AV Labs - an accelerator venture fund where entrepreneurs and experienced executives bring cool ideas to market faster.

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• AV Labs - an accelerator venture fund where
  entrepreneurs and experienced executives bring
  cool ideas to market faster.

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Myths of the New Economy

• Good ideas are scarce
• I know my customer
• I have to ship the killer product
• I must raise a lot of capital quickly
• Investors fund business plans
• Investors want their money back quickly
• Advertising is the hallmark of a good marketing
  plan
• I can use partners to sell my product

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Myths of the New Economy

• Good ideas are scarce
• Ideas are commodities
• 1820 rule
• Get to market first fallacy
• No competition fallacy
• Characteristics of a solid concept
• New approach to an existing business process
• Real, existing corollaries today
• Solution today has market potential of 1
  billion
• Multiple adjacent markets just as large
• Start up team with execution skills in the space

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Myths of the New Economy

• I know my customer
• Deadliest of all myths
• Market validation from friends
• Ready, fire, aim approach to products
• Consumes capital at a furious pace
• Market validation
• Right product, features and markets sooner
• Natural alpha, beta and first customers emerge
• Helps recruit savvy employees
• Raises smart capital
• Optimizes companys capitalization

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Myths of the New Economy

• I have to ship a killer product
• Boiling the ocean feature sets
• Delays time to market, and the market always is
  moving
• Uses large amounts of capital
• Build it, buy it, partner for it
• Prioritized market feedback from validation
• Get to market faster and with less capital
• Go after partners like you go after customers
• Ship minimal functionality products

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Myths of the New Economy

• I must raise a lot of capital quickly
• Lots of capital before any value is created
• Causes dilution
• Produces a spend mentality
• Output versus execution orientation
• Focus on value inflection points
• Validate markets and business models
• Customer traction
• Bring on key executives and advisors
• Raise enough capital to get through the next set
  of value inflection points

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Myths of the New Economy

• Investors fund business plans
• Typically 1 on the start up to do list
• Lots of energy and time
• Output orientation
• Companies get funded without them
• How to handle the business plan
• Put it last on the list
• Validate markets and business models
• Hire a team with execution expertise in your
  space
• Mitigate risk
• Develop your investment pitch
• Then the plan writes itself

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Myths of the New Economy

• Investors want their money back quickly
• Common misperception
• Liquidity events do not produce liquidity for
  founders or investors
• Quality investors expect a return, but want it
  from a quality company
• Who to raise money from
• Professional investors know how to build quality
  companies
• Go with investors who can continue to fund the
  company through good times and bad
• Pick your partners carefully

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Myths of the New Economy

• Advertising is the hallmark of a good marketing
  plan
• Marketing issues are the highest risk components
  of early stage companies
• No early stage company needs mass marketing
• How do you address this?
• Bring on marketing resources early
• Get your entire company to focus on customers and
  market validation
• Early stage companies do need marketing focused
  on product management, company buzz and customer
  acquisition

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Myths of the New Economy

• I can use partners to sell my product
• Many technology focused companies rely on others
  to go to market
• Companies forget sales is a form of ongoing
  market validation
• Partners work only after youve established a
  strong market position
• How do early stage companies sell?
• Three basic sales models for early stage
  companies direct, telesales and OEM
• Prove an economic model that has reasonable
  customer acquisition costs
• Understand your sales cycle, sales model and who
  in the organization are in the decision chain

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If You Want to Learn More.

• Content for this pitch based on research done for
  a book
• Random House/Crown Books
• All major booksellers