Constructing A Startup Strategy Frame

Startup success is greatly attributed to pre-startup phase planning. Startups develop business plans to pitch their ideas to secure funding and/or partners. The task of reading and, relating the frameworks in the document, could be a long and cumbersome process. Similarly, there is no one page illustration that can sketch a startup’s strategy and plan as well as one that is used universally. A one page clear, concise and attractive startup strategy model a ‘startup frame’ is proposed detailing ideation to financial returns analysis. It is constructed on learnings from considerations of the design thinking approach, the business canvas along others. The frame has evolved over a period of 14 months in which two bootcamps were held. Bootcamps were attended by 266 participants. It has also been used by 28 students of a senior entrepreneurship undergraduate course (Launching Entrepreneurial Ventures) over two semesters. It provides a logical flow and connects value drivers on economic, operational and strategic levels of the startup. The frame enables identifying courses of action like, ‘Management of customer benefits (CBEN), Management of segmentation and the customer relationships (CREL), Segmentation of markets and customers (SEGM), Communication management (COMM), Strategic Goal Setting and Management (SGM), Competitor Analysis (CA), Developing Startup Frame (SF), Designing the Business, and Design Elements (DE)’.