, which means conducting interviews, gathering data via forms, creating a customer persona, and establishing a target market. You should have a good idea of what problem you plan to tackle, who has this problem, and what solutions you are proposing!

Read our article on Avoiding Bias in Market Research

Breaking down 10 weeks (A Founder’s POV)

~1st Week: Get to know your team, their interests, their skills, and their goals for the program. Set up weekly briefing meetings, determine a project lead, and a slack channel / communication channel where you could regularly engage with your development team. Understand your team will have personal goals, so keep those goals in mind when planning for the next few weeks.

Read our article on How to Engage your Team Effectively

~2nd — 3rd Week: Depending on your preparation and goals for the sponsorship, you will be asked about which aspects/features of your product you’d like to work on in the next few weeks, and in what order (requirements gathering).

~4th — 5th Week: Frontend Development (UI/UX Design, Low-Fidelity Mockups, Refinement)

Backend Development (ER Diagrams, Decide on Hosting Platform << best to do your own research on which hosting platform to use first and secure a domain if needed for DNS transfer later)

~6th — 7th Week: Frontend Development (High-Fidelity Mockups, Refinement)

Backend Development (Begin development, End-point creation)

~8th — 9th Week: Connecting Frontend + Backend, Testing

~10th Week: Test, Test, Test!! And Demo Day! 🙌

When engaging with your team, it is important to practice empathy. On a daily basis, you might empathize with your customer’s needs, but it’s also a requirement to empathize with each other. In this case, we’re dealing with 3 main parties: The Stakeholder (You, as the founder), the Project Manager (Project Lead you identify on your team), and The Team (this is self explanatory). Usually, the stakeholder relays info/requirements/ideas to the PM, PM takes it to the team, and BINGO! Your product is good to go, right? False! The team is only interacting with the PM and you’re only interacting with the PM.

Get to know each person on the team, their interests, skills, and goals, and position them for success. This is why weekly team meetings with the entire team is ideal. Everyone has the chance to ask questions, provide input, and share in your vision. If one person wants to develop better UI/UX Design skills, it wouldn’t be effective to assign them a full on Frontend load — as the sponsor, you have the opportunity and responsibility to empower your team and provide your team the best opportunities to learn. Engage with the team (not just the PM) regularly to know what is possible and not possible (prioritization), what the class schedule is like, and how you can best support them on their journeys to becoming working professionals.

In Market Research it is important to overcome selection bias, procedural bias, and measurement bias.

Selection Bias comes about when choosing which subjects to interview or question. Go where your target audience hangs out — if you plan to sell toddler toys, you’d find parents at a pre-school.

Procedural Bias is exactly what it sounds like. Your interviews shouldn’t be an interrogation, they should be open ended conversations. You want to make sure you aren’t leading the interviewee to admitting something they don’t mean, either! Example of a leading question: Don’t you hate when your kids wake up in the middle of the night? Wouldn’t you want a toy that could solve that problem? This question doesn’t provide any NEW information, you’re just getting people to agree with you.

Measurement Bias is applicable whenever you are asking sensitive questions. If you’re inquiring about a health condition for instance, create a safe environment for people to talk in.