Takeaways: The very earliest days of a startup's life are some of the most exciting, but they're also arguably some of the most risky. Decisions must be made in the early days about all sorts of things that will affect the future of the business: what products to offer, what kinds of customers to serve, what marketing channels to use, what sort of company culture to build, and on and on. Although for many startups the table stakes (investment of time and money) are relatively low, there are plenty of funded startups with a substantial amount of capital on the line. Whether the investment is time, capital, or both, there are ways to reduce the risk involved in starting a business. Today's guest, Ada Ryland, works with early-stage entrepreneurs to help de-risk their startup enterprises. Success or failure in business really comes down to whether or not you can  create (and keep) a customer. One of the most common mistakes we see early stage startups making is focusing too much energy on building an MVP—Minimum Viable Product—before validating that they have a viable business in the first place. Don't misunderstand: the MVP stage is an important step in validation, but it is a later step, best taken after the business prospect has been validated in other ways. Building an MVP is expensive, whether you build it yourself and spend time, or whether you hire someone to build and spend money. And that expense translates to risk. In this episode, Ada Ryland walks us through four models that can be used to validate a business idea before expensive investment in the MVP stage. We'll talk about:  The Business Model The Customer Model The Market Model The Financial Model  Each of these models has a role in reducing the risk by exposing your business idea to hard questions. Even if you're already launched, you're sure to get a lot out of this episode. These questions are not only for early-stage startups, and some of the tools (like the Lean Canvas) can be applied at any time to sharpen your offering. Full Shownotes:  https://thelongcut.fm/adaryland  Links mentioned in this episode:   Jobs to Be Done Clayton Christianson  The Milkshake Example The Milkshake Example Youtube Video  Jason Fried: Who are you Competing With? LeanStack.com Running Lean by Ash Maurya: O’Reilly |  Amazon |  GoodReads Ada Ryland on LinkedIn AdaRyland.com  Bootstrap Austin: Interview with Bijoy Goswami 12 MVP Models PDF on Booster Stage.

Episode 005: How to Validate Before your MVP | Ada Ryland

Takeaways:  Whether you realize it or not, you’re modeling entrepreneurship to your kids. That’s a good thing. Brian was an entrepreneur before he knew he was an entrepreneur. His upbringing in many ways prepared him for a career of self-employment. For all you parents out there listening; take this lesson to heart: don’t be afraid to bring your kids into your confidence about your business. The lessons you’ll teach them just by watching you will change the way they see the world, and will probably inform their own career choices. Entrepreneurial enthusiasm is the fuel that drives us. Brian experimented with several different businesses, and you can still hear his enthusiasm for those early wins. Small things, like getting his first customer, and earning his first $59 from his Wordpress theme, were like gas in his entrepreneurial engine. Productized services can be easier to launch than SaaS products. A productized service is a service that you offered in a tightly defined package. There’s not a lot of variation in the process of what you do from one customer to another, although the outcome - whatever it is you deliver to the client - is unique to them. AudienceOps is a great example of a productized service: they provide custom content production. Although the content that they develop for each customer is unique, the process is the same, and so it can be done very efficiently. Brian was able to launch AudienceOps very quickly without having to build any infrastructure up front (that came later). The only way to get it right is to get it wrong a whole bunch of times. You have to be willing to risk getting it wrong; otherwise, you’ll never start. Start something small, launch it, see what you learned, and then improve your approach for the next time. That’s how you work up the ladder to success.  Full Shownotes:  https://thelongcut.fm/brian-casel  Links mentioned in this episode:  Audience Ops Ops Calendar Big Snow Tiny Conf Bootstrapped Web Podcast Productize Podcast FounderCafe ProductizeAndScale.com

