Extreme Acceleration Playbook

European Innovation Academy

July 2016, Nice, France and Turin, Italy

2015 by European Innovation Academy.

Contents
Prelude 3
Who is who
4
I Week plan
5
Day 1: July 6
6
Day 2: July 7
8
Day 3: July 8
12
Day 4: July 9
14
Day 5: July 10
15
Weekend 17
II Week Plan
18
Day 6: July 13
19
Day 7: July 14
21
Day 8: July 15
24
Day 9: July 16
25
Day 10: July 17
26
Weekend 27
III Week Plan
28
Day 11: July 20
29
Day 12: July 21
31
Day 13: July 22
32
Day 14: July 23
33
Day 15: July 24
34
Epilogue 35
Thank you
36

Prelude
You need to choose a big problem.
Build your story!
Design a unique experience users never dreamt of.
Discover a customer & addictive solution that is scalable!
You will survive only if you act as a team!
Find shortcuts, copy, use existing resources to be agile.
Act like a guerrilla warrior, resources are scarce.
Engage mentors to solve the big problem.
Goals are dreams with deadlines.

Who is who?
CEO

I am
a leadership
ninja!

CMO

I am the
growth hacker!

Chief Mentor

IT Mentor

CDO

My design is
a marriage
of UI and UX!

Design Mentor

CBO

CTO

My innovative
business
model turns
idea into
value!

Marketing Mentor

I develop apps
like Instagram
in just 1 day!

IP Lawyer

Investor

Week I
Team Formation
Day 1

CEO

Problem-Solution Fit
Day 2

Product-Market Fit
Day 3

Prototype
Day 4

Hackathon Plan
Day 5

CMO
CDO
CBO
CTO
Team members roles, names, daily tasks

Lead question to mentors

To Chief Mentors:

How to organize the teamwork

to achieve our goals?

To Design Mentors:

How to get the prototype ready and validate with customers?

What are shortcuts?

To IT Mentors:

How to develop and deliver our MVP

by next Friday?

Day 1: Monday

I WEEK

Daily Goal: Team Formation

Youll need to choose a big problem, gather your team, clear your calendars, and
gather some essential supplies. And youll need deadlines. Use the Trello app to
plan your work.
Your design team needs a war room; heres how to set one up Fast Company
On the first day your team will unpack everything they know. Expertise in most
teams is asymmetrical: marketers know things engineering & design doesnt. All
team members can contribute to each function even though one may be the lead.
Start by creating a simple user story, and set the scope for the week.
The first step in a design challenge: build team understanding Fast Company
How might we: The secret phrase top innovators use Harvard Business Review
Google Ventures secret mantra for super-productive meetings Fast Company

Tasks & tools:

The Trello app to organize TO DO lists (free mobile & web app)
EIA Platform (find and confirm your team, meet your mentor)
Test your team with LEGO bricks (next page)
First week plan template (previous page)

Da
y

Test Your Team with LEGO Bricks

Objective:

LEGO Game Instructions

Learn that each team member has different competences and

different behaviors
Test your team communication

Time:

15.00 15.15: game kick off and intructions

15.15 15.45: write the instructions to build Lego models
15.45 16.15: build the Lego models
16.15 16.45: Chief Mentor comments and feedback
17.00 18.00: debrief and discussion

Rooms: Teamwork Rooms

Find the list of the teams and rooms by cohorts in EIA Platform (Info)
You will meet your mentor in the room specified in EIA Platform (Info)

1. Split your team into 2 groups (2-3 people per group). Both groups, choose
your place in the room so that you would be as far from each other as
possible.
Da
y
2. Once you receive the LEGO model picture from your Mentors - KEEP IT
HIDDEN from anybody else!

3. With your group, write instructions for your team members for building
the LEGO model that you see in the picture. No drawing, taking a photo
etc is allowed!
4. After your Mentors have notified you, give your instructions to your team
members in the other group, and receive their instructions from them.
5. Build the LEGO model, following the instructions from your team
members.
6. After finalizing your model, present and explain your work process and
choices to the Mentors for their feedback and debrief comments.
Da
y

Da
y

Day 1: Experiments, Tests & Learning

I WEEK

I WEEK

Day 2: Tuesday

Daily Goal: Problem-Solution Fit

Problem-solution fit takes place when you have:
Evidence (data) that customers care about certain problems
(pains)
Designed a solution that addresses those problems (pains)
Customer problems & pains are anything that annoy your customers
before, during, or after trying to get a job done or simply prevents
them from getting a job done.

