A Robust Tech Startup Process

Information from places like CB Insights, Startup Genome Report, Failory, Startup Graveyard, etc, professional experience working with many founders and investors.

You start at the foundations so you can progressively build on what you learn because incomplete information can hinder your ability to associate, understand, retain and internalise.

Minimum degree of viable information needed to address core assumptions. Granular and contextual to instill a sense of legitimacy in your decision, to continue or not.

Ask The Right Questions

Big Picture

Context isn’t everything but it’s damn close to it. When there is no big picture, you don’t know where the small details fit in, and if those small details are important or not.

Multifactorial Details

A multi-angled view of the information at an appropriately granular level, enables you to leave no stone unturned, and take into account the nasty small print.

Qualitative

People say the same thing in many different ways. Code (tag) the qualitative information, to classify and categorise, so you’ll focus on thematic content.

Quantitative

Words can be ambiguous, and perception of them open to interpretation. You need internal consistency, in order to nail things down.

Both the quantitative and qualitative information submitted will be processed in various ways including totaled, averaged (mean), total count, max and min values, where applicable.

Quantitative Results

The quantitative results where applicable will be compared to a pass-mark that you define, and from that you will get a pass or fail. Ultimately you will have more confidence in your decision.

Qualitative Results

The qualitative results, thanks to be coded, will foster credibility and confidence. You are looking for strong signals, association, and narrative. If they are present, you will clearly see them.

The structured information you obtain will be pushed down-stream, where they will be used as inputs to jump-start various forms of collateral.

Personas and profiles generated from the strongest signals obtained during audience interviews. Say goodbye to Fictitious Fred The Financial Fiddler.

No carte blanche removal of market specific language such as slang and jargon. These and other phrases spoken by interviewees are indicative of culture, and are presented for you to include.

Stop regurgitating onto the content marketing heap. Go deeper with topics focused on your audience needs, as well as gaps not addressed by the competition.

Content mapped to the funnel for each persona, for each stage. You’ll address objections, reservations, and motivations, to create a tailored funnel designed to convert.

Select or make your own value propositions by combining relevant information. Benefit – Feature; Benefit – Goal – End Goal; etc, so you can storm out of the writer’s block.

Structured landing pages for each persona, with a flowing narrative appropriate for that stage. Increase resonance and relevance to boost conversion rates.

Email marketing templates take undue credit because it is the [blank], that makes or breaks it. You’ll fill in the blanks via a rigorous process, and increase the chances of a positive response.

More value to current customers, drive further market penetration, or further competitive advantages. Your roadmap will highlight what features are needed depending on your objective.

Things not done within a systematic process, can result in you jumping around doing a bit of this, and a bit of that. You are acquiring disjointed snapshots of knowledge, and not continuous ever expanding streams of knowledge. You are at the mercy of every one who gives you some advice, including me.

Startizer is made in Access. You will need Access (PC) to run it.

If you don’t have it, you can download a free Runtime from Microsoft in order to use it.

Links to the Runtimes will be in the email and zipped file.

As this is an MVP, it is not the whole startup process. It stops at the end of Step 9: Signals. There is also no Step 8: Eco-Player Input.