Shannon Wu - Early Stage Growth Framework

1. Early Stage Growth
Frameworks
TO OUTPACE COMPETITORS AND OWN A MARKET
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2. The frameworks we will cover
today are targeted towards
venture funded companies.
NOTE ONE
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3. Many good businesses do not
fall into this model.
NOTE TWO
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4. For the purpose of this
talk, we will think of the
framework as two parts:
1. CHECKLIST
What components do you have to
hit?
2. BENCHMARKS
How do you know when you’ve hit
it?
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5. Crossing
the Chasm
Model:
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6. The Hype Curve
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7. What is most important
for your startup?

8. Trick question.

9. Talk to 8 different
investors, and you’ll get
8 different answers
“We invest in great teams.”
“We only invest in billion
dollar markets.”
“We want to see world-
changing problems.”
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10. They’re all important.
Here are the 8 Fundamental Parts of Company Building:
Idea
Team
Customer
Development
Market
Development
Business
Plan
Operations Product
Fundraising
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11. Get answers to
your burning
questions...
Do I have enough users to raise a
seed round?
How do I know if my team is
strong enough to win?
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Do my unit economics work out?
Will we make a profit?
How do I know if my problem is a
large enough problem?
and much more...

12. 8D FRAMEWORK
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13. I’m going to loosely
follow the 8 sectors of
company building.
In practice, many of these happen in parallel.

14. IDEA

15. How Do I know
My Company is
Worth Building?
Questions to ask yourself:
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• Will this be a problem in 5-7 years?
• What unmet needs are we solving?
• For who?
• How many people face this problem?
• Is our solution 10x better than the
next available best alternative?

16. Don’t Build a
Solution With No
Problem.
Put Yourself in
Your Customer’s
Shoes.
One way to validate your idea:
Describe a day in your customer’s life
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• What do they actually do?
• How do they make decisions?
• What are their goals: professionally, socially,
personally?
• How are they measured or evaluated?
• How do they currently achieve these goals?
• What is missing? What can’t they accomplish?

17. TEAM

18. Four things to keep in mind
when hiring top talent
• 50% of hires are mistakes
• “Good enough” is not good enough
• Hire slow and fire fast
• Only hire for burning needs, don’t
make pre-emptive hires

19. The Hiring
Framework
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• Recruit passive candidates -- people
who are not looking for a job
• Verify references
• Understand how they fit into the team
• Run the process

20. Elements of a Good Team
Trust
Results
Conflict Resolution
Commitment
Accountability
Communication

21. CUSTOMER
DEVELOPMENT

22. Customer
Development
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• Collect Feedback, DO NOT SELL
• Feedback = The Answers on How To
Sell Your Customer Later
• Create a Customer Advisory Board
• Build Personal Relationships

23. MARKET
DEVELOPMENT

24. Market Development Differences for
Enterprise and Consumer Companies
● Awareness
● Connecting with customers
● Conversion from leads
● Retaining
● Customer Service
● Referrals & Use Cases
● Awareness
● Focus on traffic and connecting
with customers
● Conversion to lead or purchase
● Retaining
● Customer Service
● Referrals, Influence
B2B B2C

25. Pay attention to
CAC and LTV

26. Market Development

27. BUSINESS
PLANNING

28. No Need to Write 10 Pages...

29. OPERATIONS

30. All the funding
in the world
won’t build
your company.
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• Set your 10 year vision
• Set your 1 year vision
• Break down your 1 year vision into quarterly goals
• For the upcoming quarter, split the goal into 3-4 sub
components
• Align one member for your team to own one of the
components
• Break down the quarterly goal into monthly goals
• Break down the monthly goal into objective, measurable
weekly goals
• Report on these weekly goals using OGSM & KPI model.
(Objective | Goals | Strategies / Metrics)
• Hold weekly team meetings and 1:1’s with CEO/Team
Leads to set and discuss goals

31. FUNDRAISING

32. Target the
right people.
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Friends & Family: $10-$50k.
Accelerator: $50k-$100k
Angel Investor: $100k-500k
Seed Fund: $500k-$2m
Venture Fund: $2m-$40m
Growth Fund: $40m - $200m
IPO: $200m-$1B

33. PRODUCT

34. Getting to 1.0
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• Build one thing.
• Build the minimum amount necessary
to get 1 happy customer.
• Simplify your problem. Reduce your
workload at every possible corner.
• Ask yourself: How can we simplify
this?

35. Learn and Iterate
Constantly innovate in your business practices to
find new solutions
Question why and how
Form independent thoughts
Don’t blindly follow