Good customer problems are:

problems/pains/passions many others have
problems that occur often
problems or pains that are serious enough so customers are
willing to pay to get rid of them

Tools:

In Team Mentoring Session:

Design your solution and value proposition which kills the customer
problem
Validate the problem, solution & value proposition with customer (problemsolution fit)
Describe the final version of your customer, their problem & solution on EIA
platform tonight!

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

PROBLEM

List your customers

top 3 problems, select
the strongest

List your customers

(big market)

SOLUTION

Lean Canvas on EIA Platform

Lean Canvas print out version and post-it notes
EIA Idea Cards print-outs
Problem Templates printouts
Test & Learn Cards

Tasks:
In Ideation Session:
Use Post-it Notes to describe your Customer Persona (template
next page)
Use Post-it Notes with your team to describe your customers
problems & your solutions (Lean Canvas)!
Alternatively, to get all key elements of the Lean Canvas on paper
quickly and assess them fast, use EIA Idea Cards
Prioritize problems of your customers (template next page)
Select the problem with the highest score to build your solution
on top of it (template next page)

List how these problems

are solved today

List the characteristics of

your early adopters (first
customers)

I WEEK
Design Your Customer Persona
Persona Overview
Key characteristics

Role or job title

Age

Gender

Goals

Needs

Frustrations and points

Key influencers

Other applications

Feature requests

Prioritize problems & pains to build your solution

on top of the high score problems

Customer segment

Customer
problems, pains

Does failing
the job lead
to extreme
problems?

Can you feel

or see the
pain?

Are there
unresolved
problems,
jobs?

Important

Tangible

Unsatisfied

Are there
Focus on the
many with highest value
that problem jobs & related
& ready to
problems.
pay?
Lucrative

Da
y

Da
y

Da
y

Total score

1.

2.

3.

4.

Scoring scale: 1 (low) to 5 (high)

Adopted from Alex Osterwalder, Value Proposition Design

Day 2: Tuesday

Da
y

5
I WEEK

Da
y

Da
y

Da
y

Experiments, Tests & Learning

Problems & Pains
You strive to identify the problems & pains that are most relevant to customers.
Your next step is to provide evidence that customers care about your solution
(products & services). If you dont find the evidence you need to design a new
solution.

Test & Learning Card

Test No:

Test Name:

1. We believe that... (hypotheses)

To provide the evidence you run the tests:

Google Trends to understand what people search for in your business domain
Google Adwords Keyword Planner gives you information on how companies
promote their solutions (discover their value propositions) in your business area
Contact your customers directly - either face-to-face, by email, phone or social
media channels
Build trackable landing page (Instapage) for your products & services to collect
leads of future users

Tools:
Google Trend
Google Adwords Keyword Planner
Instapage

2. To validate that we will... (action)

3. Our belief is right if... (metric)

4. From the test we found out & learned that

(results)

Experiment workflow:
Design Test & Learning Cards (each test separately)
Run the tests (e.g. customer contacts, Google Trends, Keywords Planner, Ads, etc.)
Update the Lean Canvas & landing page on EIA Platform
NB! You are free to organize the experiments on any other social media (LinkedIn,
Twitter) and ad platform (Facebook, etc) that you are familiar with or that is more
suitable for your solution.
Download the Test & Learning card here

5. Therefore, we will... (conclusion)

Da
y

Adopted from Alex Osterwalder, Value Proposition Design

Day 2: Tuesday

I WEEK

I WEEK

Day 3: Wednesday

Daily Goal: Product-Market Fit

Product & Market
Product-market fit takes place when you:
Have evidence (data) that your solution (product, service) is
actually creating customer value
Your product scales in the market.

