Page 166 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

Startup Agility 145

9 What have you learned about your core customer? Who are
they? Who are they not? What motivates them to use your
product or service? How are they using it, and what value
are they deriving?

9 What have you learned (or what has changed) about the
overall market opportunity? What new opportunities and
threats are emerging and how might you respond?

9 What have you learned about competitors? Who is
succeeding in your space and why?

9 What factors are driving sales (or lack of sales)? What is
working or not working about your customer acquisition
process?

9 How can you best differentiate your venture and your
offerings, based on what you have learned? What is your
clearest competitive advantage at this time?

MATH – Once you are up and running and are delivering products and
paying suppliers, you can begin to better understand the economic
viability of your concept as it plays out in the real world.

9 How has your math story played out so far, compared to
the plan? What are you learning about the basic economics
underlying your business model and strategy?

9 What key planning and financial assumptions underlie
your model and how are these testing out? How might your
plans change as a result?

9 What are you learning about the dynamics of profitability
and return (R = M × V, from Chapter Five), and what
feasible opportunities to increase returns are emerging?

9 What have you learned about your venture’s ability to
generate cash? How are cash reserves relative to your plan?

American Management Association • www.amanet.org