Backable By Suneel Gupta ( Steps 1-4)
This book is exceptionally interesting and addresses many of the things I have been struggling with as an entrepreneur for the past several years. Great knowledge and insights. Easy read and a page tuner at that.
Notes:
Take an incubation time for your idea thoroughly explore why this is the idea you’ve chose and why you’re putting that above all else. Write a 4-5 page narrative for each idea you have as though you were pitching it to Jeff Bezos. Directly address what your biggest objection is going to be right from the beginning.
“Be willing to do the work necessary to convince yourself first.”
Be emotionally invested. You need to leave yourself enough emotional runway because you will go through a lot. Don’t get so caught up in your logical side that you lose sight of your emotional side.
“You don’t need personal history in order to feel personal passion. But your idea needs to strike an emotional cord.”
“If something keeps me up at night. If something makes me angry or makes me cry… those raw instinctual attachments have never let me down.”
Tune into your inner elephant, paying attention to whether new challenges are fueling you or depleting you.
Peter Chetnik is a legendary media executive who has produced Oscar nominated films. When he is unsure whether to back a deal or not he will look at the Entrepreneur or film maker and say “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.” Then he’ll wait to see if they back down or show conviction.
He gave such vivid detail of his pain Point experience that it became obvious why the entire experience needed to be disrupted. Rather than saying something general like “The experience is inconvenient and outdated” he gave green a highly visual walk-through, then let her draw the conclusion her herself.
When you’re pitching something, pitch it as though you’re pitching it to one or two people this will make your pitch feel much more personalized
Don’t just give a quick description of the customer… visually walk them through the customer’s experience.
Storyboard the experience of your users for your backer. They serve as an empathy bridge between your backer and your customer. A “storyboard helps put the backer in the shoes of the person you want to serve”
Most successful pitch decks don’t even include financials
Build your storyboard around a strong central character
“How you arrive at an idea can be just as important and meaningful as the idea itself.” You can refer to this insight as an “earned secret”. Make sure that earned-secret is not something you can just Google. If it’s Google-able then go deeper into your subject to find greater insight
“What is the SHIFT in the world that is making your idea matter?” Show investors where the world is headed
Counterintuitively, showing that change is inevitable means showing that your vision isn’t necessarily unique-just slightly ahead.