Max Rencoret grew up in Chile where he first got exposed to its education system, startup culture, economic climate, government and other things that led him to a career in Growth Marketing, where he felt like he could make the most impact in his life. One of Max's teachers explained the scale of technology, focusing on people, and led Max to start a company (similar to Snapchat) that he grew to 80,000 daily active users targeting Latin America. After Snapchat took over their market and realizing his interest in growth, Max finished his degree and moved to San Francisco to do a 3-month immersive program at Tradecraft. On this episode, Max talks about what it takes to be successful as a Growth Marketer, why learning to code is important, and how the Chilean community supported him here in San Francisco in his work as a Growth Marketing Manager at Samsara.

It’s such an important message. Things that are instantly adored are usually just slight variations over existing products. We love them because they’re familiar. The most innovative products – the ones that truly change the world – are almost never understood at first, even by really smart people.

Investing is maybe 60% science, the rest art. Yes, it has numbers and formulas and rules. But the soft stuff you can’t measure or hardly even describe – the art of the business – makes all the difference in the world.

Two defining characteristics of the technology industry are its dynamic nature and the interconnected nature of technology products and services. This results in a continuous need for new products—and for managing all of the aspects of discovering, designing, developing, supporting and making money from these products. In technology companies, the Product Management organization is responsible for the “inbound” product development activities as well as “outbound” product marketing activities: discovering customer needs, defining product requirements, orchestrating the development of products and solutions to address these needs, taking new products to market and managing products as a business. In a technology startup, a Product Manager is often a co-founder of the firm. In mid-sized and large technology firms, the best Product Managers are intrapreneurs responsible for product innovation and managing one or more products as a business. This course equips students with the frameworks, tools and direct experience to become effective technology product managers (whether as entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs). Students will gain hands-on experience via an industry-sponsored project and targeted cases—including several cases developed specifically for this course.

<![CDATA[<p>Three segments in this lecture:</p><p></p><p>Tyler Bosmeny, founder and CEO of Clever, starts off today's lecture with an overview of the Sales Funnel, and how to get to your first $1 Million.</p><p></p><p>Michael Seibel, founder of Justin.tv and Socialcam and Partner at Y Combinator, then goes over how to talk to investors - the pitch.</p><p></p><p>Dalton Caldwell, founder of imeem and <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://App.net">App.net</a> and Partner at Y Combiantor, and Qasar Younis, founder of Talkbin and Partner at Y Combinator, then perform an investor meeting roleplay to give you a taste of how it actually might look behind the scenes.</p><p></p><p>From YC Startup Class - How to Start a Startup - Stanford CS183B</p><p></p><p>Lecture Transcript: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://genius.com/Tyler-bosmeny-lecture-19-sales-and-marketing-how-to-pitch-and-investor-meeting-roleplaying-annotated">genius.com/Tyler-bosmeny-lecture-19-sales-and-marketing-how-to-pitch-and-investor-meeting-roleplaying-annotated</a></p><p></p><p>See the slides and readings at <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec19/">startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec19/</a></p><p></p><p>Discuss this lecture: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/https://startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64048">startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64048</a></p><p>Click to view <a href="https://awesound.com/@ycombinator/sales-and-marketing-how-to-talk-to-investors?auid=aDtLVNvF">show notes and transcript</a></p>]]>

<![CDATA[<p>What should the CEO be doing on a day to day basis? How do you make sure the company is moving in the right direction? </p><p></p><p>Keith Rabois, Partner at Khosla Ventures and former COO of Square, tackles the nitty gritty - How to Operate. Lots of actionable takeaways from this lecture!</p><p></p><p>Lecture Transcript: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://tech.genius.com/Keith-rabois-lecture-14-how-to-operate-annotated">tech.genius.com/Keith-rabois-lecture-14-how-to-operate-annotated</a></p><p></p><p>See the slides and readings at <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec14/">startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec14/</a></p><p></p><p>Discuss this lecture: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/https://startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64043">startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64043</a></p><p></p><p>From YC Startup Class - How to Start a Startup - Stanford CS183B</p><p>Click to view <a href="https://awesound.com/@ycombinator/keith-rabois-how-to-operate?auid=aDtLVNvF">show notes and transcript</a></p>]]>