Tasks:
Find the strongest fit between different markets & your solution
(products):
List 3 different customer segments (markets) for your solution.
Use Post-it Notes to describe the markets on the Lean Canvas!
Analyze the business opportunity of each market (scalability)
& prioritize the markets
Find the market where the fit with your solution is the
strongest
If you find a weak fit or no scalability consider to pivot, change
your solution

Tools:

PROBLEM

SOLUTION

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

CUSTEMER SEGMENTS

List your top 1-3 problems

Outline a possible solution

for each problem

Single, clear, compelling

message that turns an
unaware visitor into an
interested prospect

Something that cant be

easily copied or bought

List your target customers

and users

MARKET
KEY METRICS

EXISTING ALTERNATIVES

List the key numbers that

tell you how your business
is doing

List how these problems are

solved today

CHANNELS

List your path to customers

MARKET

HIGH-LEVEL CONCEPT

List your X for Y analogy

(e.g. YouTube= Flickr for
videos)

COST STRUCTURE

REVENUE STREAMS

List your fixed and variable costs

List your sources of revenue

MARKET

Lean Canvas printouts

Post-it Notes for each team member & mentor
Subscribe yourself on Watson Analytics and visualize the data
to find the fit market
Describe the final version of your customer segment (market)
and your solution on EIA platform tonight

Source: Lean Canvas, Ash Maurya

12

Da
y

Da
y

Da
y

Experiments, Tests & Learning

Experiments:
Identify different possible market segments for your solution
Validate users who make the market

Test & Learning Card

Test No:

Test Name:

1. We believe that... (hypotheses)

Tests:
Google Trends to collect data about what people search for
Design a Test & Learning card
Watson Analytics to analyze different markets
Design a Test & Learning card

2. To validate that we will... (action)

Learning:
Different markets have different scalability opportunities
Finding out which users make the fit market
By the end of Wednesday, you still might have alternative solutions
to choose from. Thats great, but its also a problem, because you cant
prototype many solutions on Thursday. You have to narrow down and make
tough decisions. To prepare for Thursday, choose one Customer Persona
and think of possible user scenarios for the prototyping.

3. Our belief is right if... (metric)

4. From the test we found out & learned that

(results)

How to decide what ideas to prototype Fast Company

Research: Schedule participants and draft interview guide GV.com

5. Therefore, we will... (conclusion)

Download the Test & Learning card here

Adopted from Alex Osterwalder, Value Proposition Design

Day 3: Wednesday

I WEEK

Day 4: Thursday

I WEEK

Daily Goal: Paper & digital prototype ready

Build a Prototype in just 8h
Plan for doing the impossible: build an entire realistic-looking prototype
in just eight hours. Like George Clooney in Oceans Eleven, youll gather
a team of experts, assign roles, and put your plan into motion. And just
like in the movie, youll get the job done and still have time to enjoy your
evening. Its a great story!
The 8 steps to creating a great storyboard Fast Company

Tasks:
1. Paper Prototype:
Draw a storyboard a scenario of when and how your customer is
using your product (use Postit-it Notes)
Choose max 1-2 features that you want to test with your prototype
Use paper UI elements to design your solution (based on your
storyboard and chosen features)
Start testing your prototype with customers immediately, continue
over the coming weekend

2. Digital Prototype:
Select tools based on your needs & skills:
POP for mobile apps super easy mobile app to scan paper screens
and make first clickable prototype in your mobile
Proto.io - simple but more serious solution for web and mobile
prototypes. Click here for EIA participant access.
Appery.io - start designing apps with some code attached, build
mobile back-ends later
Google Material Design professional source for designers

Source: Adopted from Google Venture Sprint Methodology

14

Day 5: Friday

I WEEK

Daily Goal: Test your prototype

Test Your Prototype
On Friday, youll show your prototype to real customers in 1-on-1 interviews.
By the end of the day, all your ideas will have been exposed to oxygen
some will be smash hits, while others will meet an early end. When a
prototype flops, it means you have spotted critical flaws after only five days
of work. There are ca 26,000 new product introductions each year. 70% of
success is how meaningful and unique is the product for the customer. The
key to success is rapid cycles.
Got a bright idea? Test it with a rapid-fire user study Fast Company
Research: Interview participants and summarize findings GV.com
How Cluster uses live user testing Medium

15

I WEEK

Day 5: Friday

Daily Goal: Your hackathon plan is ready

Task: Create a Hackathon Plan to survive and launch your application with your team members - divide your daily
work and tasks, allocate timing, set goals and KPIs. Follow the weekly work plan in the table below.
Getting Started with Hackathon - Click here for your hackathon materials

Goal

Expected result

Survivable result

Friday
Our X app
Reference app & sources
Development roadmap features, priorities, path/ technology
Split responsibilities
Project management set up

Team has a Trello board, everyone knows what one

is supposed to do.
Team internal reporting procedures, rules for decision-making,
chosen technologies to build upon.
Clear daily milestones and deadlines defined.
Defined end result for big Friday.

