HacksSolopreneuring
“You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.”
- Robin Williams
Guy Bieber, Founder Karmas LLC 2017/02/21
Copyright 2017 Karmas LLC
GuyInspire ✦ Be Inspired ✦ Create
Amazing Experiences
Futurist & Innovator
CTO & Labs
Entrepreneur & Author
Connect to Your
Potential
I am here to serve and inspire you today...
Hacks and Lessons
1.Hacking You: Why, Mindset, and Fun! 2.Co-founder Optional, but Help
Required! 3.Where’s the Business? 4.You Can (and Should) Bootstrap 5.Hacking Marketing 6.Getting Official 7.Throwing the Book at It 8.Hacking Speed: Minimum Viable
Desirable Product 9.Pay it Forward
Hack 1. Hacking You:
Why, Mindset, and Fun!
Regular Day Job VS Day, Night, and Weekend Job You need to love it, if you’re going to do it!
Emotional Risk
1. Quantity overcomes Rejection • People: 5 positive - 1 negative = 0 • Startups: 1 YES per 100s of NOs
2. Failure -> Experiment and Learning 3. Growth Mindset -> There will be
obstacles but you can figure it out. 4. Focus: what and when
Entrepreneurship is hard! You better bring the Joy and Fun!!
Hypothesis: I can create value/serve people, have more fun, & meet my financial needs.
Financial Risk
1. A business exists to serve / create value for others.
2. Money is an artifact doing 1 well 3. Know your runway 4. Scrappiness = Happiness 5. Progress obliterates Anxiety
We all have limited resources and unlimited resourcefulness.Learn to shake it off!!
Bucket List
Downside • Lose 1 or 2 years of high
salary job • Need to live cheap • Have to get a job
Decisions! Decisions!
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” - Goethe
Upside • Help many people • Work on that Bucket List • Learn a ton (10x + MBA) • Own my destiny; More joy • Earn Financial Freedom
My name is _______ and I can do anything!!
Do • Research • Write • Prototype • Blog • Market • Business Model
Learn • Inbound Marketing
• Heroku, Restlet, Angular,
ML • Wordpress
• Restlet • Photoshop, Illustrator
• Publishing, Scrivener
Business = Product + Fit + Marketing + Sales
Get Creative • Funding • Marketing
Automate
• Social – Buffer
• Mailing –
Mailchimp
• Incorporate –
IncFile
• Grammarly
Delegate
• VideoLoco
• Fiverr
• Upwork
• eBricks.
GeShiDo Basics
1. Capture 2. Eliminate, Prioritize, Plan 3. Offload – Automate and Delegate 4. Do - Learn, Systems, and Creativity 5. Reflect and Optimize
Elon Musk’s To-Do List
Solve Renewable Energy 1. Launch the biggest factory on
the planet 2. Redefine solar power and
storage
Solve Transportation 1. Launch the new Tesla with
autonomous driving 2. Get the first Hyperloop working
Create a Backup of Humanity 1. Make rockets reusable and get
to Mars. 2. Plan a colony on Mars.
Remember whatever you are doing, your to-do list is easier than...
Lesson 2. Co-founder Optional, but Help Required!
I get by with a little help from my
friends…
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/
You must have a cofounder to be funded.
Companies raising more than $10M
1 2 3 4 >= 5Companies with a successful exit
1 2 3 4 >= 5
You can do it all yourself.
• Mentors –Entrepreneurs with mentors raised 7x the
capital and grew 3.5x faster (Smartcuts).
• Community
• Task / Project Based Help
• Virtual Staff / Staff –We all hope to grow big enough that we need
some help
Know when to ask for help and be grateful.
Solopreneuring != Going it Alone
Lesson 3. Where’s the Business?
Information Crisis • Massive Quantity • Quality Issues • Humans haven’t
evolved to consume information faster
2x Information Every 1.5 Years
Education Crisis • Cost versus Payoff • Half Life of Knowledge • Need Continuous Learning
Models
Cost of a Degree: +1127% since 1978
Work Crisis • Workforce Engagement • High Skill Shortage • Med / Low Skill Overage • Productivity and Creativity
Demands • Need cheaper ways to
improve life situation • Good versus Bad Automation • Push to Freelancing and
Creating your own work.
87% Disengaged at Work
Almost any problem can be solved by learning, doing, creating, and the right mindset.
Help people reach their potential faster.
Step 1: Research 100s of books, 1000s of articles, & many Courses
DOING MINDSET
GROWTH
Creativity
How to consume 10x information: Words Per Minute -> Insights per Minute
• Right Content: Find -> Select -> Deconstruct -> Sequence (material beats method)
• Layering: Description, Abstract, Talk, and then Audiobook depending on insight density.
• Format: Video or Audio (forget speed reading; accelerated format)
• Rate 1x to 3x: The max rate you can create reusable knowledge
• ABCs: Always be Capturing, Connecting, and Compressing.