Participatory co-design actively involves all stakeholders in the design process to help ensure that the result meets their needs. The designer or design team co-designs solutions with people from the community. #### Related Methods [Community Based Participatory Research](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/341), [Design Charrettes](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/118), [Drama Workshops](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/172), [Live Prototyping](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/318)

<![CDATA[<p>Hosain Rahman, CEO and Founder of Jawbone, covers the design process for building hardware products users love.</p><p></p><p>Lecture Transcript: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://tech.genius.com/Hosain-rahman-lecture-17-how-to-build-products-users-love-part-ii-annotated">tech.genius.com/Hosain-rahman-lecture-17-how-to-build-products-users-love-part-ii-annotated</a></p><p></p><p>See the readings at <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec17/">startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec17/</a></p><p></p><p>Discuss this lecture: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/https://startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64046">startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64046</a></p><p>Click to view <a href="https://awesound.com/@ycombinator/hosain-rahman-how-to-design-hardware-products?auid=aDtLVNvF">show notes and transcript</a></p>]]>

Startup companies need to purchase equipment, rent offices, and hire staff. More importantly, they need to grow. In almost every case they will require outside capital to do these things. The initial capital raised by a company is typically called “seed” capital. This brief guide is a summary of what startup founders need to know about raising the seed funds critical to getting their company off the ground.

<![CDATA[<p>You are not the only one whom your decisions impact. Ben Horowitz, founder of Andreessen Horowitz and Opsware, discusses this important management perspective that founders miss, with, of course, the gratuitous rap lyric or two sprinkled in.</p><p></p><p>From YC Startup Class - How to Start a Startup - Stanford CS183B</p><p></p><p>Lecture Transcript: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://tech.genius.com/B-horowitz-lecture-15-how-to-manage-annotated">tech.genius.com/B-horowitz-lecture-15-how-to-manage-annotated</a></p><p></p><p>See the slides and readings at <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec15/">startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec15/</a></p><p></p><p>Discuss this lecture: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/https://startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64044">startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64044</a></p><p>Click to view <a href="https://awesound.com/@ycombinator/ben-horowitz-how-to-manage?auid=aDtLVNvF">show notes and transcript</a></p>]]>

A widely accepted definition of Community Based Participatory Research, or CBPR for short, is given by the Kellogg Community of Health Scholars Program as “a collaborative process that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community with the aim of combining knowledge and action for social change to improve community health and eliminate health disparities.” Although health and social change in this definition can be expanded to any community-based challenge with a solution that exists in the larger world of design. #### Related Methods [Sharing Research Stories](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/83)

Sally Osberg, President and CEO, Skoll Foundation; Author, Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works Roger L. Martin, Former Dean, University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management; Co-author, Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO—Moderator Sally Osberg has been an entrepreneurial leader and catalyst for social change throughout her career. She propels those around her with her life philosophy and mantra, captured in one word: "Onward!" As president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, she partners with Founder and Chairman Jeff Skoll and guides the organization in its search and support of innovators pioneering scalable solutions to pressing global problems. Under Osberg’s leadership, the foundation has invested in more than 100 ventures led by social entrepreneurs worldwide; established the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School of Oxford University; created the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship; and brokered cutting-edge partnerships with organizations such as the Sundance Institute and the Social Progress Imperative. Osberg has been recognized as one of Silicon Valley’s Millennium 100 by the San Jose Mercury News and among the social sector’s 50 most influential leaders by The NonProfit Times. Roger Martin is well-known as a thinker who crosses over between the world of ideas and the world of practice. His books have made numerous top-10 business book lists and won prizes, including 800-CEO-READ's top business book and the Thinkers50 book award for Playing to Win. He has also written more than a dozen Harvard Business Review articles and numerous articles in leading newspapers and magazines. Roger has been internationally recognized for his work as a professor and former dean of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He has served on the Skoll Foundation’s board of directors since its formation in 1999. They will discuss how meaningful change actually happens in the world and provide concrete lessons and a practical model for businesses, policymakers, civil society organizations, and individuals who seek to transform our world for good.

The augmented reality (AR) game, Pokémon Go, has taken the world by storm as players roam the real world catching Pokémon and battling in Pokémon gyms. The game has set 5 records since its launch in July 2016 — including the most revenue by a mobile game in its first month ($206.5 million). Nintendo’s stock doubled 15 days into the release, adding $7.5B in value, but then settled back into a mere 50% increase when it became clear that Nintendo was a partner with limited ownership in the company that developed the game (Niantic, a Google spinoff).

