Overview
Unfortunately, 40% of startups die because no one wants what they have made. With the 'boom or bust' days of startups largely being over, you should focus first on building a sustainable business before deciding which growth trajectory you wish to take. This playbook aims to drastically cut the amount of time it takes you to realise if you're in a space where a business is viable (and if so what type) or if you should move on to different ventures.
Paul Graham
co-Founder, Y-Combinator
'The #1 cause of startup death is making something no one wants. The #2 cause is spending too much. Those two account for so many deaths that I'm not even sure what #3 is.'
What's in this playbook?
You have a product or service that you think businesses want to buy and want a way to validate that assumption ASAP. In this playbook, we'll breakdown the major milestones you need to reach and the daily activities you need in order to get there. As always with Savvy, you get access to the process, data and advice you need wrapped up in a simple and coherent product so you can rest assured you're doing everything by the book.
Here's what's included in this Playbook to help you get there:
- Identify the job you help businesses do
- Understand who does that job, what kinds of companies they work at and how to reach them
- Build out a list of 100 + people that work at companies that fit that persona
- Carry out targeted daily actions (e.g. outbound email) to further validate or invalidate your assumptions.
When can I expect to see results? Depending on deal size it can be as little as 14 days to up to 90 days with a typical startup seeing the first signs of validation or invalidation in around 45 days.
What does this all cost? The average burn for a seed funded early stage startup is around $20k a month. Every month you're still 'figuring it out', you spend $20k - $40k. This experiment only costs $850 per month to run in Savvy including all the data, tools and processes you need. We save startups tens of thousands of dollars, actually help them generate revenue as well as avoid the pitfalls of hiring too early or hiring a consultant that takes months to show results.