If you are an entrepreneur, I believe you must have been hit by these bullets. ...
Where does the start-up golden idea come from? What are successful entrepreneurs like? What traps are waiting for you in startups? Who should join your entrepreneurial team? What qualities should they have? What can you do to make your product truly popular with users?
I would like to dedicate this book to everyone who loves books on the road to entrepreneurship. Open this book and let the bullets fly slowly!
Brief introduction of the author
Steven Hoffman, the godfather, angel investor and speaker of Silicon Valley heavyweight entrepreneurship, is the founder of Founders Space, the number one business incubator in Forbes magazine, and is known as "Captain Hoffman". He graduated from the University of Southern California, worked as a script producer in Hollywood, and founded mobile entertainment companies, interactive media companies and software development companies. In the founder space, he is committed to the connection and integration of global resources, and has trained and guided the founders of hundreds of startups around the world for many years, including the famous Instagram.
Jinghua Du Jie
The following content is the essence of "Let the Elephant Fly" for book lovers' reference. Welcome to share, and it may not be used for commercial purposes without permission.
catalogue
Guide: What is the key to "making elephants fly"?
First, find the right direction: find the right wave before starting.
Second, prepare to set sail: how to set up an entrepreneurial team
Third, build a product: love it, but don't love it too much.
Fourth, lock in the market: thoroughly understand customers.
Continuous innovation: the secret of lasting success.
Six, high-speed operation: walk in front of the market.
Appendix: Three Groups of Concepts about Innovation
Upper guide bearing
Guide: What is the key to "making elephants fly"?
It is easy for pigs to fly on the tuyere, but how can elephants take off? In fact, every startup company has the opportunity to take off in time as long as it finds the right direction and masters the methods. The key is innovation. Innovation is the source of most wealth creation. Only by knowing innovative methods and avoiding innovation traps can start-ups stand out. This book can be described as a practical version from 0 to 1, and it is also a necessary practical guide manual for startups of all sizes.
As a practical manual for entrepreneurship, this book has the gene of "insight+operation guidance+risk avoidance reminder". These three levels are embedded in each part of the six modules of "Let Elephants Fly", namely, finding the right direction, building teams, building products, locking in the market, high-speed operation and continuous innovation.
first step
Find the direction: find the right wave and start again.
Set up start-ups and start entrepreneurial projects. Don't rush into specific projects. Find the right direction and the right wave first. In the process of finding direction, a cognitive trap that needs to be avoided is: technicalism!
Innovation is a complex system engineering, and technology is only a part of the innovation process. Advanced exclusive technology will bring advantages to innovation, but it is not guaranteed to succeed. In contrast, it is more important to transform technology into products and complete the transformation process from technology to users. For example, inventors in history have created new technologies and new ideas, but few people have achieved commercial success. Tesla invented the generator, but he was down and out all his life. The ultimate success is a creative businessman like Edison, who is good at absorbing inventors' inventions and then transforming them to make them more suitable for the needs of the market and customers, and transforming technology into practical products.
Another point that needs to be broken through is the disdain for "imitation".
Imitation is not absolutely wrong. On the contrary, imitation or copying is a wonderful business strategy with low risk and high return. But true innovators are not limited to imitation. They can transform what they imitate into their own things through their own efforts, and then optimize, improve and achieve their own success.
situation
China's three Internet giants, BAT, all started from imitation. Baidu imitated the search engine giant Google, and Alibaba mixed the basic elements of American websites such as Amazon, Yi Bei and Paypal. Tencent's chat software QQ and WeChat were inspired by ICQ and Ka Kao respectively.
The new concept of this chapter
Timing: Doing the right thing at the right time is the most important factor for the success of start-ups.
Diversity: A variety of combinations of talents and cultures can stimulate creativity.
Creative businessman: a person who realizes the transformation from technology to products, represented by Edison in history.
Second step
Ready to go: how to form an entrepreneurial team
After finding the right direction and keeping up with the trend, you will form a team and get ready to set sail! And forming an innovation team is a university question!
