In this presentation Andrew Peek of JetCooper and Shopify explains that finding product market fit takes time and what you can do to prepare for the trials and tribulations you will face including the famous through of sorrow. Presented at Tech Toronto Meetup April 2016 For videos of this presentation and more, visit our channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/techtorontoorg Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/techtorontoorg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/techtorontoorg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techtorontoorg/ Want to see presentations like this live? Join our the TechToronto.org meetup group.

1. Roadmapping the
Pre-Startup Years
a.k.a. Front-loading the Trough of Sorrow

2. Startup History
FreshBooks - Customer Development
Jet Cooper / Pilot - Product Management
Shopify(red) - Product Labs
The Junction Company - Pre-Product Labs
Next to North
City & Stay

3. IIRC...

4. It Went Something Like...
DemoCamp – David Crow buys me scotch
Investor Tour – By invitation!
Recruiting Leverage – All-Star Team
Launch Dates Scheduled (& Re-Scheduled)
“Coming Soon” Tour (Conference Circuit)
Lessons From the Beta (Meaningless Data)
Feature / Stack Focus
Irrelevance >> ¼ Pivot >> Irrelevance >> ¼ Pivot
Churn is Real (Founders, Employees, Users)
11th Hour Runway Management

5. Said Another Way...
DemoCamp = PR / Noise-Making
Investor Tour = Adding Complexity
All-Star Team = Burn Rate
Launch Dates = Promises & Expectations
Conference Circuit = Appearing “New”
Rudderless Beta → Narrative-Building
Feature / Stack Focus = Magic Bullet-Seeking
Irrelevance >> Pivot → Shades of Demoralization
Churn = Leaky Bucket Patching
Runway Management = Life Support

7. Finding Product-Market Fit
takes TIME
How can I speed it up?

9. Finding Product-Market Fit
is HARD
How can I make it more comfortable?

10. Attributes of the Trough
Unsustainable Beginnings
Date Fixated
Attention Currency
Data-Driven
Retention/Churn Energy Suck
Next Feature Focus
Investor Push (vs. Pull) + Money Management

11. Stealing Quotes
“Every startup has to go through it” – Andrew Chen
“... the founders become demoralized” – Paul Graham
“The answer was simplifying…” – Fred Wilson
“Sure, grit. Sure, perseverance. Just less.” – AP’s .02

12. Hard No’s
No Noise (Nobody cares anyway)
No Dates (It’s okay to run ideas in the background)
No Analytics (Everything you care about is binary)
No Team (Being the captain is a time sync)
No Software (People will often pay for better process)
No Money (“Funding the Team” is a new phenomenon)
No Company (Think in terms of projects… Easy to kill)

13. 18 Months Later
~150-200 Ideas (00:00)
~15 Experiments (00:00 + $$)
5-6 Projects (00:00 + $$$)
2 (In)Corporations ($40K & $150K Revenue)
Tips: Services, Process, Wedges, Collaborative
Consider: Ideas exist at the intersections

14. Thank You!