• Bonus: Always be researching. Have a sentence about why you saved a link.
20% Effort 80% Results
Pareto’s Law and the power of selection
Step 2: ~400 pages of notes
Step 3: A Really Big MindMap
Step 4: Condense into 5 Infographics
Step 6: Business Model CanvasStep 5: Personas
Step 7: Researched Delegation Services
aText
Skitch
Step 8: Researched Automation Tools
Missing • Recommendations
• Delegation • Automation • Learning
• Machine Learning • Triggers
Team / Project Management
Step 9: Looked at and used the Competition
Time Analysis
Project Organization
Time Tracking
Seven Questions for Disruption – Peter Thiel
1. Engineering Question – Discover the fastest, cheapest ways of doing and learning.
2. Timing Question – Crisis in information, education, work, and automation.
3. Monopoly Question – Niche the market initially. 4. People Question – Using the crowd. 5. Distribution Question – Application through app stores.
Book through Amazon. Affiliates for content, courses, automation, services, and mentoring.
6. Durability Question – People will always need to get things done and learn.
7. Secret Question – Amplify people through automation and delegation. This is the beginning of Jarvis.
Lesson 4. You Can (and Should)
Bootstrap
Bootstrap: Originated in 19th century US (particularly in the the phrase “pull oneself over a fence by one’s bootstraps”), to mean an absurdly impossible action.
- Wikipedia
Why Bootstrap?• The more investment you take the more it is like working for
someone else and the less potential rewards.
• You can make a much better funding deals once you show market traction.
• It is not as expensive as you think to start an online business. In fact, you can get a lot for free.
• It reduces complexity. You can focus on satisfying your customers and employees without worrying about what investors want.
• Multiple Revenue Streams help – Book, Speaking, Service
• You need to plan your runway and manage expenses.
Hacking Crowdsourcing
• You can do multiple campaigns
• Look at similar campaigns that were most successful
• Expect 2 months of prep for a 1 month campaign.
• You need a great video
• You need to do your own marketing – People that will donate on the pre-launch – People that will share the launch – Ads and landing pages
• You need to line up some PR to write about it
• Have your updates ready pre-campaign.
• Back other projects!!!
https://adespresso.com/academy/blog/facebook-ads-for-kickstarter-guide/
Hack 5. Hacking Marketing
Start Marketing Early… Marketing is user research…
TheGuyBieber
ThePotentialBook.com
karmas.co
K K K K
G G G G G GP
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P P
My Social Landscape
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What is the most important brand: you, your business, or your product?
Hey you got all this book content, blog it.
You create the businesses, and the business creates the product…
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Getting the right audience…
1. Target: Characterize your customer… 2. Find: Find the people on twitter that have your
customers 3. Steal: Steal their customers
• Look at their feed. Comment and like others comments.
• Search for their hashtags and twitter handle 4. Get Trendy: Position messages that around what is
trending 5. Get Live: Simultaneously tweet to live conferences
target. 6. Automate: Save time and maximize your social
channels • Buffer, Mailchimp, Tweetful, Instagress
7. Blog Weekly: Learn Inbound Marketing. 8. Story: Tell your story. Share interesting stuff.
• SUCCESs – Simple, Unexpected, Credible, Concrete, Emotional, Stories
10x my social media footprint in 3 months 300 -> 3k twitter followers (top 1%)
Create Content Concept Manual Delegate Automation
Attract
Problem Clarifying Content
• Net Promoter Score, Tasks, Project, Time Saved
• Time to Next Delight: Content, Automate, Delegate, Systems
• Promote / Mentoring Volunteering
• New Doing Paths • New Learning Paths • In App Chat • Success Stories • Recommendation
Promotions
Delight
Delight
Convert
Solution Clarifying Content
• CTA Get App • CTA Get Book • Email Follow-up • Social Follow-up
Close
Feedback
Growth Hacking
Mail Campaigns
Social Automation
Marketing Tool Chain
Tweetful
TheGuyBieber
KG
KKG P
KG
Twitter Dashboard
K P
Publish ContentGK P
K G
PK
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Instagress
Hey you should try
People still like mailing lists. Make one.
G G
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Lesson 6: Getting Official
What’s in a Name?
• Corporate Names
• Domain Names
• Social Accounts
Incorporate LLC + EIN
Name Business Domain Name
Website & Email
Bank Account
Social Accounts
Social Automation
DoSystemizeAutomate DelegateKeyForm Corporation
Incorporation• When should you incorporate? – Taxes: Before the end of year 1 so you can deduct from your taxes – Travel, Training, Cost of Goods, Development, Internet, Phone, Home… – Investing: Retirement Advantages SEP-IRA (20% of income up to $54K and the
company can match) – Name: To lock in a name – Selling: You need to sell product and corporate protections.