Based on brainstorming, 6-3-5 brainwriting is designed to develop 108 ideas in half an hour. 6 participants are gathered and charged with coming up with 3 ideas in 5 minutes before handing off their ideas to the next person. The next participant reads the ideas and uses them as inspiration for a further 3. This process is repeated five times, resulting in 108 ideas (6*3*5) in 30 minutes. Image Created By: Erika Oishi #### Related Methods [Brainwriting](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/112), [3-12-3 Brainstorm](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/106), [Brainstorming](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/111)

Humans have always looked to nature for design inspiration. Naming of this concept was first done in the 1950’s by American biophysicist Otto Schmitt when used the term "Biomimetics". Janine Benyus popularized Biomimicry in her 1997 book [Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature](https://www.amazon.com/Biomimicry-Innovation-Inspired-Janine-Benyus/dp/0060533226). Biomimicry is defined in the book as a "new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems." Biomimicry allows designers to solve complex problems using inspiration from the natural world. Organisms have withstood the test of time and have perfected their processes through natural selection. This method allows designers to utilize that knowledge. #### Related Methods [Life Cycle Analysis](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/312), [D4S (Design for Sustainability)](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/330), [The Natural Step](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/329), [Whole Systems Thinking](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/331)

<![CDATA[<p>Building product, and talking to users. In the early stages of your startup, those are the two things you should focus on.</p><p></p><p>In this lecture, Emmett Shear, Founder and CEO of Justin.tv and Twitch, covers the latter. What can you learn by talking to users that you can’t learn by looking at data? What questions should you ask? How can user interviews define or redefine your product goals?</p><p></p><p>From YC Startup Class - How to Start a Startup - Stanford CS183B</p><p></p><p>Lecture Transcript: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://tech.genius.com/Emmett-shear-lecture-16-how-to-run-a-user-interview-annotated">tech.genius.com/Emmett-shear-lecture-16-how-to-run-a-user-interview-annotated</a></p><p></p><p>See the slides and readings at <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec16/">startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec16/</a></p><p></p><p>Discuss this lecture: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/https://startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64045">startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64045</a></p><p>Click to view <a href="https://awesound.com/@ycombinator/emmett-shear-run-a-user-interview?auid=aDtLVNvF">show notes and transcript</a></p>]]>

Individual Write-ups and Group Research Paper.

<![CDATA[<p>There's a lot that goes behind the scenes in running a startup. Getting the legal, finance (equity allocation, vesting), accounting, and other overhead right will save you a lot of pain in the long run. Kirsty Nathoo, CFO at Y Combinator, and Carolynn Levy, General Counsel at Y Combinator, cover these very important topics in this lecture.</p><p></p><p>From YC Startup Class - How to Start a Startup - Stanford CS183B</p><p></p><p>Lecture Transcript: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://genius.com/Kirsty-nathoo-lecture-18-mechanics-legal-finance-hr-etc-annotated">genius.com/Kirsty-nathoo-lecture-18-mechanics-legal-finance-hr-etc-annotated</a></p><p></p><p>See the slides and readings at <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec18/">startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec18/</a></p><p></p><p>Discuss this lecture: <a href="https://awesound.com/click-auid/aDtLVNvF/https://startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64047">startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64047</a></p><p>Click to view <a href="https://awesound.com/@ycombinator/legal-and-accounting-basics-for-startups?auid=aDtLVNvF">show notes and transcript</a></p>]]>

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A competitive analysis identifies the strengths and weaknesses of competing products or services by systematically surveying them and comparing them against critical requirements and metrics. #### Related Methods Competitive [2x2](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/37), [SWOT Analysis](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/89)

Go to a good college. Be in the Olympics. Work in TV and become a pilot. These were the goals of a 14-year-old girl who grew up in a town tucked into the mountains just east of Los Angeles. That girl went on to compete in three Olympics, become a sports commentator, an airplane pilot and three-time Stanford graduate. Here’s how Bonny Simi, now the president of JetBlue Technology Ventures, did it all. View more clips and share your comments at http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=4663

Students are introduced to business analytical tools, including contribution analysis and break-even analysis, to help them assess the costs and benefits associated with this purchase decision. Students will also learn how to identify variable costs, fixed costs, and one-time investments and the relevancy of allocated fixed costs when making this kind of a decision. Using their analysis, students can then assess the trade-offs associated with this opportunity to aid in their decision.

