Paul Cheek 
Disciplined Entrepreneurship Startup Tactics 
15 Tactics to Turn Your Business Plan into a Business

A hands-on, practical roadmap to get from great idea to successful company

In Disciplined Entrepreneurship: Startup Tactics, renowned entrepreneur and Executive Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship Paul Cheek delivers an actionable field guide to transforming your one great idea into a functional, funded, and staffed startup. Building on the ideas presented in the bestselling Disciplined Entrepreneurship, the author delivers a startlingly complete and comprehensive set of solutions you can implement immediately to advance your company to its next stage of growth.

This is not a theoretical book. You’ll find ground-level, down-and-dirty entrepreneurial tactics–like how to conduct advanced primary market research, market and sell to your first customers, and take a scrappy approach to building your first products–that keep your firm growing. These tactics maximize your impact with limited resources. You’ll also discover:

* Effective marketing tactics specific to early startups that go beyond cookie-cutter digital Mar Tech solutions

* Tactics for designing and testing your product concepts yourself before investing limited resources in developing a fully functional product

* Methods for equity distribution that minimize conflict and maximize investor return

An invaluable resource for founders and entrepreneurs, Disciplined Entrepreneurship: Startup Tactics will also benefit any professional working at an early-stage startup or launching new products looking for concrete solutions to the most common and difficult problems faced by young companies and the people who work in them.

Table of Content

Foreword xv

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction to Tactics 1

Stage 1 Foundations 24

Tactic 1 Goals: Operational Goals and KPIs–Charting the Course to Major Milestones 27

Tactic 2 Systems: Startup Tooling and Systems 39

Stage 2 Market Testing 48

Tactic 3 Market Research: Advanced Primary and Secondary Market Research– Quantifying Qualitative Research 51

Tactic 4 Assets: Developing Startup Visual Assets 77

Tactic 5 Marketing: Proving Persona Assumptions with Digital Advertising 91

Tactic 6 Sales: Early Customer Demand Generation 107

Stage 3 Product Development 120

Tactic 7 Product Roadmap: Building Your Product’s Roadmap 123

Tactic 8 Design: Minimum Viable Business Product Design 129

Tactic 9 User Testing: Validating the Product Actually Works 143

Tactic 10 Engineering: Transitioning from Product Design to Development 161

Stage 4 Resource Acquisition 174

Tactic 11 Legal: Incorporation and Legal Documents for Your Startup 177

Tactic 12 Finance: Path to Greatness–Building the Financial Model and Setting Up the Piggy Bank 191

Tactic 13 Pitch Deck Design: Pitch Decks for Startups 201

Tactic 14 Fundraising: Executing Your Venture’s Fundraising Plan 213

Tactic 15 Hiring: Finding and Onboarding Your First Ten Employees 235

Next Steps 251

Educator Materials 261

Index 263

About the author

PAUL CHEEK is a serial tech entrepreneur, entrepreneurship educator, software engineer, and patented inventor. He is the Executive Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the MIT Sloan School of Management. Paul was MIT’s first Hacker in Residence and has since taught, mentored, and advised thousands of entrepreneurs around the world. Paul was named to Forbes 30 Under 30, the definitive list of young people changing the world. Paul is a co-founder of Oceanworks, a for-profit company with a mission to end plastic pollution and previously co-founded Work Today, a venture-backed digital staffing and recruiting company. Paul advises startups and both speaks and consults with Fortune 500 companies and universities globally to advance entrepreneurship. You can learn more about Paul on his website, Paul Cheek.com, or follow him on Linked In.