• How should you incorporate? – Going for VC funding – Delaware C-Corp – Double taxing (corporate + individual) – Bootstrapping – LLC – Can be taxed like – Sole Proprietorship (individual) – S-Corp (individual + distributions (no SS or Med tax)) – C-Corp (corporate + individual)
• It’s a high class problem if you have to restructure to a C-Corp to take funding.
Websites made cheap and easy…1. Dreamhost + Wordpress + Google
Analytics • Dreamhost: Free SSL, free email, and
free Wordpress hosting for the price of a domain name.
• Free: Google Analytics and Wordpress 2. Themeforest for cheap, powerful themes • Salient or Be Theme are nice
3. Wordpress Must Have Plugins: 1. EWWW Image Optimizer 2. Google Analytics Dashboard 3. Really Simple SSL 4. Spam Protection by CleanTalk 5. WP Super Cache 6. Yoast SEO
4. Free Images: Pixabay, Unsplash, Google 5. Performance Testing: Pingdom,
website.grader.com
Use Dreamhost, Wordpress, and Themeforest.
Hack 7. Throwing the Book at It
Hacking Super-Credibility
1. List: Make a list of people whose endorsement would help your launch. Include A and B players.
2. Write: Write a compelling general letter, keep it short, and make it as easy as possible for them to help. Provide something they value or speak to their values.
3. Customize: Customize for each person.
4. Connect: Hack your connections – Guessing Email addresses is easier & more effective than you
think – first.last or first – @company_url, @gmail.com, @charity_url
– LinkedIn – just wait
5. Follow-up / Give Back: Make request and only one follow up. Always offer to give back.
6. Create Extra Email Accounts: bookings@...
You need other email accounts to look credible.
Hacking Networking on LinkedIn1. Connect: Connect to everyone you meet in
person. You never know who you can help or who can help you.
– People they interviewed, people they hire, etc.
2. Introduction: Linked in shows you all the people that are connected to you and someone you are trying to connect to.
3. Group Message: If you join a group that they are part of you can group message them for free.
4. Follow Then Connect: If you follow people on twitter and start commenting you can make an introduction on LinkedIn more easily, especially if they ever comment back.
Lesson 8. Minimum Viable Desirable Product
SCRAPPINESS =
HAPPINESS
MVPs V1 is about speed and cost V2 is about architecture V3 is about profit V4 is about scale
Rough Angular Prototypes
Go with the larger ecosystems. There is more free and cheap stuff. You’ll get there faster.
Rough Wizard of Oz Prototypes
API Design Tool Chain
Data Model
Rest API Development
REST API in SWAGGER
Angular JSON Model
Client SDK
Restlet is the easiest way to develop you APIs and generate code.
Server SDK
Dev Services
Karmas App (JS)
Native Chat App
NewExist
Device HostedService Architecture
Affiliate Content,
Automation, & Services
ML Architecture
AmazonS3
? Amazon Machine Learning
Trigger
REST REST
SMS
Anonymized Data
SMS Adapter
REST
Nextmo, Twilio, Plivo, AWS SNS, Tropo
• Amazon • Audible • Getabstract • Blinkist • YouTube • TED • Fiverr • Upwork • Google Calendar • Linkedin • Facebook
• UI: Angular • Chatbot:
Superscriptjs • Chat: ?Candy-chat • Storage: Html5 local
storage • Diagram: html5
canvas • Charts: d3js.org
Architecture
Karmas Watch
(IOS, Android)
Later
??
• XMPP Chat Server?
BucketeerKarmas Service
Karmas Learning
Data
Heroku is easier to setup and manage than raw AWS.
Tool Chain
Testing DeploymentConfiguration Management
Developer Collab
Marketing Automation
Operations Monitoring
Password Sharing
Website
File Sharing
Continuous Integration
Continuous Delivery
Continuous Deployment
Continuous Feedback
Accounting Automation
R&D / Production
HR
Gusto
TodoDoneLater
Tweetfull Instagress Salient Theme -> Be Theme
Lesson 9. Pay it Forward
If you are lucky enough to do well, it’s your responsibility to send the elevator back down. - Kevin Spacey
In the spirit of making Phoenix the most generous startup community in the World…
1. 25% off Potential: For Phoenix Startup Week $19.99 -> $14.99
2. Mentoring: Help You get a Mentor – Read Potential – Send your 3 most important lessons – Send me what you want from a mentor – I will help find you a mentor or mentor you if we
are a fit (targeting mentoring 3 to 5 startups this year)
3. Investing in You: I believe in you, so if you complete number 2…
– First 100 people will get a 100% refund on the book
– That personally costs me 30% per book, but you are worth it!!
I BELIEVE YOU HAVE POTENTIAL!!!
Think differently. Shock everyone. Do the impossible.
?
QUESTIONS
Inspire ✦ Be Inspired ✦ Create Amazing Experiences
Thank You
@theguybieber
Guy Bieber, Founder of Karmas LLC
karmas.cothepotentialbook.com
Connect to Your
PotentialWhen you need the Guy:
Copyright 2017 Karmas LLC
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