jennypng

Recent Notes

See 478 more →

entrepreneurship

4 min read

  • identifying a problem you care about and building something that solves it → and then seeing if anyone else actually cares / if it has real value

notes from my favorite college class

10 weeks to build a tech startup and refine a pitch deck for real VCs, with a demo of a working MVP. Real founders invited to speak every week. My first real exposure to the world of tech entrepreneurship and startups.

the idea

  • what is the problem? why is it unsolved?
    • the problem should be crisp, interesting, and sufficiently narrow
    • emotionally urgent - people pay attention to the most painful version of a problem
      • get them in, then they keep using it
    • need a hook
    • demonstrate the friction without your product
    • my first class pitch:
Many artists want to sell their work, but don’t know how to start. There’s a lot to research, like how do you price your art, what platform to use, how to do taxes. This research takes time, and that means time away from actually creating art.

My solution is a subscription-based web app where artists get an AI assistant that can provide business advice tailored for their specific art niche. For example, if I want to start selling cute animal stickers online to international customers, I could use this app to tell me everything I need to know to start and run this business.

It could provide a list of potential manufacturers with pros and cons, it could tell me effective marketing techniques for this specific kind of product, or generate a list of successful shops that sell similar things for inspiration. And as my business grows, I can keep asking for advice as the app will have full context of my specific situation. The goal is to let artists do art instead of business.

  • IN RETROSPECT, this is a difficult business idea because

    • what’s the moat beyond one time use? why is this problem unsolved by existing AI chat web platforms?
    • artists are a difficult audience - may not be able to or want to spend funds to pay for services like this - same thing with educators, small businesses, etc.
    • not niche enough, too broad - could specialize by partnering with manufacturers or something, etc.

  • the moat ? value proposition? this is KEY

    • minimize friction of onboarding
    • show the addictiveness

  • why should YOU build this product?

    • you need to sell your expertise. why are you the best person to build this idea? what are you the best in the world at?
    • solve a narrow, desperate problem, in a unique powerful way

  • ideas that change everything

    • AWS - reduced barrier to entry for startups - cost of starting a company dropped bc no more physical infra needed
    • genAI - increased accessibility of knowledge acquisition and content production
    • what saves time, money, energy, effort?

  • What is the go-to-market?

  • what is the idea so great you can’t share?

    • Coca Cola sells soda, with a secret formula
    • Tiktok is a social media platform, with a secret ranking algorithm

framework for assessing the idea

  • ex. Sequoia invests in ideas because they can swap people out

  • you want products that make you think “this is special”

  • should target a large market

  • needs an actual business model

    • great ideas go out of business even when they create real value
    • need to effectively capture value cost. revenue > cost or else you will fail
    • acquiring a customer may cost more than the value that customer brings
    • this is the reason most companies do subscriptions

  • timing matters

    • pets.com failed while chewy succeeded

  • Key questions

    • distribution - how is the product delivered?
    • durability - is its position defensible for 10-20 years? what stops someone from copying it?
    • secret - what do you know that others don’t? what unique insight do you have?

pitch deck

  • storytelling is everything. companies are stories.
    • can you tell a compelling story with just slide titles?
  • show that you are the best in the world at this
  • focus on what matters - sketch it
  • goal: get another meeting. leave them wanting to learn more.

tradition

  1. title
  2. problem - personalized with a relatable, personal anecdote
  3. solution
  4. business model
    1. big market - a lot of people have this problem
  5. product
  6. go-to-market
  7. competition
  8. team
  9. financials
  10. current status
  • ask the hardest question and then answer it. set up strawman, knock it down.
    • what are 4 things you need to believe to get to yes?
    • highlight how you compare to the competition

TODO (note 3)

Graph View