5 giai đoạn quan trọng khi làm startup (tech-enabled or tech or AI-first comapny):
Bắt đầu với Problem => Idea (Solution) => Validate by build MVP.
- Build by Tony Fadell, cha đẻ iPod, iPhone và Nest labs (Google mua lại $3.2B) => khởi nghiệp phần cứng công nghệ
- Million dollar weekend by Noah Kagan, nhân viên 30 tại Facebook, Mint và sáng lập 8 công ty triệu đô => validate phần mềm và grow
- Hooked by Nir Eyal, nhà thiết kế và chuyên gia về hành vi tại Stanford => UX và killer feature
- 12 months to $1m by Ryan Moran, doanh nhân, chuyên gia e-commerce
- Lean startup by Eric Ries (Bonus: bộ Lean về Customer Developement, Brand, Enterprise, Running, Analytics) => MVP
- Bộ sách Design thinking, Thinking in Systems => design a software
Customer Development & Product Development
- Bộ Lean startup: Customer Development & Product Development
- Inspired by Cagan Marty => Product Development
- Compete against Luck by Clayton M.Christensen (The Jobs to be done theory) => Deep Insights
Revenue & Business Models
- Business Model Canvas và Value Proposition Design (The Strategyzer series) by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur => Must-read
- The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
- Traction by Gino Wickman
- The Membership Economy
- Subscribed by Tien Tzuo
- The Automatic Customer by John Warrillow => B2B SaaS
Go-to-market & Scale => Growth
- $100m Leads & $100m Offers by Alex Hormozi, chuyên gia marketing
- Contagious by Jonah Berger, giáo sư marketing và hành vi tại Wharton
- Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis, chuyên gia growth hack marketing
- Crossing the Chasm by Geffrey Moore
- Scaling up by Verne Harnish
- Marketing kiểu Xiaomi => how to build a strong community
- Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman, nhà sáng lập LinkedIn
- Loved by Cagan Marty
- Build a story brand by Donald Miller
- Purple cow by Seth Godin
- Hook point by Brendan Kane
- Traction by Gabriel Weinberg, nhà sáng lập Duckduckgo
How to build a Strong Moats by CB Insights:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qfl50hSq6Cxt7WOfF30CXagaBD3U1jVM/view?usp=sharing
Còn lại Co-founders & Team, bài học, cách xây dựng văn hoá
- The Unfair Advantage
- Start with Why by Simon Sinek
- Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki => Inspiring
- High Output Management by Andy Grove
- Winning by Jack Welch => Executive
- The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker => Classical
- Zero to one by Peter Thiel, tỉ phú sáng lập Paypal (>$80B), Palantir (>$150B), Founders Fund, Thiel Fellowship => Deep Tech
- Super Founders by Ali Tamaseb
- Compete against Luck và The innovator’s dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
- Only the Paranoid survive by Andy Grove => On Competition
- The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz, doanh nhân, nhà sáng lập quỹ danh tiếng a16z => Reality Check
- Good to great by Jim Collins, nhà nghiên cứu danh tiếng tại Stanford => Leadership
- Delivering happiness by Tony Hsieh, nhà sáng lập Zappos (Amazon mua lại $1.2B) => Great service + Iconic Culture
- The everything store by Brad Stone, tiểu sử nhà sáng lập đế chế Amazon: Jeff Bezos & all books on Amazon => Strategy
- Innostack by Jim McKelvey, tỉ phú sáng lập hãng thanh toán Square cùng Jack Dorsey
- We are the Nerds by Christine Lagorio-Chafkin viết về Reddit
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson & all books on Apple
- Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson & all books on Tesla, SpaceX
- Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull => Creative Culture
- The Nvidia Way by Tae Kim
- In the Plex by Steven Levy
- That will never work by Marc Randolph, nhà sáng lập Netflix & all books on Netflix, Reed Hastings
- Wild Ride by ADAM LASHINSKY, hành trình của Uber
- The Airbnb Story by Leigh Gallagher
- Behind the cloud by Marc Benioff, nhà sáng lập Salesforce
- The house that Jack Me built và Alibaba’s world & all books on Alibaba, Jack Ma
- Spotify và những chuyện chưa kể
- Tỉ phú liều ăn nhiều Masayoshi Son và đế chế Softbank
- The Founders by Jimmy Soni viết về PayPal
- Made in Japan viết về Sony
One more thing – Các case studies đáng học hỏi:
- Tom Bilyeu bán Quest Nutrition (thanh protein không đường) $1B sau 6 năm (KOL marketing)
- Ben Francis xây dựng Gymshark $1.4B trong 10 năm (KOL marketing)
- Mike Cessario xây dựng Liquid Death $1.45B trong 5 năm (Viral marketing)
- Emily Weiss xây dựng Glossier $1.65B trong 10 năm (Build community)
- Kopi Kenangan (a pickup coffee chain) from Indonesia became a Unicorn in just 4 years
- How Stanley Cup, Crocs, Chipotle,…viral on Tiktok
- How Xiaomi, Red Bull build a community on Tiktok
- How Sunny Clothing viral on Instagram
Trong giai đoạn Sinh Tồn (Survival Stage), thì việc tìm ra Product – Market Fit là quan trọng nhất:
Most founders overcomplicate Product-Market Fit.
Here’s what it actually looks like:
• Your customers can’t shut up about you
• Growth feels effortless
• Sales cycles get shorter, not longer
• Support tickets change from “how to” to “what else”
But here’s the truth bomb 💣
You don’t find Product-Market Fit.
It finds you.
Think about Uber’s early days:
People were BEGGING for invite codes.
Users became voluntary salespeople.
Growth was impossible to stop.
That’s what PMF feels like.
Here’s my simple checklist to know if you’ve hit it:
1. The Pull Test ⚡
– Are customers coming to you?
– Or are you chasing them?
2. The Referral Test 🗣
– Do users actively share your product?
– Without rewards or incentives?
3. The “Very Disappointed” Test 💔
– Ask: “How would you feel if you could no longer use our product?”
– If >40% say “very disappointed” – you’re onto something
4. The Sales Test 💪
– Are deals closing faster?
– Is price becoming less of an issue?
5. The Sleep Test 😴
– Do you wake up to more signups?
– Instead of more problems?
The brutal truth?
If you’re wondering whether you have Product-Market Fit…
You probably don’t.
When you have it, you KNOW.
It feels like riding a rocket ship 🚀
Not pushing a boulder uphill.
Remember:
– PMF is not binary – it exists on a spectrum
– It can be achieved in segments before full market
– It needs to be maintained and can be lost
– Different businesses show different PMF signals
– Focus on trends over absolute numbers
– Consider your specific market context
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