Team has a plan where to start, with help of mentors the tools they are capable of working with are
chosen.

Weekend
Validate prototype

Test your prototype with users adjust MVP

Being able to explain the MVP launch goal in 1 min

to mentors and to random bypassers

Monday
MVP 1.1 concept
(after customer development)

Iteration done over the weekend, launch feature goals &

contingencies in place, launch criteria too. Development
environment set up and progress is getting steam.
Back-end/mBaas set-up

Clear single launch feature!

Single development environment
set-up

Tuesday
50% functionality
Last chance to pivot

Back-end working
Logo sketches
Landing page in progress

30% functionality

Wednesday
70% functionality

According to teams plan

Landing page up
Clickable mock-up
50% functionality

Thursday
App ready to upload by evening,
bug testing

According to teams plan

Latest time to upload iOS app*

80% functionality

Friday
Preparing for final demo

Ready to present live demo.

Morning is the latest time to upload your Web/ Android app*

Landing page + product demo

App uploaded / app running on local device

* Make your decision together with mentors when to upload and launch your app

16

Test your prototype with users & find patterns

Why worry about usability testing so early in the process when
prototyping already has a big enough to-do list?
Because unless your prototype is usable, all your testing will tell you
that people dont like terrible products.
The best way to understand your users is to simply ask!

Weekend

I WEEK

Week II
CEO

Business Model Fit

Day 6

Customer Engagement
Day 7

Revenue Model
Day 8

Marketing Campaign
Day 9

Launch Day
Day 10

CMO
CDO
CBO
CTO
Team members roles, names, daily tasks

Lead question to mentors

To Chief Mentors:

How to develop & validate our

business model?

To Design Mentors:
How we design a unique UI/UX?

To IT Mentors:

How to launch our minimum viable

product (MVP) by Friday?

To Marketing Mentors:
How to get first 1000 customers?

II WEEK

Day 6: Monday

Daily Goal: Profitable & Scalable Business

Business model fit takes place when a value proposition can
be embedded in a profitable and scalable business. Your job is
to get both the business model and the value proposition right.
It is a process of back and forth until you nail it. You need to
answer the following questions:
Can you profitably create & deliver value around this
particular customer value proposition?
Is your value proposition in your business model really
creating value for your customer?

Tasks & Tools:

Lean Canvas printouts to create 3 alternative business
models.
Post-it Notes for each team member & mentor to design
the business models jointly in a superman speed.
Describe the final version of your business model on EIA
platform tonight! Upload also pictures of the alternative
models.
Discuss the business model with your all team members how to develop your solution on top of the business model.
Design your marketing strategy to visit your marketing
mentor tomorrow. Upload a short description on EIA
platform today.

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Assess the Business Models

Some business models are better than others by design and will
produce better financial results, will be more difficult to copy,
and will outperform competitors. Assess the weaknesses of
your business model prototype (next page). Ask yourself how
could you improve or change your initial value proposition?
When assessing your business model, focus on Death Threats
- the risks which might cause the idea to fail. No more Death
Threats = usually a business that can work. Focus on the biggest Death Threats first.

Source: Lean Canvas, Ash Maurya

19

II WEEK

Day 6: Monday

Seven Questions to Test Your Business Model

Assess your business model design. Circle how you perform on a scale from 0 to 10.

1. Switching Costs
1

Nothing holds my customers back from leaving me

10

My customers are locked in for several years

2. Recurring Revenues
1

100% of my sales are transactional

10

100% of my sales lead to automatically recurring revenues

3. Earning vs. Spending

1

I incur 100% of my costs of COGs before earning revenues

10

I earn 100% of my revenues before incurring costs of goods &services sold (COGs)

4. Game-changing Cost Structure

1

10

My cost structure is at least 30% higher than my competitors

My cost structure is at least 30% lower than my competitors

5. Others Who Do the Work

1

I incur costs for all the value created in my business model

10

All the value created in my business model is created for free by external parties

6. Scalability
1

10

Growing my business model requires substantial resources and effort

My business model has virtually no limits to growth

7. Protection from Competition

My business model has no moats, and Im vulnerable to competition.

