10 Lessons To Do Your Startup Right from Guy Kawasaki

As a participant of GSV Ventures Bootcamp, I had the honor to attend an extremely knowledgable and motivational talk by Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist of Canva. Here are my takeways from Guy Kawasaki’s speech, I take them as a step-by-step guide on how to build your startup and ship your product right. Just follow the next steps:

1. Start small and build MVVVP where M= minimal, V=viable, V=valuable, V=validating, P= product.
2. Get going. Get it out there! Ship it! As an entrepreneur your job is to DO IT.
3. Make a mantra. Canva’s mantra is “democratize design”. Guy’s is “empower people”. What’s your and your product’s mantra?
4. Define a business model. Keep it simple. A good business model is very specific. It’s best if you can name exactly the decision maker to buy your product.
5. Prioritize. Worry about big things. Designing business cards for your startup is a good idea but it shouldn’t be your priority.
6. Tell your story. Make it personal.
7. Hire passionate people. They may not have a perfect background but they need to love what you do. Hire them.
8. Marketing and social media.
9. Find true influencers. They don’t necessarily have to be CXOs. They are the people who do real work. Middles and bottoms.
10. Say no to naysayers. Don’t let the bozos grind you down. Especially rich and powerful bozos who may not know better than you.

A succinct and clear roadmap for an entrepreneur. Just do it now!

P.S Check out Guy Kawasaki’s Remarkable People Podcast.