20 questions pour bien démarrer son projet d'entreprise

Sans vouloir insister, le site ResearchChannel est vraiment une source inspirante pour présenter des découvertes.

Ce soir j'ai écouté "20 Questions for Startup Success" (environ 1 heure) de Norm Meyrowitz, de NKM Advisors, présenter son approche pour évaluer un projet start-up. Il fait une revue de 20 questions ainsi que d'une séries d'annecdotes. C'est un délice à écouter.

En résumé, voici la liste des 20 questions qu'il passe en revue:

1. What problem does this product solve?
2. How does it solve the problem?
3. Who are the end users of the product?
4. Is there a large addressable market of actual users? Who is your revenue-supplying customer?
5. Are there enough of these paying customers to make a huge business (i.e. is there a crisp, a real business model)?
6. Does the product solve a problem that end-users/revenue supplying customers actually have?
7. Are you sure it is a product and not just a feature?
8. Are you too involved in HOW you are building your product rather than what you are building?
9. Who are the potential partners? Who are the required partners?
10. What is the market-go strategy?
11. What is your sustainable advantage?
12. Do you have a time-to-market/first mover advantage?
13. Are you ahead of the pack and can you stay there? Are you too early?
14. Can you be number 1 or number 2 in that space?
15. Who is the competition?
16. Is there a team formed / identified with a record of successful ventures? Have they done something like this before?
17. Is there a “soul” of the team that knows where this product AND business is going for the next few years?
18. Is anyone on a team insane? Are the members of the team totally passionate & aligned on this business?
19. Are there product / technology / operations barrier to success? if yes, can they be overcome?
20. Are there marketing / Sales barriers to success? if yes, can they be overcome?
21. Are there legal barriers to success? if yes, can they be overcome?
22. Is there an exit strategy (IPO or enough possible acquisitions candidates to make acquisition a slam dunk)
    
    Conclusion
    
    If you want to be the next amazon.com, don’t be in denial:
    
    Know the answers to these questions. FOCUS!

J'en profite pour saluer mon collègue et ami Chrystian Guy qui lui aussi se passionne pour les questions reliées aux affaires et à l'entrepreneurship. N'hésitez surtout pas à lire son blog.