How to refine intuitive ideas by learning from failure?

WEBINAR

Yesterday afternoon, I was invited by Rapid Youth Success Entrepreneurship (RYSE) to conduct a webinar on their RYSE Online 2021 program, an online course that equips aspiring founders with the basics of entrepreneurship, on "how to refine intuitive ideas by learning from failure?"

"The goal shapes the plan. The plan shapes the action. The action achieves the results. The results bring success." (John C. Maxwell, 2007)

In the presentation deck, I talked about framing our mindset to conceive failures as negative results from the outcome of trial-&-error experimentation, so we can empirically embrace failure to learn why things did not work out. Particularly when we're innovating.

Beside learning from post-mortem analysis, I encouraged our audience to practice pre-mortem analysis which uses prospective hindsight to "generate better decisions, predictions, and plans".

Reason being, research showed that "pre-mortem analysis reduces teams' overconfidence significantly more than other critiquing and risk-analysis methods do" (Veinott, 2010).

I also talked about the advantages of no-code tools/platforms to quickly build and test our intuitive ideas with real customers at low cost.

Check out over 300 no-code software and tools: NoCodeList

For instance, here's a simple no-code stack to build a website or web-app:

• graphic user interface:  Bubble or Webflow or Makerpad
• configurable database:  Airtable or Notion or Google Sheets
• user input form:  Typeform or Jotform or Google Forms
• connecting everything together (pipes):  Zapier or Automate or Integromat

Lastly, I was asked to share my recommend readings to help aspiring founders grow and equip themselves in starting a business.

Here's my top 10 reading list on entrepreneurship, 'design-thinking-based' validation, management, tech startup, innovation, venture capital, and failure:

1. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
2. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
3. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp et. al.
4. High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
5. The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen
6. Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld
7. Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong by Luis Perez-Breva
8. Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It by Scott Kupor
9. High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People by Elad Gil
10. Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success by John C. Maxwell

*Disclaimer: Numerous excerpts were paraphrased from the books and articles as cited below in my presentation deck for your further reading.

Author

Paul Lee, Co-founder & CEO, Flipidea

Citation and republishing

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References

Airtable. (n.d.). Democratizing software creation. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://airtable.com/

Andreessen Horowitz. (n.d.). Passionate about the future of technology. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://a16z.com/

Atomico. (2020). The State of European Tech. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://2020.stateofeuropeantech.com/

Automate.io (n.d.). Integrate cloud applications and automate marketing, sales and business processes. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://automate.io/

Bubble. (n.d.). The best way to build web apps without code. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://bubble.io/

Breva, L. P. (2017). Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.amazon.com/Innovating-Manifesto-Starting-Prototyping-Productively/dp/0262035359

Bygrave, W. D., & Zacharakis, A. (2014). Entrepreneurship, 3rd Edition. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/entrepreneurship-3rd-edition/9781118582893/

Dayangku, S. (2020). Despite RM10mil In Funding, Here's The Real Reason Why Offpeak Shut Down After 5 Years. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://vulcanpost.com/696046/offpeak-malaysia-food-discount-platform-shut-down-update/

Farnam Street. (n.d.). Daniel Kahneman's Favorite Approach For Making Better Decisions. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://fs.blog/2014/01/kahneman-better-decisions/

Flexiple. (n.d.). A network of top freelance developers and designers with hourly rates. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://flexiple.com/

Flipidea. (n.d.). Discover insights from business failures. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://www.flipidea.co/

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Flipidea. (n.d.). Idea Validation. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://www.flipidea.co/idea-validation

Flipidea. (n.d.). Offpeak. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://www.flipidea.co/companydetail/5eaa67a8d168d61a5839e4d3

Flipidea. (n.d.). Post-mortem Analysis. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://www.flipidea.co/post-mortem-analysis

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Flipidea Viewpoints. (2019). What is your definition of business failure? Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://viewpoints.flipidea.co/what-is-your-definition-of-business-failure/

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. (n.d.). Global Reports. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://www.gemconsortium.org/report