Make picture of the assessments and upload it on EIA platform.

10

My business model provides substantial moats that are hard to overcome

Source: Alex Osterwalder, Value Proposition Design

20

II WEEK

Day 7: Tuesday

Daily Goal: Customer Engagement

Build your customer engagement and Go-To-Market Plan.
What are you selling? (Solution & unique value proposition)
Who are you selling to? (Customer segment)
How will you reach your target market? (Channels, partners, etc)
Where will you promote your product? (Ads, blogs, games, emails, etc)

Tasks:
Build you digital marketing strategy
Design your strategy before you visit your marketing mentor
Visit your marketing mentor to discuss your startegy
Upload the picture of the strategy on EIA platform tonight

What are you selling?

Who are you selling to?

WHAT

WHO
Go-TO-Market

HOW
How will you reach your
target market?

WHERE
Where will you promote your
product?

Build landing page first

Use Instapage to design your landing page

Content Marketing
Design & run your campaign (see template next page)

Social media marketing

Download the materials here to design & run your campaign

Email marketing
Download the templates here to design & run your campaign

B2B marketing materials

Download the materials here to design & run your campaign

21

Day 7: Tuesday

II WEEK

Daily Goal: Customer Engagement

Which digital marketing tactics to pursue:
Email marketing
Social media marketing
Search engine marketing
Content marketing
Display advertising
Referral marketing
Paid search
Mobile advertising
Digital video advertising
Affiliate marketing
Other

To find more materials how to build up B2B

funnel click here

22

II WEEK

Day 7: Tuesday

Daily Goal: Customer Engagement

Adopted from Chris Lake

23

II WEEK

Day 8: Wednesday

Daily Goal: Revenue Model Designed

A revenue model describes how a business generates revenue streams
from its products and services. A strong revenue model is most important
for early stage startups; their investors are usually very conscious of
monetization. Lets put it simply revenue model gives you money!

PROBLEM

SOLUTION

UNIQUE VALUE
PROPOSITION

UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

CUSTEMER SEGMENTS

Tasks:
Design unique revenue model which will give you high growth
Test your customers how easily are they ready to pay for the product
Ask about the price during your customer interviews

Tools:
Download revenue model template here from the daily lecture
Update revenue model in your Lean Canvas on EIA Platform

KEY METRICS

CHANNELS

EXISTING
ALTERNATIVES

HIGH-LEVEL CONCEPT

COST STRUCTURE

REVENUE STREAMS

Mobile and Gaming Revenue Models

Paid App Downloads e.g. WhatsApp
In-app purchases e.g. Candy Crush Saga, Temple Run
In-app subscriptions e.g. NY Times app
Advertising e.g. Flurry
Transactions e.g. Airtel Money
Freemium e.g. Zynga, Skype
Premium e.g. xBox games

The ultimate master list of revenue models BMNOW

O
TO SIVE
N
PE

Ad-supported

EX

Downloadable Content e.g. Call of Duty

AIN EXPEN
SIVE

G
BAR

TOO
CHE
AP

Subscription e.g. World of Warcraft

Price of your application

24

Day 9: Thursday

II WEEK

Daily Goal: Marketing Campaign is Ready

A marketing campaign isnt something that comes to you while
youre taking a shower. Successful campaigns tend to be carefully
researched, well thought-out and focused on details and execution,
rather than resting on a single, grand idea.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Running Successful Marketing Campaigns
Unbounce

Tasks:
Design a Google Adwords campaign for your application*
You can apply financing for your campaign here
Upload the final version of your video if it is recommended by
your marketing mentor.
Finalize & upload your marketing campaign on EIA Platform
tonight

Tools:

Use tools recommended by your marketing mentor

Google Adwords
Youtube
Admob

* You are free to use any other digital marketing platform more suitable for your
marketing campaign.

25

II WEEK

Day 10: Friday

Daily Goal: Launch your application in a market place

The Start
Your first iteration of a product is highly unlikely to be the final version.
Theres a lot of testing and re-engineering that goes into making a successful product, and its important to work at it and get it right. However,
that doesnt mean it must be perfect. Elon Musk: Tesla Must Not Be Too
Perfectionist
Your Product Launch Feels Like the Super Final But Its Really the Start
of the Season. The end of your product launch is only the beginning of
building a successful, sales strategy. Even before the launch, startups
should be thinking ahead toward their next move.

