Before you build your MVP, go to market, and make your startup a success there are several things you can do to ensure you have a brilliant business to start with.
Some people boil it down to financial modelling and making your startup work on paper before it works in real life. But in our experience, there is a big challenge in modelling… And that has to do with modelling real life and not wishful thinking. Let me explain…
It was late in my studies when I started designing structures and machine parts as an engineer. On one particular occasion, I was asked to create a structure to support an engine for a ship. I went home and did my calculations; I was very pleased with my design. When I handed it in, I was shocked to discover the opposite.
I had designed an engine of support bigger and heavier than the ship itself; it made no sense at all, not in the real world. Truth be told it was a trick exercise, designed to showcase something straightforward. In paper or excel, as used back in the day, everything makes sense. The professor explained that it is critical when working in the “Idea World” you must still bring with you the “Rules” of the world you are designing for. He explained how paper allows you to build impossible machines that seem to make sense because the real world’s constraints are not part of your design sandbox.
I would never have thought that the learning of that lesson would come to be handy 20 years later when designing ventures for a venture building fund.
As the engine support design was not applicable in the real world, we realised that in using tools like financial modelling and Business Model Canvas, some of the startup ventures that emerged would not actually float.
I was not that worried at first. I thought “Ok, so we just need to use some common sense on top of this and voila!”. But with time, I realised that the issue was not so much designing ventures that would float but ventures that would win a motorboat race with two small paddles for props.
We found that the major issue with financial modelling is that there are no strong constraints and relationships between each aspect of your startup idea, making the financial model obsolete.
In this video, we share not only what the key aspects are that you need to consider at the time you design your business but also what the key relationships and constants of each aspect are so you can design a winning venture with confidence.
To learn more about partnering with Deazy to design and build your MVP, discover more here.
Written by our friends at Deazy 👇
Darren Ball
Darren has been helping founders and early-stage startups since 2013, including a role as Co-Chief Product Officer for CoGo, a sustainability startup that is now a leader in their space. Previously, at Mubaloo and Accenture he worked on dozens of new products for startups, SMEs and FTSE 100 businesses, and worked together with JP to build Mubaloo’s mobile product consultancy from scratch before creating Who’s Fabio? together.
JP Luchetti
JP was previously a Board Director at Mubaloo, and a founder at IPH – a mobile development agency in Argentina with offices in Miami and Mexico. He has worked on hundreds of new products for startups, SMEs and FTSE 100 businesses, like Maersk, Hermes, National Express, HBO, ESPN, Coca-Cola and GE.
