<p>Startup Lessons
Learned
Manoj Ranaweera
3rd March 2014
@ Orion City IT Park, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Life is a journey!
Education:
• 1987 Royal
College
• 1992 B.Eng (Hons)
• 2005 MBA @MBS
Employment
• 1992 Parsons
Brinckerhoff
• Control Systems
• Power
Generation
• Electricity
Transmission
• Sewerage
Networks
• Light Rail Transit
Startups:
• 2004 MI –
Investor
employee
• 2004/06 ebdex
• 2006/12
Techcelerate
• TwiCRM, CRMthis
• Foresight North
• 2007 edocr
• 2013 LiveStax
Lesson 1 - Opportunity
¡ Your itch vs looking for a problem
¡ Product or feature
¡ Scaling
$1bn
$100m
$10m
Lifestyle
Lesson 2 – Founder Team
¡ Passion and honesty
¡ Effort when the chips are down
2007: £843m (2004: £930m Google)
Duncan Cameron: £162 m (90%) + £38.3m
2013: 11.41% each
$38.2m funding to date
Lesson 3 - Capital
¡ $1bn startup isn't cool no more!
¡ Go Big or Go Home
¡ Sense of urgency
2007: David Cummings $1.2m
2012: $95m to ExactTarget
Lesson 4 - Distribution
¡ Customer persona
¡ Touch points
¡ Scalable distribution model
LiveStax: Access to 2000 Customers
Lesson 5 – Build or sell
¡ Vision and mission
¡ Build for long term
¡ Or for quick sale
Enjoy the ride!
manoj.ranaweera@edocr.com
+44 7769734491
</p>