Tasks:
Use all your resources, shortcuts to launch your application
Start your marketing campaign to find your first 1000 customers

Tools:
Google Analytics
IBM Message Resonance

Tips:
6 Must-Have Tools For Your Web or Mobile App Launch Yottaa
6 ways to get your first 1000 customers Medium
10 steps for successful launch Fast Company

Start your marketing

campaign after application
launch immediately
26

All focus on finding customers!!!

Weekend

II WEEK

Week III
CEO

Market Traction
Day 11

IP & Finance
Day 12

Startup Funding
Day 13

Pitch & Story

Day 14

Demo Day
Day 15

CMO
CDO
CBO
CTO
Team members roles, names, daily tasks

Lead question to mentors

To Chief Mentors:

To Marketing Mentors:

How to pitch your business?

How to get 1000 customers?

To IP Lawyers:

How to protect our solution &

business from competitors?

To Investor:

How to ask advice from VC and get

funding?

Day 11: Monday

III WEEK

Daily Goal: Market Traction

Market traction is quantitative evidence of market demand. This is usually
the first and the most important indicator that the investors want to see as
it is proof that somebody really wants your product.
Traction can be demonstrated by different indicators, depending on the
type of your start-up: profitability, revenue, active users, registered users,
engagement, partnerships/clients, traffic etc. It shows momentum in market
adoption. Use specific numbers (ex: 10,000 registered users) or growth
numbers (ex: 20% weekly growth in users) to communicate the traction. To
really excel, include a graph of your accelerating growth!

Tasks:
1. Customer engagement
Adjust your customer engagement campaign
Discuss the campaign with your Marketing Mentor
How 23 Web & Mobile Startups Got Their First Users Autosend

2. Pitch like a boss

Start preparing the final pitch slide deck
When you are able to pitch like a boss, it means that you are able to talk
and sell your ideas - to anyone anytime, and anywhere, be it Warren Buffett
himself. Often, how you pitch may become even more important than what
you pitch. There are very clear dos and donts for pitching, and a concrete
checklist of content that you are expected to address.
The ultimate pitch deck Forbes

29

III WEEK

Day 11: Monday

Daily Goal: Protect Your IP

Tasks:
3. Start-up IP
Visit Start-up IP clinic between 12.00 18.00 (Mon Wed)
Search trademarks, copyrights and patents.
Conduct a patentability search - examine published patents
that relate to your own invention to figure out whether your
idea has already been patented. You can also see similar
inventions, allowing you to improve and refine your own
invention without infringing on someone elses patent. Search
also for the trademarks.

Check from the databases:

US Patent Office: Patent & Trademark
EU Patent Office: Patents & Tradmarks
Patent search from Google Patent
Does your mobile app need a patent? TNW

Overview of Intellectual Property

Patents

Trade Marks

Registered
Design rights

Copyright

What is
Protected?

Inventions

Brand
Identity,
icluding
words
& logos

What the
product
looks like

Music, art,
film, literary
works &
broadcasts

How long?

Up to 20
years
(subject to
annual
renewal)

Forever
(renewals
every
10 years)

Up to
25 years

Life plus 70
years (sound
broadcasts are
50 years)

What does
it protect
against?

Your idea
being used,
sold or
manufactured

The use of your

trademarks
by others
without your
permission

Your product
being
manufactured,
sold or
imported

Your work
being copied
or reproduced

30

III WEEK

Day 12: Tuesday

Daily Goal: Financial Metrics

Traditional finance focuses on planning and budgeting, startup finance is
focused on monitoring and validating.
Therefore, you as a startup need metrics to evaluate whether the business
model you designed is worth scaling into a company.
You need to monitor six Mission Critical Metrics, or key performance
indicators, in addition to standard monthly financial reports:
Cash: Burn/Runway/Run rate
Marketing: Efficiency/Cost to Acquire/ROI
Sales: Productivity/Efficiency/ROI
Product: Customer Satisfaction
Operations: Efficiency/Effectiveness
Team: Commitment/Enthusiasm

