Kickstart your entrepreneurial journey - Escape the City blog

Kickstart your entrepreneurial journey

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The Startup Tribe


Ideas are worthless until you get them out of your head to see what they can do.

The Startup Tribe is a learningby-doing community experience that will teach you how to build a startup. This is your entrepreneurial apprenticeship.

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- Tanner Christensen -

It’s not about building a rocketship overnight, it’s about developing a powerful new toolkit, network and mindset to help you identify and execute exciting opportunities over the next few years as you transition into entrepreneurship. 2

What’s stopping you? 5

Build your own dreams or someone else will hire you to build theirs

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- Farrah Gray -

Tribe overview 7


The Startup Tribe

Contents

Costs and dates 10 12 Principles 11 Your outcomes 15 Tribe team 17 What our past Tribes say

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Do the work: address your blockers

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What's Stopping You Starting your own business can feel scary, complicated, and incredibly overwhelming. But too often these fears and assumptions stop you from going after the things you really want. These are the top six obstacles that get in the way and stop passionate people from starting up. Are any of these stopping you?

1. Failure What if I fail? The truth is, no matter what you do, you can still fail. No amount of money, or conversation, or knowledge can protect you from that. You can be smart as hell – that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to fail. We help you learn to fail quickly and cheaply. The more you fail, the more you learn and the better you can develop your business idea. Your relationship with failure will change dramatically on the Tribe, and this will accelerate you forwards on your startup path. 2. Financial Insecurity What if I don’t have a lot money? It is easy to feel that starting a business is an all-or-nothing affair. The perception that it is risky and expensive can discourage people before they’ve even explored the various paths available. We introduce you to a huge list of useful tools that help your business progress before you even think about quitting your job, or digging into your savings.

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We also help to de-risk your startup journey by showing you how and

where to fund your business for the long run. 3. Idea Suicide What if I don’t have the right idea? Testing your way to the right business idea is worth far more than waiting to find ‘the one’. We help you generate ideas that are right for you, by providing frameworks that anyone can use to come up with ideas. And we get you testing the viability of your idea without spending a single penny. After all, the best way to learn what might work and what you might enjoy is to simply start. 4. Lack of experience What if I lack the skills and experience? Everyone feels bursts of self-doubt and inexperience - even the most successful entrepreneurs. This is why surrounding yourself with a Tribe who believe in you and can skill-share with you, is the most important and powerful accelerator for starting your own business. As well as the peer-to-peer coaching available from your 49 other Tribers, we also connect you to expert startup mentors who help to support and

guide you throughout. 5. Imposter Syndrome What if I feel like a fraud? Putting yourself into a new space is the best way to learn, and we help you do this with small, steady steps. We also help you to build a strong and resilient mindset to manage feelings unqualified or inexperienced. 6. Social Pressure What if people think I’m insane for escaping my ‘secure’ job to go at it alone? Luckily being surrounded by 49 other ‘insane’ entrepreneurs every week gives you the motivation and determination to push past those outside social pressures. At the end of the day you’ll always find people who don’t get it - and that’s okay. They’re not your Tribe.

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tribe overview The Tribe is born Over the last six years, thousands of people who’ve experienced a career crossroads have joined our community: people who are feeling stuck and lost in their careers but unsure of how to move towards a new direction. The more we heard their stories, the more we learned just how profound the problem was, and that having a jobs board with new opportunities wasn’t enough to solve it. We realised that the most powerful motivator for change was getting a group of people together. So two years ago, we decided to experiment with this idea. We gathered 50 people who shared the same determination to do work that matters to them, for 3 months. We called upon our network of expert entrepreneurs and mentors to create a 12week journey to build businesses. Six Tribes later, and we can say it’s no longer an idea or an experiment. It works. We know the power of combining a supportive, connected community with an actionfocused, lean startup experience.

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Here’s what we know works:

1. Action works We learn best by doing, not by sitting in the classroom. Concepts are important but it’s only when we implement new ideas that we truly understand them.

How does The Startup Tribe work? Whether you have a bunch of ideas or no ideas yet, the Tribe is designed to help you pick something and run with it. If you’ve got an idea and you are already working on it, your objective is to get closer to product-market fit. Regardless of your stage, the only thing required of you is action. We have designed the Tribe to save you time, money and worry, accelerate your learning (and, crucially – your building), and make the early-stage startup journey a little less terrifying and a lot more fun. There are three fundamental objectives that you will achieve through The Startup Tribe experience: 1. Develop an entrepreneurial mindset so that you can test and execute on any startup idea.

