Bring your tech project to life by March 31st 2023
Actionable plan to make that happen. For real.
I am super happy to see you again today after a few weeks because a wonderful thing happen here : I got a call with a Reactor reactor who told me how valuable this newsletter was to him.
I told in the very first newsletter:
If this newsletter just helps one aspiring entrepreneur to create an innovative startup, I would have won.
I was super happy to discuss with him and he will probably recognize himself now. It would great to take the time to focus on its project, its successes and failures in a future edition of this newsletter. It could also inspire tons of others to take the first step towards their future. Stay tuned!
If you have been following me recently on Linkedin , I have been written articles on how to launch a deeptech project in 3 months starting from nothing, nada, snitch.
Your 2023 new year resolution is to launch your big tech project ? The one that will change the world ?
Good ! Let’s do it !
In this article, I will summarize the concrete actions you will have to take by March 31st 2023 to make your project happen.
There will be actionable items so you just have to follow the guidelines and make progress. One day at a time. One step at a time.
Let me clarify which actions will drive the first steps of your project in three months:
Your vision and mission
Your co-founder
The problem you are solving
The Prototype / Minimum Viable Product
Summary
Your vision and mission✨
A vision is a statement of the world ten years from nom with your company existing and thriving and part of the problem that you are solving disappeared.
For example, TESLA, the electric car manufacturer has the following vision:
Tesla's vision is to “create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles”
From the vision, you can clearly what TESLA is trying to be in the future.
A vision will drive you to succeed and to continue failure after failure. It will be the link between each employee of the company. It is essential.
Jack Welch - former General Electric CEO said it better :
A mission is different from the vision. A mission is what you do EVERYDAY to create the world you see in your vision.
Remember Tesla’s vision ? Here is Tesla’s mission:
Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy through increasingly affordable electric vehicles in addition to renewable energy generation and storage. Tesla is accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy.
What will you do everyday with your startup? How will you help people / solve your problem?
For example, Airbnb’s mission is :
“Airbnb's mission is to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, and we are focused on creating an end-to-end travel platform that will handle every part of your trip.”
Answer those 3 questions on a sheet of paper - yes, right now:
What is the problem am I solving?
What is your vision of the world without that problem ?
What kind of company do I want to build ? - note: absolutely nothing wrong with a “small” company.
Your Co-Founder
Building a relationship with a co-founder is key and important.
We have got to make sure that the answers to your 4 questions about mission and vision are shared with your cofounder.
One key thing to remember is that : you don’t have to sign a pact of associates from the first day you get to work together.
Give it a few months and start working together. That’s the best way to know if you find a match.
How to find one ?
Browse Linkedin, schedule to attend a session at Find Your Cofounder or a Meetup meeting near you.
Today, send a message to someone that can be your CTO or CEO, attend one meetup or register for one matchmaking session. Make it happen !
The problem you are solving
You have clarified a vision and found a cofounder for your project ? It’s now time to …. Build the end product ? No !
This is funny but it’s true !
When I say that, this is the answer I get:
“But if I haven’t built my engine / rocket / AI program, what can I show to a future customer ?” a typical question from an entrepreneur who is learning
Show them that you can solve THEIR problems.
It is no different for a tech company than for other companies :
your company is worth the value it provides to its customers.
Let me write it again :
Your company is worth the value it provides to its customers.
What should you do then?
Build up a good story of the situation
go out there and confront it to see what you think IN YOUR HEAD is really a REAL WORD PROBLEM.
Listen
Tell what already exists and why you think it does not work and then offer your solution.
Listen more
Finally, you can present your solution and its advantages. But not before.
Continue Listening
Let’s take an example with Reactor :
Problem (in my head) : Too few researchers and engineers in Europe are afraid of going out of their labs and tech companies to build European equivalents of META and SpaceX.
Current solution : not much. Some companies encourage employees with entrepreneurship ideas to start but only with words. Some other companies forbid completely those kind of behaviors. That’s a shame : if one of your colleagues wants to start a business, and she.he feels in a good environment to tell his workmates and boss, then rejecting him.her might create frustration and he’ll no longer be motivated in the daily work of a company that doesn’t embrace innovation, culture of change and ambition. There are also incubators/accelerators here and there to accelerate your project once it is already
Reactor’s solution : build a commnunity of deeptech builders that helps each other and provide to them advice and tools to get started. A second layer of this community is to enroll tech business angels and fab lab to provide both funding and lab testing opportunities to tech founders. I want to help them navigate their local funding opportunities with the government.
The product :
Public newsletter
Public notion pages with useful tools 🛠️, funding opportunities 💰 fab lab near you🥼 and upcoming challenges
Private discord community
Private 1-1 mentoring
Later : online training to kick your program, online training to learn how to invest in a tech business (for aspiring business angels),… sky is not the limit…*
And I know I’m not building a super complex system like you will do but complexity does not prevent you from doing the basics. :)
Ready to start ? Find your potential customers on LinkedIn / by mail / on the phone and discuss. Find their pain point and solve it.
Answer those five questions on a sheet of paper - yes, right now:
What are the customers saying about the problem that I identified ?
What do my potential customers do right now to solve that problem ?
What will my solution do better ?
The Prototype / Minimum Viable Product
One key aspect of building a deeptech project is the R&D followed by prototyping, and finally, industrialization. This can be a long process before your end-product is ready.
Here is the definition of Minimum Viable Product used in the startup world:
For a deeptech startup, I often get that question:
What can I sell if I haven't made it yet? It’s not just an application that I can program easily.
It is a complicated question, that’s for sure. But for a complex question, we need to break it apart. There is a method because otherwise, we wouldn’t have trains, planes, rockets, submarines, microscopes, computers,…
First, you can break the road until the end-product in steps:
Numerical simulation results
Prototype
First working end-product
Industrialized end-product.
So now, where are you ? Do you have already simulation results that confirm the potential of your startups ? That’s a great step.
You can show that a potentiel prospect. Of course, it’s nowhere near an end-product but it’s a strong sign. How can you bring that simulated object to life?
There are to me several paths:
Work (or continue working) in a laboratory specialized in your domain to develop the prototype. This could be done as part of a post-doc.
Work with a laboratory in your domain in the framework of a national or European project that will give funding to you and to your startup
Join a fab lab such as Paris-Saclay Hardware Accelerator, there are many other facilities like this where you can really transform your idea into a simulation then into a prototype and then even start industrializing without buying a large factory.
“A fab lab (fabrication laboratory) is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication.” - Wiktionaire defintion
My goal with Reactor was also to make an updated list of all the fab lab in Europe. Would you be interested in that? I also mean to build useful tools so if it’s not your priority, let me know.
Answer those 4 questions on a sheet of paper - yes, right now:
What is the step of development of my technology ?
Who do I need to contact to bring it to the next stage ?
What material do I need to make it work ?
What is the roadmap from now until the industrialization of my product ?
Summary
I have summarized all the questions you need to ask yourself each month to get your project working and living by March 31st 2023.
Print those:
We have reached the end of this article. If you are struggling with your fears of starting this, of taking even one action because of… the fear of being rejected by your boss and colleagues, the fear of failures,…
Ask yourself: when you wake up at 80 years old, thinking about this idea of yours that could have changed the world but you settled for the comfort of your present life instead. Thinking about this completely different life that was accessible. Not easily accessible true but still. That fear of regret is what motivates me to write Reactor: I don’t want to miss that life that is right in front of me. My fear of regret is stronger than my fear of failure. What about you ?
“If you think something is impossible you will block yourself from creating it.” – A.D Largie
Thanks for reading !
To the Moon !
Jerome ❤️