Google Forms. (n.d.). Collect and organize information big and small. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.google.com/forms/about/

Google Sheets. (n.d.). Create, edit, and collaborate wherever you are. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.google.com/sheets/about/

Integromat. (n.d.). Connect apps and automate workflows in a few clicks. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.integromat.com/en

Jotform. (n.d.). Easy-to-use online form builder for every business. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.jotform.com/

Klein, G. (2007). Performing a Project Premortem. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://hbr.org/2007/09/performing-a-project-premortem

Lee, P. (2020). How learning from business failures can help us innovate better? Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://viewpoints.flipidea.co/understanding-business-failures-how-can-we-innovate-better/

Lee, P. (2020). How to validate your intuitive business idea with GV's Research Sprint? Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://viewpoints.flipidea.co/how-to-re-search-for-business-opportunities/

Lee, P. (2020). Startup VC Funding Metrics & Benchmarks. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://viewpoints.flipidea.co/startup-vc-funding-guide/

Lee, P. (2021). How can learning from business failures help us compete creatively? Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://viewpoints.flipidea.co/how-learning-from-business-failures-help-us-compete-creatively/

Link, J. (2020). What is the 'Jobs to be Done' framework and why is it so popular? Retrieved 10 March 2021, from https://builtin.com/product/jobs-to-be-done-framework

Makerpad. (n.d.). No coding required to build software. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.makerpad.co/

Mason, M. K. (2012). Worldwide Business Start-ups. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from http://www.moyak.com/papers/business-startups-entrepreneurs.html

Maxwell, J. C. (2007). Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.amazon.com/Failing-Forward-Turning-Mistakes-Stepping/dp/0785288570

Nasser, S. (2018). Roadmap to a SaaS IPO: how to unicorn your way to $100M revenue. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://medium.com/parisoma-blog/roadmap-to-a-saas-ipo-unicorning-your-way-to-100m-revenue-33e065ce7548

Nobel, C. (2011). Why Companies Fail - and How Their Founders Can Bounce Back. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/why-companies-failand-how-their-founders-can-bounce-back

NoCodeList. (n.d.). Browse over 300 no code tools. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://nocodelist.co/

Notion. (n.d.). The all-in-one workspace for notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.notion.so/

PubLoft. (n.d.). Introducing Curriculum Marketing. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://publoft.com/

Sherman, M., & Chevallier, J. (2018). How to Build a Full Stack App for $175/month. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://blog.publoft.com/how-to-build-a-full-stack-app-for-175-month/

Sherman, M. (2020). The Founder's Guide to No Code. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.matsherman.com/p/the-founders-guide-to-no-code

Sparks, A. (2019). Understanding Venture Capital. Holloway Guide To Raising Venture Capital. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://www.holloway.com/g/venture-capital/sections/understanding-venture-capital

Sridharan, K. (2020). I want to build a product but have no coding skills. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://2.flexiple.com/no-vc-reports/i-want-to-build-a-product-but-have-no-coding-skills

Turck, M. (2020). Resilience and Vibrancy: The 2020 Data & AI Landscape. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://mattturck.com/data2020/

Typeform. (n.d.). Create forms and surveys that people enjoy answering. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://www.typeform.com/

Veinott, B., Klein, G. A., & Wiggins, S. (2010). Evaluating the Effectiveness of the PreMortem Technique on Plan Confidence. Retrieved from 18 March 2021, http://idl.iscram.org/files/veinott/2010/1049_Veinott_etal2010.pdf

Wang, H. Z. (2016). The rise and fall of ShengqiBuy, an 18-year-old's million-dollar startup. Retrieved from 17 March 2021, from https://alltechasia.com/youthful-exuberance-the-rise-and-fall-of-shenqibuy-an-18-year-olds-million-dollar-startup/

Webflow. (n.d.). The modern way to build for the web. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://webflow.com/

Zapier. (n.d.). Connect apps and automate workflows. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://zapier.com/

By invitation, Paul occasionally conducts guest lectures and seminars on the topics of business management, tech innovation, startups, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and financial investment.

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Last edited on 21 October 2022.