1. The bigger the team, the better. We should keep the initial team members within five people.
Contrary to the general public's understanding, innovation and entrepreneurship is not "everyone gathers firewood and the flame is high"! According to Parkinson's law (bureaucratic disease), large teams often face the problem of inefficiency. On the contrary, the smaller the team, the fewer the team members, the better and easier the cooperation, communication and coordination in the team, and the closer the interpersonal relationship among the team members. Bezos, the founder of Amazon, once had a famous "two pizza theory". He thought that if the entrepreneurial team can't even feed two pizzas, there will be too many people.
However, streamlining the number of people does not mean that "the less the better." The construction of start-up team has its requirements and skills, and the combination and division of labor of team members have clear requirements. Among them, four key talents are needed, namely:
CEO: As the leader and communicator in the team, he is fully responsible for the team;
Technical officer: CTO, the person in charge of the technical field, responsible for implementing the innovation plan at the technical level;
Designers: team members with design ideas to optimize the user experience design of products and solutions;
Expert: It may be a scholar with a doctorate or an experienced member in a certain field, each with his own strengths.
It should be noted that in such a team structure, it is not necessarily that one person corresponds to a role, and the same person may have several skills at the same time, but every skill in the whole team is indispensable.
situation
Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook, is a compound talent. He is a talented programmer, an excellent product manager and knows how to run and build a team. But in the process of creating and developing Facebook, Zuckerberg is not alone. He also has an excellent team!
2. Make good use of innovation sprint and deadline
① Innovation sprint
Take the "hackathon" as the representative, let the innovation team carry out short-term and high-intensity innovation activities. Start-up teams are required to complete continuous work in a short time (such as 48 hours), explore new ideas, solve new problems, give full play to their potential and complete tasks with the highest efficiency. Practice has proved that this kind of innovation sprint activity can often achieve miraculous results, and the innovation potential of many teams is quickly stimulated, and they have achieved surprising results.
② Deadline
Human beings are naturally lazy. Since deadline, everyone has procrastination. A good deadline should increase the pressure on team members, but it is not a mechanical rule, but let the other party know the meaning of the deadline, so as to arrange the work reasonably and complete the set goals.
The more money, the better. Too much money may be poison.
Financial support is a powerful driving force to send elephants to heaven. Start-up teams must have sufficient financial support if they want to practice specific innovation and entrepreneurship plans. When financing, you need to know the classification of capital investment:
(1) Venture capital: the investment amount is large, the scale of start-ups is high, and unicorns are chased instead of small investments;
2 angels and seeds: you don't need unicorns, invest early and quit early;
Enterprise investment: pay attention to strategic value, don't care about short-term returns, and be conservative;
④ Self-realization: providing investors with self-satisfied capital;
⑤ Internal innovation: new ideas and concepts are put into the enterprise.
In investment, there are five criteria for identifying and discovering opportunities, which are the key objects of investors' investigation and several dimensions to consider whether an entrepreneurial project can really succeed:
The team needs to be excellent, and the founder should be dedicated.
The fighting spirit and direction of the whole team should be consistent, which is not only the need of team development, but also the test of the founder's organizational ability and management ability;
(2) customers should put it down.
Brian Ceschi, co-founder of Airbnb, said: "You just need 100 people to really love what you do, not 1 10,000 people to say that they like it a little." People will say "not bad" and "a little like it" because of their feelings, and only say "great!" "Great!" Such feedback can prove that customers have real recognition of products;
3 there is a secret recipe.
Coca-Cola, McDonald's and other food industries all have specific "secret recipes", which is a huge advantage in the competition. Non-food industry can also have its own secret recipe, which is the unique gene and core advantage of enterprises.
In addition, products should provide excellent customer experience, and the market should be focused and distinctive, but there is potential for expansion.
Finally, investment can help innovation and entrepreneurship take off, but not the more the better. Limited budget can really encourage innovative thinking, on the contrary, high R&D investment may not really complete substantive innovation. Once there is too much money, the start-up team must complete the stage tasks step by step according to the established business plan and conduct business activities according to the fixed rhythm and ideas, which will lead to the team losing flexibility and unable to adjust and turn in time.
The new concept of this chapter
Innovation sprint: represented by "hackathon", let the innovation team carry out short-term and high-intensity innovation activities.
