Google Docs/Drive. Microsoft Office.
Email. Text. Slack. Asana.
Who you are -- your goals, desires, strengths, weaknesses, and tolerance for risk is critical to success as an entrepreneur. You'll assess yourself and know what type of co-founder you are or will be. Life-balance issues.
Understanding entrepreneurship and its role in society. Making the choice to be an entrepreneur instead of working for someone else.
The 6 variants of entrepreneurial ventures and the distinctive motivations, transitions, and goals of each.
Understanding the importance of scalability in creating value. How it is defined and how to start understanding the entrepreneurial world from its perspective. Why we focus on scalable ventures.
Moore's Law and Metcalfe Law (The Network Effect) and how these "laws" may impact your entrepreneurial venture.
Right/left brain personality types. Associative thinking. Think different. Question the status quo. Find a problem, solve it. Express an ideas in problem/solution terminology. When to hunt for problems to solve.
Road test new ideas. Five forces model. Customizing your own analysis tool for judging ideas. The skill of knowing how to assess an idea and determine if it is a great opportunity is important to entrepreneurial success. Finding and analyzing the competition.
Will anyone really steal your idea? Should you use a NDA (non-disclosure agreement)? Patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
Who should be founders? What diverse talents are needed? Cloning vs. complementary. Who should be key employees or contractors?
Figuring out how much equity each co-founder should receive. A real tool for tracking value contributed. Fixed equity v. dynamic equity.
The all-important cash flow projection.
Which entity to choose. Doing it right vs. el-cheapo. Not the place to skimp.
Explaining failure and success. A framework for replicable processes. A startup is a search for a business model.
Introduction to the book.
Customer discovery. Monetizable pain. Customer validation. Designing experiments. Quantitative and qualitative. Iterative. Token validation. Customer creation.
Three levels of MVP. Are you sure you're validated? Agile product development. MVC - Minimum Viable Company.
What is a business model? The common language. Tracking your progress online. Pivoting. How do you know when an element is validated?
Numbers. Metrics. Key performance indicators. Users. Customers. Revenue. Revenue. Revenue.
Contracts. Oral contracts. Leases. Managing your lawyer.
Bookkeeping. Controller. CFO. Schedule C. Form 1099. Form K-1.
ADA. EEOC. OSHA. State sales tax. Sexual harassment. Discrimination. Business insurance. Independent contractor vs. employee status.
Hiring. Employment contracts. Payroll. Firing. FSLA. Exempt vs Non-exempt. Work weeks. Overtime.
Negotiating. Selling. Networking. Incentive plans.
Your business model expressed in a spreadsheet. Determines how much capital is needed.
How much capital is truly needed? Cap Tables - what they are and how to use them as a projection tool. The textbook case of raising working capital.
The venture capital ecosystem. Alternatives from bootstrapping to SBA loans. Preferred stock - liquidation preference, conversion preference, and more. Sources of capital. Common terms. How to negotiate.
Elements of cash management. Basic financial laws. Cash flow cycle. Cash budgeting. Accounting receivable and payable. Client financing. Vendor financing. Barter. Avoiding taxes.
Stock options. Stock appreciation rights. Profits interest. Phantom stock.
Determining key performance indicators (KPIs). Key metrics for your venture. Ratio analysis.