2. IP Protection Strategy
Why and how to protect the critical aspects of your IP in the early stages of
your company development?
All startups need to think not only about patenting their solution, but
of their employees, contractors and suppliers, customers, and possible
partners as part of their IP strategy.
Define the strategy to protect your solution (max 1 page) & upload it
on EIA platform tonight
Integrate your IP strategy into your pitch to secure funding
IP Strategy for Startups Ipstrategy
Startup Intellectual Property Tips Forbes

Tasks:
1.Define Financial Metrics
Identify the most relevant financial metrics for your startup
Calculate the chosen financial metrics and integrate them into your
pitch deck
No Accounting for Startups Steve Blank

31

III WEEK

Day 13: Wednesday

Daily Goal: Funding Strategy

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first
employee. The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who think
creatively, not only about their offering, but also about how to acquire
cash. They have to sell themselves, more than their product, to close on
every alternative source of funding. Check out all the alternatives:
Bootstrapping
Friends and family
Small business grants
Loans or lines of credit from a bank
Incubators or accelerators
Angel investors
Venture capital
Bartering
Form a partnership
Customer funding

2. Prepare for VCC:

Review and study all the VCC materials to be well prepared for
tomorrow. Click here.
The VC Term Sheet Decoded

3. Pitch deck:
Finalise your pitch deck
Upload your pitch deck on EIA platform tonight!
The 5 P-s are the content of any good pitch!
Problem - is there a real problem
Promise - is there a real solution
Proof - why would I believe you
Profit - I will make money by...
Passion - Ill do whatever it takes!
The Ultimate Pitch Deck Forbes

Leases
Start a crowdfunding campaign online

Tasks:
1. Funding
Define the plan to acquire funding for your business on max 1 page
Explain how you will finance the growth of your business,
Upload the plan on EIA platform tonight
7 ways to fund your startup

32

III WEEK

Day 14: Thursday

Daily Goal: Become a VC

Venture Capital Competition (VCC) enables you to step into the shoes of a
VC and think like one. You will practice your pitch and act as a VC investor in
the two roles within the day. Listening to pitches and assessing them from
the VC point of view will help you better understand how investors compare
and select their preferred projects. This in turn will help you better prepare
and finetune your own pitch accordingly.
Making an impression to the investors within the first seconds of your
appearance and pitch will be crucial and can mean everything for your
future business success - or failure! Therefore, before stepping in front of
the Investor Panel tomorrow, check out here what secret ingredients and
magic it takes to get the investors competing for partnering with you and
letting you walk away as the winner.

Customers count:
Make the final count of your customers (users, downloads,
subscriptions, agreements, etc)
Upload today the final proof document of the number of customers
(screenshot, tracking log, email, etc) on EIA Platform no later than
23.59!
Proven market traction will be considered a criterion in the Top 10
finalists selection

Tasks - VCC:
Upload your pitch deck in PDF format to the EIA Platform before 9:00
am
Pitch to other teams based on your time slot
Evaluate other pitches from a VC investor perspective
Select one team you want to invest in
Prepare a term sheet from the draft and upload to the EIA Platform
Negotiate terms with the selected team at your time slot
Participate in negotiations as an entrepreneur, if selected

Tools
Download all documents you need for VCC here

33

Day 15: Friday

III WEEK

Daily Goal: Funding acquired!!!

Bringing a product or service to market requires an intense amount of
capital. No matter which route you choose, all funding decisions involve
complex tradeoffs between short-term and long-term costs and benefits.
Your best bet: Check out all the alternatives.

Tasks:
Pitch like a Boss & raise the money!

Keep in mind when going to pitch at the Demo Day:

The objective of the pitch is to get a meeting
Slides support the story that YOU are telling - YOU have to be the
star, not your slides
For the most effective pitch, focus 80% on the problem, 20% on the
solution
Practice your pitch - over and over again!
Be ready to answer questions - but be careful and precise with
numbers and facts
Show energy and passion - you have to make the investors love
what you love
Dont lose your sense of humour - especially if something goes
wrong
65 Questions Investors Will Ask Startups Forbes

34

Epilogue
Now go and make it all happen!
Use the start-up capital wisely for scaling and leveling up your business.
It still remains mainly about the team!
Leverage your early customers to move from MVP to the next level.
Keep and grow your network of mentors, advisors and supporters.
Use the expertise of your investors.
You dreamt big - now dream even bigger!

Thank You!

In Partnership With

Visit us at www.inacademy.eu