Innovation rest period: organically combine fast and slow thinking, and reasonably arrange innovation sprint and shutdown rest.
MVP: The simplest and most feasible product, which only provides core value. Meet with customers as soon as possible, get feedback and start iteration.
Third step
Build a product: love it, but don't love it too much.
Products are the foothold and practical sustenance to test the success of innovation. Compared with large companies, start-ups are lighter, the conversion cost after failure is lower, and more attempts can be made. This "strength" of "no loss" is actually the advantage of start-ups!
1. Breaking three common business myths
Business creed not only has mistakes, but also has timeliness and limitations. It is necessary to test business ideas in many ways, make a list, put forward various possibilities, and compare technology with reality. At the same time, invite all members to participate, absorb external opinions as much as possible, and conduct in-depth analysis with critical thinking.
There are three recognized business beliefs, which are actually fundamentally wrong. They are:
① In the meager profit business, reducing the cost is the key to success.
No! Taking the aviation industry as an example, United Airlines, which is trying to reduce the cost of employees' wages, is being overtaken by the low-cost airline Southwest Airlines, which is the aviation enterprise with the highest wage expenditure. Reducing costs, especially reducing employees' wages, often leads to employees' dissatisfaction, which in turn leads to customers' dissatisfaction.
(2) Providing bonuses can make employees work better.
No! Paying bonuses can really promote the short-term improvement of production efficiency, but it is followed by the overall decline of production efficiency. Because bonuses and performance appraisal make employees pay more attention to external financial returns, rather than work value itself;
(3) Investigating the responsibility of employees can reduce human error.
No! In Southwest Airlines, employees will not be held accountable for their own mistakes, because once they are held accountable, they may cover up their mistakes in the future, which will lead to greater losses. A better way is to encourage everyone to openly discuss the mistakes they made and make overall improvements to reduce the possibility of mistakes happening again.
2. Solve real problems for customers.
To build a good product, we must solve a real problem for our customers. This requires design thinking in product building. Good design should produce "painkillers" instead of "vitamins" for customers, that is, meet the most urgent and urgent needs of customers, rather than icing on the cake and gilding the lily. Good products can directly hit the pain points of users and perfectly solve the real problems of customers.
situation
Apple's music player iPod, aiming at users' needs, has built a complete music purchase and appreciation system, which stands out among contemporary music players. In addition to exquisite design and page layout, the iPod is also aimed at the needs of users who are eager to experience new products. The product is fully charged when it leaves the factory. This has also become the industry practice in the future.
Be sober about products, make more drafts and face the market in time.
The "parents" of products often fall into the "manufacturer's trap", that is, they will have feelings for products and cannot objectively evaluate them, so they can only get deeper and deeper. In the old saying of China, this is called "take care of yourself"; In the words of foreigners, it is the "IKEA effect", giving people two sets of IKEA furniture with the same appearance. One set was assembled by themselves, and the other was assembled by IKEA professionals. People will think that they assemble more professionally. In other words, people will prefer their own products, even if it is obviously not professional enough.
This phenomenon is also a trap that needs attention in the development of enterprises. We can't just look at our products from our own perspective, so we often can't see the defects and can only stand still. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to push the products of enterprises to the market in time, get feedback from users in time, and make adjustments and corrections. Even if the product is still simple and immature, we should show its core content to customers, let them pay the bill, reward them, hear their voices and adjust them in time.
The new concept of this chapter
Manufacturer's trap: manufacturers will have feelings for products, and they can't objectively evaluate them, so they can only get deeper and deeper.
IKEA Effect: People will prefer their products, even if it is obviously unprofessional.
Fourth step
Lock in the market: thoroughly understand the customer
Creating a perfect product is not enough to ensure the success of 100%. Besides products, we also need to consider the market. If a start-up wants to succeed, it must learn to lock in the market and thoroughly understand its customers.
