Turning an idea into a tech startup

Slide pack of talk to MBS MBA Alumni

About UnifiedVU

Unifying all your software. Starting with Customer 360º View by unifying customer records from sales, marketing, accounts and support into one intuitive user interface to increase customer lifetime value.

Market customer Product Single customer View team tech startup Capital Sales View Capital Founder team

<p>How to turn an idea into a 
thriving tech startup
Manoj Ranaweera, 
Founder & CEO, UnifiedVU
2016 Sep 02, Alliance Manchester Business School
Before we start
Takes 3 times 
more than your 
worst estimate
Costs 3 times 
more than your 
best estimate 
Unless you are born lucky, you have to create your luck, i.e. be at the right place at the right time with the right idea and the right team.
Say goodbye to 
the life as you 
know it. Be 
prepared to lose 
everything.
DON’T GIVE UP 
YOUR DAY JOB
If any sanity, ignore temptation at 
all cost. It’s a disease!
2002 - 2004/5
Executive MBA
“Can do anything”
2004
Ebdex
2006
Ebdex - shutdown
Techcelerate
2013
2015
2007
edocr.com
edocr.com - acquired
UnifiedVU
Northern Tech 
Awards - acquired
Techcelerate - ends
Joins Livestax
Tech Centre Manchester
Foresight North
CRMPlus
The life of post MBA
How UnifiedVU began..
2012
Causeway + 
Powershift
Livestax
UnifiedVU
2015
2013/14
PaaS
SaaS
UnifiedVU Milestones
2015
2016
July 2015
Team rejoins to work on 
full-time
Jan 2016
Marketing starts
April 2016
Signs first customer
September 2016
Ready to action past 4 
months of learnings
Holy grail: Single Customer View
Holy grail: Single Customer View
Single Customer View
Unified Tasks View
Cashflow & Revenue 
Blocker Analysis
Sales Pipeline View
Customer Intelligence View
Unified Communications 
View
Key ingredients
Seed 
Capital
Founder 
Team
Idea
Vision
Go Big or Go 
Home
Your itch vs looking for a 
problem
Product or feature
Lifestyle / £100m / $1bn
3 Stages of a tech startup
Problem/Solution Fit
Continually refine the 
problem your product 
will solve
Product/Market Fit
Market is looking for 
what your product solves
Scaling
Systems and processes; 
established, tested and 
matured. Ready for 
growth
Challenges deep-dive
Problem/Solution 
Customer development
Validate problem
Refine solution
Continually test
Early adopter users
Trickle of revenues
Market education
Pre-seed/Seed Capital
Product/Market
Sales & Marketing
Market wants your 
solutions
VP of Sales & team
VP of Marketing & team
Decent MRR Growth
Churn under control
Seed to Series A/B capital
Scaling
Ready for growth
Developer network
Distributor network
Market Place
Fortune 500 customers
Growth capital
Founder Team
Team size of 2 to 4 ideal - not necessarily all co-founders
Build
Sell
Focus on building the MVP
Focus on everything else
Customer Development
Capital
Pick your co-founders well. Avoid a £162 million mistake. 
The team
Double down on sales and marketing
Operations
Hold it together
Product
Sell
Focus on building the 
Product
Double down on Sales
Marketing
Build the brand
Start inbound marketing
Focus on hiring the best talent you can afford!
The changing landscape of startup capital
10 Segments of a tech startup
●
Idea and vision
● Strategy and 3 months plan
2.  Product
● Product road map + rapid iterations
● Product/market fit
3.  Marketing
● Build brand + Positioning
●
Inbound marketing
4.  Sales
● Sales strategy
● Pricing
1. Opportunity
● Delivery
● Adopt technology to suit your stage
5. Operations
10 Segments of a tech startup
● Contracts
● Protect brand
6. Customer service
● Customer-centric organisation
● Company wide, not just a mission statement
7. Finance
● Continually raising
● Access to capital
8. HR
● Build the right culture
● Continually hiring
9. Legal
● Knowledge share
● Continuous improvement
10. Other
Manoj 
Ranaweera
Founder & CEO, UnifiedVU
manoj.ranaweera@unified.vu
+44 7769734491
</p>