Agile startup

Agile Startup

Low Burn by Design not Crisis

By Robin Low

Timing is everything. Adaptability is key, not the business plan.Traditional startups are fighting yesterday’s war.

STATE OF STARTUPS

TRADITIONAL STARTUPS

Success Rate of

Startups. • High burn rate• Swing for the fences• Full management teams• Assume customer is known• Assume features are known• Assumes growth is by executionTraditional20%

JOHN BOYD

Boyd: Winning is about Agility

The OODA Loop

• Observe• Orient• Decide• Act

Rule 1

Boyd Redefines the Rules to Win

• Agility requires a continuous cycle of interactions with theEnvironment

• But you can’t do it from a desk

Rule 2

Winners are Those Who Can MoveFaster Than Their Competitors

• Winning requires constant assessment of change and ways to mitigate risk• Iterating faster thancompetitors yieldssubstantial advantage

Rule 3

Facing Reality at Today’s StartupThere is no 2nd Place

• Uncertain environment• Rapid, unanticipated changes that lead to disorientation• Constant threats to any initiative• Burn rate (time, fuel, bullets, dollars) limits window of opportunity

Rule 4

Using OODA to Create “Agile Startups”And Changing the Startup Rules

Customer Development

Agile ProductDevelopment

Agile StartupsBuilding a New Wave of Companies

• Continuous customer interaction• Revenue goals from day one• No scaling until revenue• Assumes customer andfeatures are unknowns• Low Burn by Design – Not Crisis



Agile Startup PrinciplesExtraordinary Value at Low cost in Little Time

• Leverages:- Technology commoditization- Agile management practices- Customer Development

• Designed to test hypothesisand answer the unknowns



The Agile StartupAgile Product Development

• Continuous cycle of Product Development- Product release cycle inhours not years- Tightly coupled with customerdevelopment- Minimum feature sets,maximum customer coverage


The Agile StartupCustomer Development

• Continuous cycle of customer interaction- Rapid hypothesis testing aboutmarket, pricing, customers, …- Extreme low cost, low burn,tight focus- Measurable gates for investors


The Agile StartupCustomer Development Parallels Agile Development

Agile Development

Business Concept

Agile Development

Continuous Test

Continuous Ship


Customer Discovery

Customer Validation

Customer Creation

Customer Building

Customer DevelopmentTurns Market Risk/Product Fit Hypothesis into Facts

Customer Discovery

Customer Validation

Customer Creation

Customer Building

Discovery

- Test hypotheses I.e.

problem and product

concept

Validation

- Build a repeatable and

scalable sales process

Creation

- Create end-user demand

and fill the sales pipeline

Building

- Scale via relentless

execution

Agile Startup Advantages

• Builds low-burn companies by design- Low cost market risk testing• Organized around learning anddiscovery• Right model for current conditions



It is up to you to build the next wave of capital efficient startups

https://www.facebook.com/socialhub