1. User suggestions are the source of inspiration for innovation.
User suggestions are direct feedback to products, and also the starting point and motivation of innovation. We should go to users, listen to customers, understand customers, understand customers' ideas and respond in time. "Observation" is at the core of the innovation process. We should observe problems, observe customers, record and reflect. In this process, it is important to ask the right questions to the right customers to avoid getting caught up in your own thinking.
situation
Kawasaki motorcycle invented the standing jet ski, which was all the rage. In order to improve users' satisfaction, it asks for suggestions for improvement. Some users suggest adding fillers on both sides of the motorcycle, which will be more stable. Kawasaki did this, but its competitors developed sit-down jet skiing and easily defeated Kawasaki. Kawasaki motorcycle asked the wrong question. It should not ask users what kind of solution they want, but what kind of results they want, that is, to get a more comfortable motorboat driving experience.
2. Find more collaborators and test creativity with data.
Innovators should not be confined to innovation teams, but should also expand outward, broaden the complete innovation ecosystem and let more partners participate in innovation. At the same time, it is necessary to build an innovation ecosystem within the team, establish links between departments, and form innovation. At the same time, we should make good use of data, and useful data can verify business ideas. There are many ways to collect data, such as Google keyword tools, Google trends, friends and family, customer interviews, blogs and social networks, analyzing competitors, logging in to web pages, A/B testing, advertising, crowdfunding, pre-purchasing pages, explaining videos, directional prototypes, virtual MVPs, managed MVPs and so on.
Pay attention to the real value obtained by customers, but don't blindly believe in "net recommended value"
"Net recommended value" refers to the possibility that a customer will recommend a product or service to others after using it. Judging products according to the net recommended value may have three weaknesses:
① Products with high net recommended value must be cost-free. For example, bicycle sharing, low consumption in exchange for high returns, high recommended value;
② The net recommended value of products to the public is generally not high. Wal-Mart, for example, has become an inertial choice and few people recommend it.
(3) The products of monopoly enterprises do not need to consider the net recommended value. For example, PetroChina and China Mobile have little choice and are generally not recommended.
To get rid of the superstition of net recommendation value, we should pay attention to the recommendation rate based on total value, that is, the recommendation generated among high-value target groups on the premise of ensuring profits. If this group recognizes the product, it is true and effective, which can reflect the success of the product.
The new concept of this chapter
Net recommended value: the possibility of customers recommending products or services to others after using them.
High-value users: the target group of products, the group with real experience and views on products.
Step five
Continuous innovation: the secret of lasting success.
Enterprise development is a dynamic process, which cannot be achieved overnight. If you want to build a lasting foundation, you must constantly innovate and rely on internal innovation to get a steady stream of development momentum.
1. We should make full use of employees' unique ideas and establish an innovative corporate culture.
Innovative corporate culture includes the following four points:
Celebrate new innovative achievements and new innovative behaviors;
Encouraging employees to report beyond their own level is a characteristic behavior of "creating elites";
Share the responsibility of leadership and let employees think and work like leaders;
Actively motivate employees and encourage them to participate in the company's innovation process.
The unique ideas of employees need to be taken seriously, which is the source of internal innovation. Encouraging employees' new ideas and new schemes often leads to unexpected good results.
situation
Adobe issued a "startup box" to employees, in which a credit card was given as the principal to encourage employees to try new ideas. They distributed a total of 1000 such boxes and achieved many project results. Adobe now also makes it open source and puts it on the Internet for reference.
2. Get new insights from failure.
We must gain insight from failures, truly "learn from mistakes" and gain growth from repeated setbacks and failures.
Edison famously said that he didn't experience 999 failures, but found 999 methods that didn't work. This view of failure is something that start-ups need to learn from. Only in this way can we really make good use of the failed experience, avoid repeating the same mistakes in the process of innovation and entrepreneurship, make improvements and achieve success.
3. Solve the obstacles in practice, cultivate the internal entrepreneurial spirit, and promote it as a whole.
The innovation process of enterprises may be hindered by other departments or personnel, so it is necessary to improve the priority of innovation and clear the way. There are eight specific rules, which together constitute a solution path:
Give priority to innovation → build alliances → build visions → recruit volunteers → establish new paths → set realistic goals → never give up → embrace change.
In this practice, it is important to cultivate a spirit of internal entrepreneurship, let everyone in the team participate, and let continuous innovation and internal innovation become the genes of the team.
