Build Your Startup Without Fear or Tears
This customer-discovery focused course for early-stage entrepreneurs gives you the confidence to talk to customers and understand them so that you can build the products they need
Duration
5 Weeks
Starting
Sep 5th, 2022
Price
£295
Time
3 hours / week
Learning Outcomes
Build Products Customers Want
90% of entrepreneurs build products that customers don’t want. That’s why their startups fail. Apply proven methods for understanding what your customers hate, and build products that solve that pain
Make Sales Early & Easily
Most founders believe they should sell a finished product. In fact, you should be selling your product days after you have started the business. You’ll be able to demonstrate how your solution solves your customer’s problem and make the first sale.
Surround Yourself with a Great Team
Teams build companies and investors fund teams. If your team is weak, or just you, everything gets so much harder. Analyse what skills you need and recruit awesome co-founders who will form the team to deliver your dream
Sleep Better
Is it going to work? Why aren’t I getting customers? Why does no one respond? Corrosive thoughts that destroy your sleep. Learning what customers want gives you so much deep confidence good sleep comes so much easier
Cut Your Development Cost
Understand what customers value and what they will pay for. That means you’ll never develop dozens of features that are never used, allowing you to focus on what really matters to the customer
Build Without Risk
Your money. Your time. Investor’s money. All wasted if your business doesn’t grow. Make each step small, and safe. So that when you do commit it will be because the evidence for success is strong
“Most people think that a good idea is the most important thing an entrepreneur needs. In fact, the idea is the reason why most entrepreneurs fail”
Who is this Course For?
You are a professional thinking about starting a business to commercialise your idea but you are aware of the chance of failure and want to do it right
You are a young professional who doesn’t want to work for the man, wanting to create your own business, but you can’t afford for it to go wrong
You are an entrepreneur who has discovered that things haven’t gone as smoothly as you hoped and need to improve your skills so that you can turn things around
About Your Instructor
Denis Oakley
Denis Oakley is a serial entrepreneur and startup mentor who has had a colourful career – starting out as a philosopher and transitioning through engineering and politics before ending up building startups across the world.
His varying roles in startups – Founder, CEO, CMO, COO, Advisor, Mentor – give him great insights into the inner workings of startups and an understanding of their exact needs and pain points.
In 2017, Denis took this further and set up his own startup advisory company to increase the success rate of entrepreneurs from 10% to 90%. This works because of Denis’s long experience as an entrepreneur, his coaching skills and his ability to get you to see your business from a new angle
Outside of work, Denis is a keen endurance athlete with multiple ultra-races under his belt including the Everest Marathon and multiple Ironman races. He’s also spent many weeks exploring the Malaysian jungle and the Arabian desert, often with dire consequences.
Denis Oakley Has Worked With
See What People Are Saying
Denis has the unique ability to quickly give you not only a succinct strategy but the right one. He’s not only passionate about helping start-ups he is generous in giving both his time and knowledge. Would highly recommend to anyone needing strategy advice and actionable ideas that work.
Ronan Leonard
Co-founder @ CommonSense Events
Denis provided fascinating lectures about Customer Personas and brought great energy to the sessions. His willingness to bring the best value for the program’s topic and the startups was truly inspiring. Denis’ attitude is charming, with amazing vibes and spirit in his sessions and 1:1. I Would be happy to work with him again in the future
Shai Shechter
Program Manager – CEO of Ashdod Port Accelerator by 500 Global
Denis is one of the best investments I have ever made. Denis is an incredible coach and consultant. He helped us get the business back to profit when it was on its knees in 2020. I’m genuinely grateful for his guidance and look forward to continuing our work together. I highly recommend Denis.
Andrew Stilltoe
Founder & CEO @ Player-Coach
Syllabus
Week 1 – Understand the Problem
- Evaluate the difference between product-centric and customer-centric approaches
- What hurts the customer and how much? Do they need a vitamin or painkiller?
- Apply the pain pyramid to find pains that are close to the top of it
- Discover your customers’ Jobs To Be Done and think about which are functional
Week 2 – Uncover the Problem
- Find customers to speak to using different approaches.
- Develop an interview guide to get the most out of conversations with customers and learn how to ask great questions
- Identify the tools that you need to prepare for great customer interviews
- Practice customer interviews in a safe environment before doing it for real
Week 3 – Synthesise the Problem
- Synthesise your initial insights into 3-4 problem statements through clustering
- Define a customer persona Create viable customer personas from the problem statements
Week 4 – Propose Initial Solutions
- Define your value proposition
- Brainstorm different solutions for the customer personas
- Apply the value proposition canvas to logically connect your solutions to the customers’ problem statements
Week 5 – Finding a Winning Team
- Identify the skills you need to build your startup
- Conduct an innovation skills audit to assess gaps in knowledge & skills
- Define the elements of a compelling 2-minute pitch
- Discover how to convert sceptics to supporters
Why Learn in a Cohort
Peer-learning
Stay accountable, give and get feedback, stay on track with accountability partners
Active learning > Passive learning
Will host live Zoom sessions where you can answer doubts and get personalised feedback real-time.
Personalised feedback
The cohort is small. We will give each person individual attention.
Duration
5 Weeks
Starting
Sep 5th, 2022
Price
£295
Time
3 hours / week
FAQ
YES! You will take this course alongside other passionate entrepreneurs to support and network with each other. As part of the course you will have access to a private discussion group, just for entrepreneurs learning with you, to safely explore what you are learning together
A LOT! Included in the price you get access to:
A series of videos taking you all the way from exploring your idea to building your team
1:1 with Denis to answer your questions upon completion of the workshop
Detailed workbook for each part of the course with instructions on how to complete and useful examples and practice exercises
I lived in a developing country for twenty years and I know how expensive western products can be – and how much better.
If you live in a developing country I offer scholarships
You can apply here: https://entrepreneurs.denis-oakley.com/developing-country-entrepreneurs/
Turn up, ask questions. Ask more questions until everything is clear. You can just listen, but you don’t learn as much.
It’s not school. No. Your chances of success go right down though.
As part of my preparation for the course, I did all the workbooks myself. I shouldn’t say this, but I was impressed by how effective they were – even with 20 years of doing and teaching customer discovery.
Yes. Everything is recorded and shared in the discussion group.
Ping me and I’ll connect you some like minds to form an accountability groups
Turn up, ask questions. Ask more questions until everything is clear. You can just listen, but you don’t learn as much.
15 – 30 minutes is enough to watch the videos and do the course material. Understanding your customers will take as much time as you can give it
Do all the exercises, talk to customers, comment on the cohort. Then talk to more customers…
