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Idea to Execution And beyond

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➤ Solo founder ➤ Bootstrapped ➤ Company of one

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I mean business Some of this can apply to personal projects, but I’m talking about business

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Let’s talk about ideas

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What problem are you trying to solve?

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What problem are you trying to solve? ➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers don’t trust their insurance provider

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What problem are you trying to solve? ➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers don’t trust their insurance provider

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What problem are you trying to solve? ➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers don’t trust their insurance provider ➤ Insurers don’t invest money into their technology. 74% of insurers see technological innovation as a challenge

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Meh

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What problem are you trying to solve? ➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers don’t trust their insurance provider ➤ Insurers don’t invest money into their technology. 74% of insurers see technological innovation as a challenge ➤ 2 out of 3 customers are dissatisfied with their customer journey

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A digital insurance platform with great design and technology (And really good customer service)

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The original post-it note when dreaming up With Jack December 2013

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August, 2016 Launch to a mailing list of 120+ people

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Why?

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Shiny object syndrome

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“ “After a while you realise how much your habit’s costing. You let a few go with pangs of regret and doubt but clutch on to others.” - Someone on Twitter

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“ “Only dulled when you realise 6 months later you’ve yet to do a thing with them.” - Someone on Twitter

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Ideas need commitment to become great projects

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Ruthless prioritisation is where the magic happens

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Pick one idea. Commit to it, give it the resources it needs to become a great project. Cull the rest

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Idea validation

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What did With Jack’s validation look like ?

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Will people pay you money for it?

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What did my MVP look like? ➤ Signed up as an affiliate ➤ Didn’t need to convince insurers to give me their products to sell ➤ Didn’t need to become authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority

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I had zero control over the design and technology

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I had no relationship with my customers

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What did validation look like? ➤ People still gave Insurance by Jack their money ➤ 55 paying customers ➤ £14,000

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Good job: The brand effectively communicated my vision

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Idea validation ➤ Are people paying you money for it? ➤ Can you profitably acquire new customers every month?

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Build

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Forecast your misery

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The various stages of building something ➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this

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The various stages of building something ➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this ➤ Huh, this is kind of hard. I’m not so sure about this

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The various stages of building something ➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this ➤ Huh, this is kind of hard. I’m not so sure about this ➤ This totally sucks

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The various stages of building something ➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this ➤ Huh, this is kind of hard. I’m not so sure about this ➤ This totally sucks ➤ I suck

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The final 20% of any project is the hardest to complete

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“ …It gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point - really hard, really not fun.

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What did The Dip look like for With Jack?

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What did The Dip look like for With Jack ➤ Regulation was a barrier to entry

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What did The Dip look like for With Jack ➤ Regulation was a barrier to entry ➤ Insurers didn’t want to work with me

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It felt like I was putting in a ton of work in exchange for nothing

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The Dip is when successful people don’t quit

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Use The Dip to measure how serious you are

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Embracing transparency with the build process

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How did I do this?

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Email. Is. Powerful.

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120+ sign-ups

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Many beta tested With Jack

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Benefit #1: It builds community

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Benefit #2: It’s how I got my first customer 3 weeks before I launched

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Benefit #3: Get ideas from a range of people

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Launch

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Expectations

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Expectations ➤ A suite of insurance products ➤ A dashboard to manage your insurance ➤ Instant quotes and cover ➤ Referral program ➤ Polished customer journey

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Reality

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Reality ➤ One product—professional indemnity ➤ Support for 4 professions ➤ Manual quotes ➤ No dashboard ➤ Unpolished customer journey

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Reality ➤ One product—professional indemnity ➤ Support for 4 professions ➤ Manual quotes ➤ No dashboard ➤ Unpolished customer journey

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Why was my launch successful? ➤ Involved people in the build process ➤ Was transparent about the journey ➤ Focused on doing one thing well

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Shipping Anxiety

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Shipping anxiety ➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that nobody will buy

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Shipping anxiety ➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that nobody will buy ➤ Launch with one, useful feature (do one thing well)

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Shipping anxiety ➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that nobody will buy ➤ Launch with one, useful feature (do one thing well) ➤ It doesn’t matter when you launch—it’s always going to feel incomplete

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Shipping anxiety ➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that nobody will buy ➤ Launch with one, useful feature (do one thing well) ➤ It doesn’t matter when you launch—it’s always going to feel incomplete ➤ Set an arbitrary date and ship it

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What happens after you ship?

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You’ll discover problems

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What problems did I discover?

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What happens after you ship?

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There is no overnight success

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➤ Idea to $20,000 MRR in 5 months ➤ How we got 300,000 users in 24 hours ➤ How I made $70,000 in 48 hours from self-publishing my book

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➤ Idea to $20,000 MRR in 5 months ➤ How we got 300,000 users in 24 hours ➤ How I made $70,000 in 48 hours from self-publishing my book

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AirBnb launched with 6 listings. Only 2 of them became bookings

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(And one of those bookings was from the co-founder)

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Post-launch

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Everything is a hypothesis

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Get in the trenches with your customers

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August, 2016 With Jack launched with just one product—professional indemnity insurance

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February, 2017 Rolled out two new products—public liability and contents insurance

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April, 2017 Improved onboarding based on feedback. The biggest friction were the risk questions.

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June, 2017 Added support for more professions.

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Coming Soon Instant quotes and cover. Coming Soon Dashboard to manage your insurance.

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Have your customers tell you what they want

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Customer Development

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“ Customer development has been the most valuable thing we’ve done when it comes to moving our product and company forward, and I wish we would’ve done more of it in our early days. - Groove

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The Mom Test How to talk to customers

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My assumptions ➤ More people will buy insurance if we offer them rewards

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“ It devalues the brand and cheapens the service. Also, the rewards don’t fit my business. - With Jack Customers

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My assumptions ➤ More people will buy insurance if we offer them rewards ➤ Freelancers buy insurance because it’s contractually required

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Job security

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Peace of mind

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Professional image

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My assumptions ➤ More people will buy insurance if we offer them rewards ➤ Freelancers buy insurance because it’s contractually required

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Know your customer

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Your first 100 customers

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Your first 100 customers

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Your first 10 customers that aren’t your friends or family

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Where do your first customers come from when you have no money ➤ Email list. 120+ people ➤ Go to where your audience is (Twitter’s worked well for With Jack) ➤ Designer News and Product Hunt (made it to Top 5 on Product Hunt) ➤ Content marketing ➤ Useful tools

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Pro tip: Your launch strategy shouldn’t live or die by Product Hunt

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Where do your first customers come from when you have no money ➤ Email list. 120+ people ➤ Go to where your audience is (Twitter’s worked well for With Jack) ➤ Designer News and Product Hunt (made it to Top 5 on Product Hunt) ➤ Content marketing ➤ Useful tools

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Where do your first customers come from when you have no money ➤ Email list. 120+ people ➤ Go to where your audience is (Twitter’s worked well for With Jack) ➤ Designer News and Product Hunt (made it to Top 5 on Product Hunt) ➤ Content marketing ➤ Useful tools

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“ Real entrepreneurship is launching something that solves a problem for people, getting paid to do it again. - A podcast I listened to

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Incremental wins compound over time

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Actual stuff for you to do

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Actual stuff for you to do ➤ Pick one idea and give it the resources it needs to become a great project ➤ Forecast your misery. Do you love what you’re building enough to get through The Dip? ➤ Focus on building one feature well, set a date and ship it ➤ Do your customer development. Sign up to IterateHQ.com and test your assumptions

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Thank You for listening! @iamashley