From Idea to Business: A Lean Startup Approach

n
 #lsin
an
@ lionz

LearningStartup
From Business_Idea to Business_Venture

«Inventors - Entrepreneurs»
Lean Startup, Customer Development, Pretotyping

Leonardo Zangrando, MBA, MEng
LearningStartup Coach
December 2012 LearningStartup

n
#lsin
Leonardo Zangrando 
@ lionz
an
Profile
●
Mechanical Engineer, MBA
●
First Level Degree in Pharma & Biotech Licensing – PLG-UK
●
Business Management Consulting
●
Strategy, Licensing, Marketing & Sales, Production
●
Pharma/Biotech, Wines & Spirits, Mechanical, Transportation and Logistics
●
Training/Coaching
●
sales organizations in Pharma and Biotech
●
institutions supporting innovation and entrepreneurship
●
Innovation entrepreneur
●
founder of LearningStartup, the first Italian, hands-on methodology
supporting innovation and company creation
●
founder of Pretotype.it, the European website for Pretotyping, the innovation process
developed in Google and used in several startups and Fortune 500 companies
●
developing Pretotyping adoption in Europe, translated the Pretotype it book to Italian
●
Seminars and hands-on workshops for innovation companies
Pretotype.it
●
“Lean” methodology for the validation and implementation of innovation
●
experimental process for validation - Pretotyping
30 Nov 2012 ©2012 Leonardo Zangrando, LearningStartup 2

n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Product Development Cycle  @

 Phase  Research  Development  Industrialization

Clinical trials
 Activity Experimentation Optimization
Prototyping

Laboratory Journal Production Specs
 Output Production plant
Experimental tests Product Plans

 Questions What Does It Do? How Is It Made? How Is It Built?


n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Message  @

The Inventor / Researcher / The Entrepreneur
Scientist / Engineer
follows a path follows a path
to transform to transform
an Idea into a Product an Idea into a Business

the Business is the Product of the Entrepreneur


n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Business Development Cycle  @


pre- or early-
 Activity Start-up Scale-up
Start-up

 Output Product/Market Fit Business Model Business Plan

 Questions What Does It Do? How Is It Made? How Is It Built?


n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Message  @

The Business works around Value
what it does and for whom

 Create  Deliver
Value Value

Value
Proposition


how does it create value how the value gets to the customer

 Capture
Value

how can it extract value

n
#lsin
How does the Business “Develop”? 
@ lionz
an
Activities 
Remember, the Business is the Entrepreneur's “Product”
The Startup does “R&D” on how to
Create, Deliver, and Capture Value

Create Deliver
Value Value
 Product  Customer
Development Development

 Business
Modelling

Capture
Value

n
 #lsin
What do we Look for in Value Perspectives? an
@ lionz
Focus 
Create Value – is it Feasible?
Deliver Value – is it Desirable?
Capture Value – is it Viable?
Create Deliver
Value Value

 Feasibility  Desirability

 Viability
Profitable
Repeatable
Scalable
Capture
Value

n
#lsin
Let's Put it All Together 
@ lionz
an


Create
How is it done  Product
 Value What does it do? How is it made? production Development
Feasibility

Deliver
How to get How is it done  Customr
 Questions  Value For whom? marketing & sales
Desirability to them? Development

Capture
 Value How does it How is it done  Business
How does it work? overall business
Viability make money? Modelling

 Activity pre- or early-
Start-up Scale-up
Start-up



n
#lsin
@ lionz
an
(and here's the inventor again)

Not enough being a good inventor...
Create
Feasibility

Deliver

Capture
How does it How is it done  Business
 Value How does it work? overall business

Start-up Scale-up
Start-up



n
#lsin
@ lionz
an
(and here's the inventor again)

Not enough being a good inventor...
Create
Feasibility

Deliver

Capture
How does it How is it done  Business
 Value How does it work? overall business

...you must also think transversally!

Start-up Scale-up
Start-up



n
 #lsin
an
lionz
“Product / Market Fit”    @

The initial startup phase works on the
Value Proposition
answering the questions

“What Does the Business Do
and For Whom”

These two pieces must match!


n
 #lsin
an
lionz
“What Does the Business Do...”   @

Which is the Product

How Does the Business Create Value

Is the product Feasible?

For an Inventor
these are the fundamental questions


n
 #lsin
an
lionz
“...and For Whom”   @

Who is the Business' Customer

To Whom Does it Deliver Value

Is it Desirable? (= do they care?)