The new concept of this chapter
Creative elite: employees who focus on innovation and encourage employees to report beyond the level.
Step 6
High-speed operation: ahead of the market
The development of entrepreneurial enterprises takes place under the new situation and background, which is different from the traditional enterprise development. Nowadays, the business format faced by entrepreneurs will change every six months, which requires start-ups to operate at a high speed and remain competitive.
Internal innovation should be accompanied by high-speed operation. You have me and I have you, which together constitute the development track of start-ups.
1. Speed means everything, only fast and unbreakable, and it needs to be restarted again and again and iterated quickly.
Technology is changing with each passing day, and we should strive to become market leaders, not followers. Take Facebook as an example. Their technology and model are no secret. The only way to maintain competitiveness is to operate efficiently internally and iterate quickly on products. Every iteration cycle is an opportunity. You should learn to "fail quickly" and refuse to linger.
In order to maintain this speed, it is necessary to build a diversified team, stimulate team vitality, ensure that the direction can be adjusted in time, and face unknown risks.
Start-ups are advised not to outsource technology. Technology outsourcing may bring temporary cost savings, but in the long run, it is not conducive to the continuous iterative update of products (such as App).
2. At the same time, we should keep the diversity of the team and let the team members break through the boundary.
Team members should have different perspectives, ideas and backgrounds. These people include opportunists, domain experts, communicators, storytellers, promoters, organizers and outsiders. All members of the team should be 100% committed. Such a diversified composition can stimulate the vitality of the team, produce different views and opinions, collide with each other, complement each other, and realize the growth of innovation.
At the same time, in order to maintain the vitality of innovation, team members should be brave enough to try completely different things, break through their comfort zones, not be afraid of new ideas, new knowledge and new experiences, and learn to reshape their own way of experiencing the world.
3. Master the seven magic weapons to be a winner
Captain Hoffman summed up seven unfair competitive advantages, that is, seven magic weapons for the success of start-ups, namely:
Better products than expected: providing customers with more value can seize and maintain customers;
Case iPhone was born, which is ten times better than traditional mobile phones.
Create a brand-new market: new products define a brand-new product classification;
Bicycle sharing and online food delivery services have developed a brand-new market.
The first to subvert the market: to be the first person to subvert the market with new technologies and new models;
Case wechat subverts SMS.
Make good use of the user network effect: the more users on the user network, the faster the business value grows;
The case of Fan Deng's book club leads users through users and quickly spreads the customer base.
Obtain exclusive distribution rights: establish exclusive distribution rights through various ways and relationships;
Monopoly position of PetroChina and Sinopec in the oil market.
Lock in long-term customers: the longer customers use it, the harder it is to leave your product;
People will not easily change their mobile phone numbers, because the numbers carry their own personal resources.
Brand building: enter the market before others, build a brand and meet the demand.
Case Nike, LV, and other brands have become unshakable unique advantages, and these brands themselves are priceless.
The new concept of this chapter
Diversity: Team members should have different views, ideas and backgrounds. These people include opportunists, domain experts, communicators, storytellers, promoters, organizers and outsiders. All members should invest 100%.
conclusion
Six strokes: setting the direction, building a team, making quality products, grasping users, continuous innovation and rapid development, which can be called the six-pulse sword of the entrepreneurial community, full of the author's sincerity, wisdom and insight!
However, what needs our vigilance is that although Captain Hoffman has a lot of problems in the field of innovation, the rules of entrepreneurial innovation advocated by him are still a summary and insight from the experience level, not a universal law, and each entrepreneur needs to learn and use flexibly according to his own characteristics, resources and conditions, and choose appropriate methods. If you have enough funds, strong leadership and imaginative entrepreneurial projects, your team may not have to stick to two pizzas!
After all, in management science, adapting to local conditions and keeping pace with the times is the law! Don't be superstitious about your brother, he also grows into a captain in doubt!
Appendix: Three Groups of Concepts about Innovation
1. Innovation (false) myth
* 20% principle: enterprises need to give employees 20% time to engage in personal projects that they are interested in.
2. Types of innovation
3. Innovation field
Book integral