006: Is Your Next Business a Productized Service? | Brian Casel

Takeaways:  Beware of entrepreneurial enthusiasm. It can definitely drive your momentum in the early days, but it can also be exhausting. Do ride the wave when you catch it. But channel that energy into creating a sustainable business that will continue beyond the initial wave of entrepreneurial enthusiasm. Younger entrepreneurs may have a longer wave to ride; as we get a little older, and especially once we begin a family, it’s important to balance our energy. It might be tempting to work 14-hour days for a while when you’re single and unattached, but it’s not ok to do that for very long when you have a family. That’s not to say that if you missed the wave of entrepreneurial enthusiasm in your youth, the opportunity is passed. Far from it: a recent study published by the Harvard Business Review found that the  average age of a successful startup founder is 45. Build products that have a high value. Even though accounting software is the backbone of any business, Allan and Steve found that business owners, especially freelancers, who they targeted at first, were surprisingly price conscious about the cost of their accounting software. The problem, Allan thought, was that freelancers chronically undervalue their time. Since they didn’t have a healthy value on their time, they would have rathered spend 2 extra hours doing bookkeeping instead of paying $30/month for an easier solution.  There is no perfect business model. Every business involves work. Don't make the mistake of thinking that a SaaS business, or a marketing business, or some other business that’s marketed as “turnkey” is going to make you in a way that you don't have to work for it. The only perfect business model is one that lets you work your way out of your job. The goal of every founder should be to be a business owner, rather than an employee in the business.  Full Shownotes:  https://thelongcut.fm/allan-branch  Links mentioned in this episode:  LessEverything LessAccounting Ben Franklin Effect @AllanBranch on Twitter Our Little Warehome on the Lowes Home Improvement YouTube channel

007: In Search of the Perfect Business Model | Allan Branch

Takeaways:  What to look for in a venture accelerator. Much of the value in the top-tier programs—the most famous and sought-after accelerators like Y-Combinator and TechStars—has to do with the halo effect. You'll have contact and mentorship opportunities with people who can really help move your business forward. Second-tier programs can also offer a lot of value in the community. Beware of programs whose primary emphasis is on the mechanics and structure of the business process. Entrepreneurship is a skill that can be learned. The post-industrial economy is here. Many corporate jobs are migrating to outsourced skilled labor. This is going to necessitate the learning of very diverse skillsets by self-employed people and entrepreneurs who are working increasingly in a decentralized and meshed economic environment.  Full Shownotes:  https://thelongcut.fm/kevin-koym  Links mentioned in this episode:  TechRanch Austin Venture Forth.co @TechRanch KevinKoym.com @kkoym Kevin Koym on LinkedIn Youtube is the modern day Gutenberg press

008: Kevin Koym | Do You Need a Startup Accelerator?

Episode 011: How to Build an MVP Welcome, Episode 11 of the Longcut Podcast, where we're busy poking holes in the myth of the overnight success. I'm your host Ryan, and today we're doing something a little bit different. I don't have a guest today; instead, I thought it would be fun to talk about MVPs and let you in on some of the secrets that we use to successfully create brand-new web products. I also want to give you an update on the podcast, because I'm going to be changing the format a little bit. It turns out, making a podcast is really time-consuming. In the past couple of weeks, I've had a little bit of a hard time balancing my regular job, which is building MVPs with my agency Booster Stage, and landing new leads for the podcast, doing interviews, etc. all that goes into producing great content. I'm not going to lie, I got a little behind. So, dear listeners, I hope you'll forgive me, but I'm going to take a couple of weeks sabbatical from the podcast to catch my breath. When we come back, I'm thinking about doing a seasonal model, where we'll record a series of episodes around a particular topic affecting startups. I'm also going to move to a biweekly publishing schedule, just to be kind to myself. I'd love to know what you think about that, and if you have any thoughts on what kind of topics you'd like to hear about, email me at Ryan@thelongcut.fm. Now, let's talk about how to create an MVP. To read the whole article, head on over to  https://boosterstage.net/articles/how-to-create-an-mvp/

011: How to build an MVP | Ryan Heneise

The Longcut is the story behind the overnight success. We talk with founders, business owners, entrepreneurs, and innovators who have successfully launched, built, grown, and sometimes exited SaaS businesses that solved a problem.

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