For an Entrepreneur these are the key questions
The Customer is a key piece from the very beginning!


n
 #lsin
“From the very beginning!”...but Biotech is different! lionzan
@
Really? Let's think where the Risk is


“What does the business do” “For whom does it do it”
Product Market
Technology Risk Customer Risk
Can we do it? Will they want it?
In my sector where is the risk?
Watch out! Do not underestimate Customer Risk
Also big pharmaceuticals suffered for this mistake
Year 2005 Pfizer Exhubera – inhalation insulin 
Forecast Sales $2bn → Actual Sales $12M
Product withdrawn, total loss $2.8bn 

n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Tragical Errors @


 Technology Risk Technology Risk 

●
“But I...” ●
“But you...”
●
I am clearly in a sector where “if you ●
Probably only a truly life-saving cure
make it they will buy it” falls in this category
●
Before having a working product I ●
It's certainly easier and more
can't do anything to verify the satisfying to focus on the things we
market know and manage better...
●
I start making it, then someone will ●
Not taking all responsibility for the
sell it success from the beginning is daring
too much!


n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Tragical Errors @


Create
Feasibility

Deliver

Capture
 Value How does it How is it done  Business
How does it work? overall business

Start-up Scale-up
Start-up



n
 #lsin
an
lionz
OK, but how do you do it? @

●
Product/Market Fit
●
Test the market from day one with product concepts or
“Pretotypes” to identify Product/Market Fit

●
Minimum Viable Product
●
Focus research on getting to MVPs that allow
to test the market ASAP

●
Early Customer Development
●
Explore from the very beginning adjacent markets
for the use of my technology


n
#lsin
-Tool- 
@ lionz
an
Pretotyping

Pretotype*
Any low-cost, mocked, or virtual version of a product
that doesn't exist yet, used to to observe the reactions
of interest and use of customers

Can we validate some market assumption
without using the product but only a mockup of it?
(Think Exhubera)

* Pretotype it book available for free download
pretotype.it/english/download

n
#lsin
-Tool- 
@ lionz
an
MVP – Minimum Viable Product

Minimum Viable Product
The minimum product from which we can
get some relevant information from the market

Can we validate any assumption about the market
before completing product development?


n
#lsin
-Activity- 
@ lionz
an
Early Customer Development

Validate market assumptions
by interacting with the market from day one

From the Interaction we learn about our customers:

●
Who could become our first customer
●
Which ones could be our customers, which ones not
Explore and validate the Value Proposition:
●

in what it's better than existing solution, in what it's not?

n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Validate Assumptions About the Market @

●
These are the assumptions about which will be the market
 we could discover unexplored market
(e.g. Sildenafil for angina pectoris)
●  we could discover that for some reason the market does
not accept our soulution even if it needs it, e.g.
 marginally better product
 “side effects” not considered in our assmptions
(relations with other stakeholders, common practice, etc.)
 change of consolidated processes
●
These are also the assumptions we make about the
product, that somehow interact with the market
●
e.g. Exhubera, use an inhaler for insulin

n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Example Biotech Onco @

●
Create a product profile and interact early on with potential stakeholder
●
prepare a product profile including
– delivery
– therapeutic progression
– interaction with other products
– potential collateral effects
●
present it to all stakeholders involved in a particular indication, e.g.
– oncologists
– patients
– payers
●
Understand how the product could be integrated in the current therapeutic
progression: quite often clinical decisions are made on factors other than what
molecular target is being targeted by the product.

● Learn more on pretotype.it/industries/biotech

n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Wrapping up @

●
From Inventor to Entrepreneur: get (serious) in business
●
consider market in the business equation from day one
●
design product development activities to allow for learning about the market
●
consider also market aspects not strictly product-related
●
Additionally
●
if I'm a research purist, I SHOULDN'T think of myself as an entrepreneur
(I hurt myself and the others), rather I seek help!
●
if I'm not taking the market into account because “I don't know how to do it”,
I seek help!
●
if I look for investors without experience of the sector “so they don't meddle with my
business,” WATCH OUT! (I hurt myself and them) money alone is not enough to get a
business off the ground
●
I do look for investors that know my sector, I want a hand from who is into the business
already, investors who can guide me are worth more than their money


n
 #lsin
an
lionz
Enjoy your startup! @

This presentation is available on
learningstartup.org/LSinn-biotech

LearningStartup
From Business_Idea to Business_Venture

Leonardo Zangrando
Learning Startup

leonardo@learningstartup.org
+39 349 4627 186


From Idea to Business: A Lean Startup Approach

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (13)

Similar to From Idea to Business: A Lean Startup Approach

Similar to From Idea to Business: A Lean Startup Approach (11)

More from Leonardo Zangrando

More from Leonardo Zangrando (10)

From Idea to Business: A Lean Startup Approach