Storyboards, derived from the cinematographic tradition, represent a design's use cases through a series of drawings or pictures put together in a narrative sequence. It shows every touchpoint the user may have with the design during the experience.

Ronnie Chatterji and Charlie Williams have put together an excellent research podcast series. They describe it as “Big ideas from business school professors.” It offers an excellent bridge between cutting edge business research and the world of practice.

Envisionment videos help to communicate a holistic view of an envisioned system in its use context. These videos do more than simply present the design specifics; they aim to capture a narrative about how the system can be used.

In Forced Analogy, participants generate a random list of things-animals, objects, or people and write them on index cards. For each item, participants write the qualities or attributes. Then shuffle the cards and distribute them randomly. They then use the cards to develop analogies to the problem or issue at hand, asking: How is this problem similar to [random object]? How would I solve this problem with [random object]?

Internationally acclaimed author Prof Roger Martin, former Dean of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, on defining social entrepreneurship and transforming our society.

Nico Roberts is the Head of Customer Success at OnboardIQ. Customer success is a highly important in any startup. It not only ensures client satisfaction and handling customer complaints, but it also bridges the gap between different teams in the organization, ensuring its able to achieve a unified goal. Prior to OnboardIQ, Nico served as a consultant at Deloitte. A native from South Africa, Nico hustled his way through the United States with the goal of living the American dream and becoming a famous Hollywood director. Instead, he decided to finish his Bachelor’s degree, landed a job working as a consultant at Deloitte and found himself breaking into the startup world which he currently enjoys.

Designers sometimes tend to focus on disassembling design problems into small pieces. However, optimizing the efficiency of individual pieces can result in a less efficient system overall if the components are not adequately linked up to each other. On the other hand, whole-system designers work on the optimization of the products or services by collaborating with diverse teams to have different perspectives, understand how the parts work together as a system and combine those links into a system. Whole-systems design yields long-lasting and economical solutions with multiple benefits which help unite all parties around the same goals. #### Related Methods [Life Cycle Analysis](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/312), [D4S (Design for Sustainability)](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/330), [The Natural Step](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/329), [Biomimicry](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/311)

According to Prof Roger Martin, former Dean of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, identifying social entrepreneurship opportunities involves progressing through various stages of transformation: Understand, Envision, Build, Scale.

Context maps are designed to show the external factors, trends, and forces at work surrounding an organization. These include political factors, economic climate, technology factors, customer needs, uncertainties, and trends. The map is developed by the team as a whole where everyone has input on each category. #### Related Methods [Cultural Probes](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/162), [Participatory Co-Design Workshop](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/129)

A 2x2 matrix provides an organizational diagram to illustrate trends, outliers, and areas of saturation and scarcity in a design space. Often, a 2x2 matrix is used to find opportunities for innovation or to compare the relative quality of concepts. It can be created by plotting two evaluation criteria (e.g. feasibility vs. potential impact) on the two axes (X-axis and Y-axis). #### Related Methods [Competitive Analysis](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/154), [SWOT Analysis](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/89), [Personas](https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods/74)

This brainstorming format's name refers to minutes given for each of three activities - 3 for generating observations, 12 for grouping the observations into concepts and 3 for presenting the concepts to the entire group. This compressed format discourages overthinking and retains the essentials of ideation in a short format.

Image Source: [Rosenfeld Media](https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/3344341528) Closed Card Sorting is a variation of card sorting where respondents are asked to group cards into predefined categories to reveal the degree to which participants agree on which cards belong under each category. Closed sorting is evaluative and is typically used to judge whether a given set of category names provides an effective way to organize a given collection of content.

Students learn that as a business grows or when seasonal sales fluctuations occur, the uses of cash can exceed the business’s ability to generate the cash needed. In these cases, other sources of cash must be tapped to make up for the shortfall due to this timing of cash flows. The case also reinforces to students that the “earnings” figure from the statement of earnings (income statement) is rarely equivalent to the business’s cash balance.

Embrace Innovations Co-Founder and CEO Jane Marie Chen describes how the sudden loss of a corporate customer threatened to end her organization’s operations and served as a wake-up call that a more sustainable business model was needed, prompting Embrace to adopt one where its humanitarian efforts would be supported by the sale of baby products intended for retail consumers. View more clips and share your comments at http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=4672