Investor Connect Podcast

Lean Startup Approach to Product Development Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The lean startup approach seeks to discover a product and business model that works. Unlike big companies which have a large staff to maintain an existing product line, the startup has little to no staff and works on finding new business...

Product Development Plan Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Here's a checklist for launching product development for your startup: Research the industry for trends and competitors in the space. Talk with prospective customers about their pain points. Consider not only the product to be built but the revenue to be gen...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Mike Millard, Operating Partner at Ecliptic Capital. Located in Austin, Texas, Ecliptic Capital is an emergent, early-stage innovation fund focused on pre-seed, seed, and Series A investments. Ecliptic Capital invests in companies that use science and technology as a lever to disrupt lagging industries and cultivate multiple market adjacencies. Th...

Creativity Is a Process Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Ideation requires creativity. Creativity is a process no different than any other activity. Here are some steps to follow in generating creativity in your ideation program: Start with preparation. Capture your ideas into a list for evaluation. Incubate the id...

Testing Your Ideas Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. After generating ideas for your startup, you'll need to test those ideas. Consider these points in your evaluation: Research the market on the product you intend to build and sell. Is it big enough and growing fast enough for a venture deal? Who is the competition...

Basics of Product Development Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Product development should follow a standard process. It starts with a strategy. That strategy should align with the goals of the company and mesh with its current product roadmap. The specific product should further the company's business objectives su...

Where to Start Your Product Development Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. It's important to have a product development process for your startup. Here's a list of what startups should do to get started: Focus on the customer's pain. Find that which is critically important and not just nice to have. Do it better than...

Product Development Using Stage-Gate Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Startups can use the Stage-Gate method to build out their product development process. Here are the steps: Idea generation -- use brainstorming, market research, and other tools to come up with ideas. Idea screening -- create a set of criteria to...

Thank you for joining us today for our TEN Capital Fundraise Launch Program. In this program, we help startups prepare for a fundraise. We provide templates, tools, eGuides, and advice to founders who are working towards raising funding. We'll kick off the session with a short overview on a fundraising topic, then we'll answer questions from the founders. I hope you enjoy this episode. ___________...

Finding Your Value Proposition Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In ideating for a startup you must first start with a customer problem. Once you find a solution for that problem, you then identify your value proposition. A value proposition is how you solve a problem and the benefit it brings to your customer. Here...

The Vision Problem Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In turning your startup idea into a product you'll need to avoid the vision problem. The vision problem is having a product or service in mind and then trying to build and launch it as your initial product. Big vision products take years to develop in most cases....

Legal Aspects of Ideation Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. There are financial and legal aspects to startup ideation. Here are some key points to consider: Test your idea with a minimum viable product before investing substantial resources. All ideas look good until you have to actually build and sell it. As always...

Use Design Process for Ideation Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In ideation for a startup, it's important to follow a process. Consider these process steps for your ideation program: Empathize -- understand your customers' problems very well including what works for them and what does not. This takes the research...

More Mental Models for Ideation Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. There are several more approaches to ideation for a startup. Consider these mental models for your ideation process: Move online -- take offline interactions and move on to the web. Roll-ups -- acquire other companies into your company or into a new o...

Thank you for joining us today for our TEN Capital Fundraise Launch Program. In this program, we help startups prepare for a fundraise. We provide templates, tools, eGuides, and advice to founders who are working towards raising funding. We'll kick off the session with a short overview on a fundraising topic, then we'll answer questions from the founders. I hope you enjoy this episode. ___________...

Ideation Steps Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Ideation requires a process. There are specific steps required to reach a successful outcome. Here are the steps to follow for your ideation program: Define the problem. Write out a problem statement to define clearly the problem to be solved. Set the criteria. This d...

Lateral Thinking Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Lateral thinking is solving problems using an indirect and creative approach via reasoning that is not immediately obvious according to Wikipedia. In your startup ideation process consider using lateral thinking. Here are some steps to implement it: Come up with a r...

Lead Users in Ideation Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Lead users are the early pioneers looking to solve a problem. They face problems that need to be solved in advance of the general market providing a solution. Lead users start well ahead of the mainstream market so they create their own solutions. They can be...

Brainstorming in Ideation Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Brainstorming can be an effective tool in the ideation phase of a startup. It works best when focused on the right elements. The startup exists to solve a customer problem. Here are some steps to consider for your brainstorming in the ideation phase: Start...

Key Mental Models for Ideation Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. There are several approaches to ideation for a startup. Consider these mental models for your ideation: Solving a customer problem -- focus on reducing the cost or increasing the convenience of the solution. Transfer a solution -- this takes a solution...

Startups Are Not Big Companies Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Big companies are those who have found product-market fit and have encapsulated their repeatable and scalable business model into processes. Big companies who want to achieve innovation will find that they are not startups. Startup ideation creates new...

What Is Ideation for Startups? Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Ideation is a thought process that takes conceptual ideas into implementation. Founders launching a new startup go through the ideation process to generate the concept for the business. Ideation comes from the current knowledge of the problem to be sol...

How to Use Ideation in a Startup Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Ideation is a key stage in the startup process of developing a product or service. Founders use it to question the obvious and come up with a new solution. To pursue ideation in your startup, consider the following: Generate many ideas whether they a...

Criteria for a Good Idea Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In ideating for a new product, there will be many ideas. Up front consider all ideas and then qualify each one. To judge the ideas consider the following: Put yourself in the place of a customer and ask if you would buy that product. Good ideas come from sol...

Disrupt or Create Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In ideating a new startup you can either disrupt an existing market or create a new one. In disrupting an existing market consider the following: Move the transaction and delivery of the product online. Online capabilities generate network effects. One can create d...