Startups Talk
North South University Startups Next & EMK Center presents: Startups Talk was a Six days long workshop. There were 107 people registered to join the event and only 25 people were selected to join the 6 days workshop. I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to select for the workshop and attend the workshop. I attended the workshop with almost zero percent of startup and business knowledge and ended up with a lot of knowledge and business strategies. So I decided to share about the founders' speech for those who didn’t get a chance to attend or who are interested in acquiring knowledge about Startups, MVP, Startups Funding, Business models and Pitch Deck for startups and much more….
I just wrote the topics that I can remember and the notes I took. I’m not briefly discussing anything here because I think I’m not the right person at this moment to describe the facts, norms and topics. I only list the norms, facts and topics that discuss on each session. There are so many resources out there on google. So you will easily find out by googling.
Day-1 : The Founder's Path - 27th Jan’22
Speaker 01. Mir Sakib (Founder and CEO of Cramstack)
Speaker 02. Dr. Khondaker A. Mamun (Founder at CMED Health Ltd. and Professor at UIU)
⇒ In the first day of the workshop it was basically the discussion about the way founders succeed their startup from their beginning to end journey and what problem they face and how they solve it and go through the front.
- MVP (Minimum Viable Product), POC(Proof of Concept), PROTOTYPE and the difference between these three.
- B2B and B2C Business Idea
- Startup Incubators → Grameenphone Accelerator, Y Combinator.
- Innovation = Invention * Commercialization
- Scalability and Rentability
Before starting any startup, first work in a small startup. When you work on a small Startup , you are a big part of that company and more responsible. but when you work for a giant company you are a small part of that company.
Video recommendation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNpx7gpSqbY
Day-2 : The MVP & the Product-Market Fit - 3rd Feb’22
Speaker 01. Mohammad Oli Ahad ( Founder of Intelligent Machines )
Speaker 02. Tayef Sarker (CEO at Barikoi)
Mohammad Oli Ahad discussed about PMF:
- PMF → Product Market Fit
- Solving a high value problem
If you’re not solving a valuable problem ...
i. You’re not solving a valuable problem
ii. and unsurprisingly you won’t build any value
iii. viable doesn’t always mean valuable
source: Harvard Innovation Lab
- Everyone of you will be successful if you do it right.
Before any idea : Answer these question:
- What problem does it solve?
- What do customers use now?
What condition must be in place for your solution to remain relevant and necessary?
- Idea to product - prove market acceptance
- Product to company - gain repeatability
Companies analyze for grow:
- Primary value Proposition (PVP)
- Minimum viable product (MVP)
- Minimum Viable Segment (MVS)
- Minimum Repeatable Product (MRP) → MVP+ MVS = MRP
- YouTube channels to follow → i. Harvard Innovation Lab ii. Greylock iii. Shaf Rasul
- Gain/ Pain Ratio in Startups
- Remember, the consumer set the market. competition doesn't set the market.
Q & A:
- What are the ways to know our idea is product market fit?
→ customer discovery express
→ consumer moments discovery
→ consumer trigger moments
Tayef Sarker CEO of Barikoi Brief on his journey through North South University to Startup Founder and MVP:
- You should start always -2 years
Day-3: The Founding Team - 10th Feb’22
Speaker 01. Zeeshan Zakaria (Co-Founder & COO at Shikho)
Speaker 02. Aziz Arman (Co-Founder and CEO of Jatri)
Firstly, Zeeshan Zakaria Co-Founder of Shikho' described his journey through Shikho. How he made the team with his friend through hard work, how they raise funds and start working with apps and engage the audience with their research marketing.
- Market research will be the very first thing that every startup should do. Never be get on the field based on your hypothesis.
Q & A:
- How did you capture the market when established startups were already there ?
→ The first thing they spotted was to make the difference that no-one brought here.
Aziz Arman briefly described his journey through the North South University Capstone Project and his Innovation mindset to Startup Founder.
Q & A:
- What will be the better investment sharing for the initial stage ?
→ Mutual discussion about how much equity one person wants. One important thing for better safety is initially every startup needs a senior management team. So it’s better to keep some portion in ESOP ( Employee Stock Ownership Plan/ Employee Service Option Pool )
- Idea is 1 % execution is 99 %
Last Note:
- For establishing your idea, bravery is most starter things - Zeeshan Zakaria
- The amount of higher risk you can get, the amount of higher gain you can have - Aziz Arman
Day-4: The Finances & Funding - 17th Feb’22
Speaker 01. Anayet Rashid (Founder & CEO at TruckLagbe)
Speaker 02. Mirza M. Ferdous (MD of Prestige Consulting Group and Senior Lecturer, DAF, North South University)
The first speaker Anayet Rashid, founder of TruckLagbe didn’t attend because of his health checkup.
Mirza M. Ferdous Sir, described Finances & Funding and the different popular methods of company valuation.
Bank sectors defining business as three categories:
- S.M.E (Small Medium Enterprise) → now CMSME (Cottage, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises)
- Ltd Company
- Public company
- NPL → Non Performing Loan
Valuation:
- Valuation is the cornerstone of the investment process...
- Cash Flows are Everything → one of the most important components for valuation is cash flows.
- DCF valuation → Discounted Cash Flow
Step to estimate:
→ estimate explicit period (usually 5-10 years)
→ estimate appropriate discount rate
→ estimate the terminal value
Alternate way to estimate:
- Intrinsic valuation
- Relative valuation
Popular method for Valuation:
- The Berkus Method
- Scorecard Valuation
- Risk Factor Summation
- Book Value & Liquidation Value
- Venture Capital Method
- First Chicago Method
Day-5: The Pitch and Path Forward - 24th Feb’22
Speaker 01. Nasir Chowdhury (CEO of LOOX)
Speaker 02. Mir Sakib (Founder and CEO of Cramstack)
Unfortunately, I missed the first speaker Nasir Chowdhury’s speech because of my personal reason.
Mir Sakib Founder of Cramstack briefly talks about how to build a proper pitch deck and at the end of the session, he shares his company’s ‘Cramstack’ Pitch Deck to the audience.
Two types of Pitch:
- Pitch Deck
- Elevator Pitch
Let’s make the Pitch Deck:
I. Problem and Solution
→problems must be validated and researched.
→ then the solution slide will be how you solve it by research and have abstraction
II. Vision of the Startup
III. Why now is the time ?
IV. Current Market, Market size and Current State
V. Market/ Your target market
→ capability and which market you target
VI. Competition
→ If you don’t have competition, you’re not in the right path.
VII. Business Model
→ B2B (Business to Business)
→ B2C (Business to Consumer)
→ C2C (Customer to customer) and more .....
VIII. Team
→Include members who have enough experience to capture the market and problem field.
IX. Financial
→cost vs revenue , sometimes not mandatory to add in slides.
X. Current Transaction
→Current Engagement
→ Current Buyers
→ Current statistics
XI. Funding Ask - why are you asking for the total money?
XII. Back Cover
Try to make two document slides. One is Simplicit docs and the other is Descriptive
Last Note:
- So something that your family can understand what you do and have done. - Mir Sakib
End Day: The Last Day was Startup Founders Meet and Greet which was held on 3rd March’22.
Thanks for reading. I hope you have learn something from this article. If you think this article can help your friends please do share with your friends.
