Page 1

AIRFROV STORY

FROM ZERO TO 100,000THE MISTAKES WE MADE

AND JOBS TO BE DONE

Presented by Cai Li

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WHO ARE WE?

Cai Li Hustler

Robi Builder

Mistakes: Too niche, inventory cost, high cost

2009: First ‘startup’ together A social enterprise: Selling crowdsourced eco-friendly t-shirts

2004: DOTA/JC teammates

2010+ Normal working life

2014 March - Deadline of Ideas Inc

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THE VERY FIRST THING…

•Validated our fatal assumptions

• Requesters who love to shop online • Frequent Travellers who love to shop while

travelling

•Found our competitors

“GET OUT OF THE BUILDING”

-Steve Blank

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WHERE’S THE PRODUCT?

EXCUSE #1: We were both working full-time.

EXCUSES #2: We need to build a mobile-app. That’s CRITICAL for Airfrov to work.

EXCUSES #3: Oh wait but we don’t have money to market

MISTAKES: We don’t need all these to have customers

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#JUSTSAYING

“You don’t lack

resources. You lack RESOURCEFULNESS”

-Tony Robbins

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HUSTLING AND BUILDING

WHO ARE THE CUSTOMERS?WHAT ARE THEIR PROBLEMS?

AND JOBS TO BE DONE?

More theory!

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PROTOTYPING AND SKETCHES

• Build user profiles

• Eg. Age 25-40, Female Requesters who love to shop online, love to shop on brand X, Y and Z.

• Sketch the ideal user stories

MISTAKES: We did not get feedback from our sketches

We don’t need all these to have customers

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YES WE WON!

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REALITY SETS IN

“You don’t have customers. How big is the market?”

-Investor A

“You don’t have a product, nor

customers. Why should we invest?”

-Investor B

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HOW TO GET CUSTOMERS

WHO ARE THE CUSTOMERS?

WHAT ARE THEIR PROBLEMS?

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT

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LESSONS LEARNT

• Get paying customers first.

• Rinse and repeat. Show, feedback, improve.

• You don’t need money to get customers.

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WHAT ARE JOBS TO BE DONE?

Clayton Christensen

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NOW THAT WE GOT CUSTOMERS…

“What gets measured, gets managed.”

-Peter Drucker

MISTAKE: We did not know what kind of data to get.

MISTAKE: What’s next?

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TOO MANY THINGS TO BUILD

“With every yes, we said a thousand no” -Steve Jobs

NO #1: No seller post. There are too many selling platforms, no differentiation.

NO #2: No investment in logistics. Partner them!

NO #3: No fake or counterfeit goods. Trust is paramount.

Features User value Business Value Technical Complexity

Currency Calculator

1 0 2

Search 2 2 2

Payment 4 4 2

Logistics integration

3 2 3

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HOW TO PRIORITISE

Learnings: Must get all stakeholder’s buy-in

Others: Affinity Mapping, Users-Stories, Buying feature

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CULTURAL VALUES

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”

-Peter Drucker

Values Decision making Output

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CULTURAL VALUES

Intern A

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WHAT ARE WE DOING NOW

CAILIUSE code for $10 Airfrov credit

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THANK YOU!

“Last time I paiseh to ask my friends, now I Airfrov” -Cai Li

Ben Horowitz ‘Hard things about hard things’ Allistair Croll ‘Lean analytics Clayton Christensen ‘Jobs to be done theory’ Harvard Business Review ‘User’s hierarchy of values’ Product Plan ‘7 Strategies for Product Strategising’