70three startups

but in the cosmos there is balm as well as bitterness, and that balm is nepenthes

[nepentherapy]

Prominent New Yorkers recount their weekend rituals.

I love these articles...

[nepentherapy]

This past weekend I was sponsored by my day job to attend a three-day intense workshop, Lean Startup Machine. LSM is based on the startup bible, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It has a cult-like following for entrepreneurs who seek methods to provide a service or product to their targeted customer market. It relies on the sole fact that startups operate under extreme uncertainties. It may seem like a simple concept but the key is to experiment, pivot, or persevere using MVPs (minimum viable products*) that are used to gather data and information about who your true customers are and what they really need/want. The bottom line is that they will pay to use your product and not just think it's a good idea. The workshop was packed with seminars, experiments, and guest lecturers from the White House, Living Social, IStrategyLabs, Free Association (hailing from Brooklyn) social entrepreneurs, and marketing/design gurus. I definitely had a good time with energetic, smart, and fun fellow entrepreneurs. 

At first I was honestly skeptical about how much I would learn from just a span of three days but after this weekend I was definitely pumped up and energized with new ideas and tools I could apply to all my projects. After settling back in, I'm building a presentation for my CEO and I want to share the key takeaways I gathered:

Validation Learning: Do customers recognize they have a problem you are trying to solve? What do customers currently do to solve that problem? Would they actually pay you to solve that problem? Run frequent Face-to-Face interviews to validate your learning and test each element of your vision. You want to learn as much as you can about your customer's experiences and personal stories with your vision in the back of your mind. 

Build-measure-learn: Turn your idea into a mockup product (MVP) to measure how customers respond. Persevere or pivot. Repeat. Failure is a prerequisite to learning, so fail fast. SUCCEED  Faster.

Innovation Accounting: Steer clear from vanity metrics (number of users, page views, return on assets) instead go after ACTIONABLE metrics (data that helps make decisions) e.g. A) using A/B split testing to compare which features customers see/use, B) per-customer metrics (new customers vs. returning customers), C) Funnel metrics (on a daily, weekly, monthly basis tally up the number of conversions from registration to actual purchase), D) Keyword Metrics (Using SEM/SEO tools to see which keywords can help with customer acquisition and conversion rate trends). 

* An MVP gets the learning started with minimal effort/time/funds. Seek early adopters who are willing to try out new products (niche group of innovators) before it is ready. Save waste from spending a year to build a fully developed product and find out that no one would actually PAY to use your product. Put the money where the mouth is... 

It would be awesome to combine entrepreneurship with creativity, social responsibility, data, innovation, and design, to improve legacy sectors of healthcare, education, and the government. 

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[brycedotvc]

Reading about success doesn’t make you successful, but it does tend to make you want to be successful. That’s important. We benefit from positive models that show us what’s possible and make us want to think bigger, work harder, and keep trying—especially when the going gets tough.

Ev (via brycedotvc)

[nepentherapy]

1. Sign here __________

2. Here too ___________

3. End social life here [x] 

Only kidding, I'm just being a drama queen. So one month and two weeks ago I finally did it. After nights of staring at the ceiling and debating, I committed myself to two different startups of industries on complete opposite spectrums. I won't mention who they are for now as the purpose of this journal is to share with my friends and students my raw and honest experience of it's like to work in startups, the ups and downs that one might encounter, and the juggling of work/life. For the purpose of keeping track, I'll pen them as Startup Leia and Startup Luke (not sure how this will work out but for now I'll stick with it). And you can now guess what my all-time favorite film franchise is. Along with Leia and Luke, I'm holding down a full-time job, preparing to begin my first MBA classes with the Wharton School of UPenn, mentoring my students, minimalist running, bikram yoga, reading, and striving to be the best role model, teacher, brother, son, and friend I can be. Thanks for reading. Get comfortable, sit back, and enjoy my show.

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