2. Community is crucial Communities give us confidence, hold us accountable, teach us about ourselves, and help us cement new ways of doing and seeing things.

2. Gain an awareness and understanding of the practical tools and skills required for launching any business. 3. Form a tight group of like-minded peers to support you in the 12 week experience and beyond. We promise that if you commit to the Tribe, you will create radically new possibilities for yourself. Your measure of success is personal growth and how much you learn about yourself, your direction and your options whilst embarking on the entrepreneurial path.

3. We have the tools It may not be easy to build a business on your own terms, but by using powerful tools and strategies, it has never been more possible than it is today.

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Don't live the same year 75 times and call it a life

Cost:

Includes:

The Tribe tuition fee is £2,300.

x30 3 hour sessions guiding you through ways to build your startup

We want to make our programmes accessible to as many people as possible so payment plans are available. Payments are not requested until after you have been through the application process and offered a place.


The Startup Tribe

FEES

x5 catered weekends x10 career change challenges to help you move forward 1-1 coaching sessions x2 expert Tribe Leaders to show you the way x8 expert entrepreneurs and mentors

Dates: The Tribe sessions take place every Wednesday evening (6:30-9:30pm) as well as five weekends within the 12 week period. 9

- Robin Sharma -

For specific dates visit: www.escapethecity.org/startup-tribe

x50 Escape buddies to hold you to account Post Tribe Escape Club membership (1000+ members waiting to help)

Nb: We understand that clashes can happen and you might have to miss a session or two. That’s ok, we’ll be sure to catch you up. 10

12 PRINCIPLES

Part 1 Lay the Foundations Set clear expectations and intentions for your entrepreneurial journey. Pick ideas that are right for you based on your circumstances and resources.

There are strategies and important principles that work regardless of individual ideas or circumstance. We’ve summarised these into 12 universal Principles. You must go deep into yourself to discover your version of success based on what works for you and what you’re aiming for. Over the course of The Startup Tribe, you will be guided through a learning and doing experience that covers the following 12 Principles. Sometimes we will spend a session on a single Principle and, at other times, we will do work that touches on a few Principles at the same time.

1. Startup Paths: Walk your own path

What is the right business for you to start? We dive straight into the different types of startups and the routes that people take into entrepreneurship. The clearer you are about the most viable businesses for you, the more you will save yourself difficulty down the line. 2. Personal Risk: De-risk yourself

How to manage your risk on the entrepreneurial path? We look at ways to manage or mitigate the biggest fears around startups, specifically focusing on the money question and career risks. We also look at reasons why starting a business isn’t as risky as it first seems. 3. Idea Generation: Eat. Pray. Ideate

How do you generate genuinely exciting business ideas? We experiment with new techniques for generating creative business ideas, we’ll test ideas for viability and we also focus on generating ideas that are right for our strengths, interests, and resources. 4. Entrepreneur Mindset: Hustle & play

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How do you look after yourself on the entrepreneurial roller-coaster? You’ll work harder and faster and learn more in a year of entrepreneurship than most people do in 5 years. During these sessions we’ll talk about resilience, mindfulness and how to form positive habits. 12

Part 2 Learn By Building

Part 3 Make It Work

The best way to figure out what will work is to start doing. Learn new techniques for speaking to customers, developing business models & building prototypes.

Understand what it takes to turn a project into a viable business. Get clear on what Years 1 & 2 look like (sales, marketing, funding, team, & legals).

5. Customer Development: Talk to customers

9. Race to First Revenue: Sales, sales, sales

How do you figure out who your customers are? This principle is about prioritising the customer: Who are they? How do they behave? We focus on identifying the customer segments we want to serve, figuring out how to reach them.

How do you find and secure your first customers? We look at sales funnels, metrics, product pricing, negotiation and customer service. If you haven’t done so already you’ll find and convert your first paying customers (or, at the least, your first pre-orders).

6. Business Models: Find your supermodel

10. 21st Century Marketing: Build your tribe

How do you develop the right business model? We scope out what you’re going to charge, and how much it will cost you to deliver your service through testing your commercial model. Remember, the closer you are to your customers, the clearer you’ll get on the right monetisation strategy for your business.

How do the right people hear about your startup? The best brands don’t sell to customers, they grow a fanbase. In this challenge we’ll seek to grow a community of people who are authentically engaged with the problem you’re solving or the story you’re telling.

7. Brands & Value Propositions: Keep. It. Simple.

How do you communicate a compelling offering? Your challenge for this principle involves developing clear value propositions, practising your elevator pitches, and diving into the art of startup copywriting. Your mission is this: how will my idea get noticed amongst all the noise? 8. Tech & Prototypes: Build fast, launch ugly

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How can you cheaply build and launch v1 of your startup? We learn about the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and figure out ways of getting the very first version of our offerings live asap (be it online or offline, a product or a service). The only way to properly begin understanding your idea’s potential is to get it out there.

11. Finance & Funding: Get traction. Get action

How do you make sensible decisions for funding your business? We explore creative ways to cover your costs and fund your startup. We’ll also look at what is required to raise external investment – digging into pitch decks, company valuations and funding legals. 12. Startup Management: Drive a lean machine

What should you focus on for the first 12 months? We focus on the things that really matter in Year 1 – specifically around founder agreements, growth, metrics and momentum. During this time, we also discuss early-stage recruitment, team culture and legals. 14

your outcomes So many people talk about starting businesses, but so few act on their ambitions. It’s understandable: startups can seem scary, expensive, risky and extremely hard. The Startup Tribe is designed to: 1. Demystify the startup process for you. Together with your Tribe, you will be guided through all the key areas you need to know about to build an early-stage business. You’ll progress through a combination of learning and doing. 2. Help you move from thinking to building. If you have an idea through the course of the Tribe, you will build and launch your prototype. If you don’t have an idea, you will explore a bunch of ideas, and choose one (solo or in a group) to experiment with. 3. Empower you to start your own business. Although it takes more than 12 weeks to build a business, the Tribe will massively accelerate you in this process, equipping you with the tools and community to take forwards as you continue to build.

By the end of The Startup Tribe you will have: • understood the reality of the entrepreneurial path. • clarified your startup motivations and set realistic goals. • managed your personal risk and made a sensible transition plan. • generated, tested, prototyped, and launched your own startup ideas. • learnt the key entrepreneurial tools, techniques and strategies. • developed a robust entrepreneurial mindset and resilient habits. • learnt how to overcome resistance and how to prioritise effectively. • made progress through brave action at the edge of your comfort zone. • met a community of people at similar stages in their startup journeys. • developed your entrepreneurial optimism and confidence. It is important to be realistic about how much commercial progress you will make in the 3 months on The

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Startup Tribe - it usually takes longer than 12 weeks to build a successful business. However, by committing time and energy to this programme you can dramatically accelerate your entrepreneurial journey. To give you some ideas from those who’ve gone through the process, the progress you make on the Tribe could result in any one (or more) of these possible outcomes:

There is no one-size-fits-all startup journey. This process is hard, takes time, requires managing your risk and isn’t necessarily linear. You may try various entrepreneurial projects before you find the right thing for you. What matters – if you’re serious about building a career on your own terms – is that you keep trying new things and making things happen in the outside world (even if you stay in your job for another few years).

• successfully launched your early- stage business and be focusing on growing it. • successfully secured funding for your business. • considered resigning from your job to work full-time on your startup / side-project. • experimented with an idea, building traction before deciding to pursue it full-time. • have explored your ideas and have decided to stay put in your jo. • have applied new entrepreneurial skills and tools to change your day job for the better. • be using the Tribe experience to catalyse an entrepreneurial career change. 16

Some of our Tribe leaders:

tribe team Ben Keene Founder of Tribewanted (crowd-funded ecocommunities), Ben has led four Startup Tribes and is a business advisor at Virgin Startup. Ben’s startup superpowers include helping people turn pub ideas into actual startups, building purposeful communities and hacking online projects together in a very short amount of time.

Emma Walker Emma is founder of Learn in London (a directory of courses and classes in the city). She is a freelance digital marketer who has worked for the likes of Picfair, General Assembly and the New Entrepreneurs Foundation. Emma’s startup superpowers: growing businesses online with little to no cash and tech prototyping and designs. Jonny Miller Jonny co-founded the travel storytelling platform Maptia four years ago, that features stories from around the world whilst working remotely from five different continents. Jonny’s startup superpowers include: hustling for first customers, content marketing, building communities and hacking Kickstarter. Henry Blanchard

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Henry escaped a career in accountancy to found the Uganda International Marathon, which supports education and employment projects in Uganda. Henry’s startup superpowers include: connecting people together, social entreprise, remote and flexible working and offering new perspectives to solving problems.

Tribe Leaders Each Startup Tribe has Tribe Leaders. The best people to learn with and from are entrepreneurs. Startup Tribe Leaders are people with credible track records in early-stage startups who can act as role models for the group. The Tribe Leader is your guide for this experience. They will steer you through the Tribe — helping you troubleshoot, problem-solve and brainstorm your way through the content, challenges and homework. The Tribe Leader is your startup coach. Wherever possible they will help you with useful information, but they will also encourage you to figure things out for yourself. We learn best by doing, not by being told.

and advice. Mentors Tribe Mentors join the Tribe for the Build & Make it Work part of the tribe (weeks 4–12) and work closely with small groups on their actions and progress. Mentors have included:

Edward Smith, Doisy and Dam Richard Wilkinson, Doisy and Dam Emma-Jayne Parkes, Squid London Parul Bavishi, Collider Accelerator Emily Penn, Social entreprenuer Chris Ballard, COO at The Hive John Carden, Startup Mentor Skye Robertson-James, Startup Mentor

The Tribe Leader role is to challenge you. Your two main traps on the Startup Tribe are 1) thinking not doing and 2) focusing on ‘the work around the work’. Your Tribe Leader’s mission is to keep you honest on both fronts. Guest Speakers The Startup Tribe is not a guest speaker series — if we simply reeled in speaker after speaker you might be entertained but you wouldn’t necessarily move your startup forwards. However, hearing different perspectives and stories can certainly be valuable. Over the course of the Tribe you will hear from a variety of guest entrepreneurs and speakers with useful experience

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This tribe energy is so damn contagious

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- Shaokat, Startup Tribe 20

what our past tribes say...

I would have spent more in mistakes and non-necessary startup expenses than the cost of the course. - Andrew

At the end of the Tribe you will be invited to join The Escape Club, our alumni network of all past Tribers. This community is full of people building businesses, collaborating on entrepreneurial side-projects and making brave career changes. Startups and career changes take time — the Escape Club will be there for you over the long-haul.

It is no exaggeration to say the Startup Tribe has changed my perspective on pretty much everything. I’m now seeing a lot more possibilities rather than problems. I have something tangible to work on in an entrepreneurial sense, a fascinating network and the resolve to pursue something

Here are some of the things that our community have said about their experience on the Tribe. The Startup Tribe has given me the content, courage and a community to follow my dream. I’m on a new adventure into the startup world and it feels great!

- Jim

- Josh

It was epic - had a few AHA moments and life will never be the same. - Uppili

The experience has very much been one of ‘finding my tribe’. I have always known I have wanted to be on an entrepreneurial journey, but didn’t quite know how to go about it, or even whether I belonged in that world. Now I feel I do, and I know I have support moving forward. - Suzi

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The Startup Tribe

When pursuing something that matters deeply to you, you’ll encounter not only the negative and uncomfortable emotions; you’ll also identify real, tangible challenges and obstacles standing before you. We call these Blockers. They include a myriad of things like: lack of time or money, fear (of failure, of the unknown, and so many other things). Perhaps you imagine a loss in status or reputation, a lack of skills or knowledge, confidence or support. Maybe there will be challenging relationships and difficult conversations and other such demons.

Exercise Guidance Instead of using Blockers as an excuse to stop (or never start), use them to your advantage. For example if a Blocker is “I don’t have the skills to do XYZ,” how can you obtain the skills you need? Or hire someone who has those skills to help you? If a Blocker is “my parents will be disappointed if I leave my safe job,” it’s likely that you need to have some honest conversations with your parents. (Who knows…maybe your parents just want you to be happy, not miserable in a job you hate?)


A Task For You: What’s Stopping You?

If a Blocker is “I don’t have enough money to start my business,” your To-Do might be to create an Escape Fund, decrease your outgoings and/or increase your savings to give yourself the freedom of time to dedicate to your startup. Will any of these things happen overnight? Not likely. Can you deliberately chisel away at your Blocker To-Do list over time? Absolutely. Of course, addressing Blockers is far from easy. It’s tempting to let them stop you dead in your tracks. But that will only keep you stuck. Instead, allow them to be a helpful reminder of the real things you need to address in your life.

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5 minute exercise 4. Turn your top 3 Blockers into To-Do’s below:

1. What are your Blockers? Blockers are the real and perceived things standing in your way. Write down at least 3 and at most 10 blockers. RANK

TO DO

DATE COMPLETED

ACCOUNTABILITY BUDDY

2. Rank your Blockers from 1-10 (1 = biggest blocker, 10 = smallest) 3. Circle your top 3 Blockers

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For more information about The Startup Tribe, please contact Mia: [email protected] www.escapethecity.org