How to Build Your Startup: Fly or Die, from the 6th StartupQ8
Building on the success of our last 5 monthly events in Kuwait, the 6th StartupQ8 took place on March 25th with the topic: “how to build your startup.”
The day was split into two parts: a talk by me on the main theme, which you can see in a video below, and an interview with the cofounder of Dawrat.com, an online marketplace of training courses across the region, also below.
Inspired by startup gurus Steve Blank (Customer Discovery), Eric Ries (Lean Startup) and Alex Osterwalder (Business Model Generation), I walked through the lifecycle of a startup using my own experience, at fishfishme.com, as an example. Check out the slides of my presentation here:
In the talk, I note the main phases in a startup's life (what I call the fake product, MVP, and final product), and what I like to call the “Fly or Die Cycle” that every entrepreneur must eventually get through; reaching a point of no return where you either take off, or fail and restart. Here is the video of my full talk, with a question and answer session at the end:
After the opening talk, Mohammed AlSuraye of Dawrat.com, a close friend of mine whose startup recently won the Zain competition and a two week training at Spanish accelerator Wayra, took the stage. He highlighted the importance of having a technical cofounder, quitting your job to focus your full attention on your startup, and being open to try different revenue models until you hit the right one.
Check out his full talk in the video below:
