Level 2: Market

Objective

Prove there is a sizable market of potential customers with a "hair on fire" problem related to your venture.

Tasks

Getting Started

1. Watch the KISS Canvas: 1. Customer Segments lecture (click here for a playlist).
2. Watch the KISS Canvas: 2. Pains lecture (click here for a playlist).
3. Read a Taxonomy of Customer Pains & Benefits.
4. Update your KISS Canvas based on what you've learned.
5. Watch Customer Development Interviewing lecture (click here for a playlist).
6. Populate your CRM with potential interviewees (we'll call them prospects from now on). The sample template/script above has tips on how to generate names to add to your list. The most important one is to ask your peers and friends for referrals. Remember, you aren't selling anything, You are going to be asking people to do something fun, talk about themselves. Almost everyone likes to do that :).
7. Read these best practices on following up on introductions.
8. Meet with your cohort(s) and
   1. Review your KISS Canvas.
   2. Review your Kiss Scorecard. Take note of the lowest-level milestones that are incomplete.
   3. Fill in your IPM. Select up to 3 goals for the next 1-2 weeks. These goals are usually (but not limited to) milestones from the KISS Scorecard.

Repeat Every 1-2 Weeks

1. Innovation Project Manager (IPM)
   1. Execute the tasks listed in the Actions row.
   2. Record the results in the Results row for the next mentor meeting. Be sure to note if you achieved the desired Metric of success. Totally OK if not! But record it.
   3. Be prepared to give an informal verbal walkthrough of what you did and the results at the mentor meeting. Budget <8 minutes for your update. This is not a work of Great Oration. Do not sweat it. But please practice just enough (1-2 times is often enough) to communicate what you did, how you did it, clearly, and in the time budgeted.
2. Interview - To complete most milestones on the KISS Scorecard requires that you have interviewed a minimum of 5 prospects who are all of the same type and 3 out of 5 of them agree with the associated hypotheses (and you should really be aiming for 4 out of 5). To do that well you will need to:
   1. Frequently update your interview script(s) (here is a set of interview script templates). Remember, the purpose of an interview is to test one or more hypotheses. So craft questions that allow the prospect to let you know if you are on track or not.
   2. Constantly seek out new referrals for people to interview (this is often the hardest part of the Accelerator)
   3. Schedule, Complete, and Log (in your CRM) the interviews: Note that all interviews should be done LIVE (in person, phone, audio, or video).
3. Meet with your Cohort
   1. Review your IPM (this is where you deliver your informal verbal summary).
   2. Update your KISS Canvas.
   3. Update your KISS Scorecard.
   4. Update your IPM with up-to-date Goals, Actions, and Metrics.
4. Repeat this process until you've checked off milestones 1.1 through 1.5. Once you have done so your team should proceed to the next level of content. Still meet with your peers as normal, but you are simply working on slightly different homework...

Fundraising Advice

Once you have completed this level, the flavor(s) of capital that are usually appropriate are:

• Bootstrapping .
• Startup Grants.
• Friends & Family. Here are some best practices for raising friends & family funding.
• Most accelerators.

Proceed to Level 3