Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup – Step-by-Step Summary

• Author: Bill Aulet (MIT Sloan & Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship)
• Purpose: A structured 24-step framework guiding entrepreneurs from idea to successful startup launch, focusing on systematically identifying customers, refining the product, and building a viable business model. Each step introduces specific questions, tools, and actions to move the venture forward in a disciplined way. Below is a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the core content of each of the 24 steps, including key concepts, frameworks, and practical instructions.

Step 1: Market Segmentation

Goal: Identify and focus on a specific target customer segment rather than trying to serve everyone. Customers are the most critical factor for a startup, so this step is about deciding which group of customers to serve first.

• Brainstorm Potential Markets: Start by generating a wide range of potential end-user groups and use-cases for your idea or technology. Think of all industries and customer types that might benefit. At this early stage, talk to various potential customers to gauge their needs and reactions while brainstorming.
• Narrow Down to 6–12 Segments: From your broad list, select around half a dozen to a dozen interesting market opportunities (each defined by a specific end-user profile and application). For each, ask critical questions: Do these customers have budget and willingness to pay? Can you reach them directly? Do they have a compelling reason to buy (a real pain/problem)? Can you deliver a whole product solution now? What’s the competitive situation? If you win this segment, does it open doors to others? And does serving this market fit the founders’ goals and passions?
• Conduct Primary Market Research: For the most promising segments, go out and interview potential customers (in “inquiry mode,” not sales mode). Learn who the end users are and how they would use the product. Identify their pain points, desired benefits, and current alternatives. Determine any requirements to use your product (e.g. complementary systems). Find out who influential lead customers might be and gather data on market size and competition. The goal is to deeply understand the customer’s world and validate that a real opportunity exists.
• Outcome: A well-researched list of a few top potential segments. Spend a couple of weeks on this research. If your business is a multi-sided market (platform), perform a segmentation analysis for each side of the market separately. In later steps, you will choose one beachhead from these segments, so thorough knowledge here is crucial.

Step 2: Select a Beachhead Market

Goal: Choose one primary market segment (the “beachhead”) to focus on first. Like the WWII Normandy analogy, you secure a beachhead market that you can dominate, then expand outward.

• Pick One Segment: From the 6–12 researched segments, select the one that best meets your criteria. Often, a small, focused market with unmet needs and minimal competition is ideal for a startup beachhead. Revisit the questions from Step 1 for each candidate segment (customer money, accessibility, reason to buy, deliverability of full product, competition level, expansion potential, founder fit) and pick the segment that scores best overall. Don’t overanalyze – it’s more important to make a decision and start executing than to agonize over a perfect choice.
• Laser Focus: Commit to focusing all resources on the chosen beachhead. Resist the temptation to pursue multiple markets at once. By concentrating on one target segment, you can tailor your product and marketing precisely to their needs and achieve dominance faster. If you spread yourself thin over many segments, you risk never achieving traction in any.
• Refine Segment Definition: If possible, narrow the segment further to ensure it’s truly homogenous. A valid market segment should meet three conditions: (1) all customers within it buy similar products, (2) they have a similar sales cycle and expect value in similar ways, and (3) they talk to each other (word of mouth exists within the group). These criteria ensure that a win with one customer can lead to momentum with others.
• Plan for Expansion: Once you secure the beachhead (win a significant share of that market), you can later expand to adjacent segments. If your first choice turns out poorly, you can pivot to another segment from your list. But initially, be disciplined and win the beachhead before expanding.

Step 3: Build an End User Profile

Goal: Develop a detailed profile of your target end user in the beachhead market. This step is about truly understanding who your customer is (as a person or business) and what makes them tick.

• Understand Roles: Recognize that each customer usually involves two perspectives: the end user (the individual who actually uses the product) and the broader customer or Decision-Making Unit (the people who decide and pay for the purchase). Often they are the same person (especially in consumer markets or small businesses), but in many cases (especially B2B) the end user isn’t the sole decision maker. For now, focus on the end user’s characteristics – if the end user doesn’t want the product, no purchase will happen. (The full Decision-Making Unit will be analyzed in Step 12).
• Choose a Target Demographic: Within your beachhead, identify a specific subset of end users that represents your ideal target. Not everyone in your market is identical – for example, a 25-year-old customer may have different habits and needs than a 50-year-old. Pick a primary target user group that’s narrow enough that you can describe one typical person. You cannot be “all things to all people,” so decide who is the one person you most want to delight. This decision often considers factors like age, gender, income, location, lifestyle, etc.
• Detail the Profile: Write down the attributes of this archetypal end user. Include demographics (age, gender, location, etc.), behaviors, motivations, needs, fears, what a day in their life looks like. What goals do they have? What do they value? How do they currently solve the problem your product addresses? The profile should be as vivid and specific as possible, effectively painting a picture of your customer’s life and mindset. If someone on your team personally fits the target profile, leverage their insight to refine it.
• Use the Profile: This end user profile guides product design and marketing decisions going forward. It’s not set in stone – you will refine it as you learn more – but it points you in the right direction and ensures your venture stays customer-centric. All team members should understand this target user description as it will inform subsequent steps like sizing the market and creating a persona.

Step 4: Calculate the Total Addressable Market (TAM) for the Beachhead

Goal: Quantify the revenue opportunity in your chosen beachhead market by computing its Total Addressable Market (TAM). TAM is defined as the annual revenue your company would earn if it achieved 100% market share in that segment. This number helps judge if the market is big enough to meet your business goals.

• Bottom-Up Analysis: Start by estimating the number of end users in your beachhead segment. Use a bottom-up approach, which is more granular and accurate: identify specific sources like customer lists, industry databases, trade associations, or public records to count how many potential customers fit your end user profile. Whenever possible, find concrete numbers (e.g. count of businesses of a certain size in a region, or individuals meeting your criteria) rather than broad extrapolations. Then estimate how many end users each customer account represents if applicable (e.g. if your customer is a company with multiple end users).
• Top-Down Analysis: Cross-check your findings with a top-down approach using general market research and demographic data. Look at industry reports, census data, or analyst estimates to validate that your bottom-up count is in the right ballpark. Top-down alone can miss nuances, but it provides a sanity check for your bottom-up figures.
• Estimate Annual Revenue per User: Determine how much one customer (or end user) is worth per year. This is typically the price of your product/service per user per year. Consider current alternatives: How much are customers spending now to solve the problem? How much value (in cost savings or added revenue) will your solution provide? This helps set a realistic revenue per user. If your product will have repeat purchases or subscription, factor that in (e.g. monthly fee * 12 months).
• Calculate TAM: Multiply the number of end users by the annual revenue per user to get TAM (in dollars per year). For example, if there are 50,000 potential users and each would generate $100/year, the TAM is $5 million/year. Aulet suggests a good beachhead TAM is in the ~$20–100 million/year range – enough to be attractive but not so large that it’s unfocused. If your TAM is too small (e.g. under ~$5M), the market might not sustain a startup; if it’s extremely large (e.g. $1B+), you likely defined the segment too broadly and should narrow it. The goal is a “conservative, defensible” TAM figure you can explain and justify with data. This will be important for investors and for your own planning.

Step 5: Profile the Persona for the Beachhead Market

Goal: Create a single, fictional but data-driven persona who represents your ideal customer in the beachhead market. This persona humanizes the target so the whole team can envision exactly whom you’re building the product for.

• Choose a Realistic Persona: Ideally, base your persona on a real person you interviewed or observed who fits your end user profile closely. Using a composite of several people or a generic stereotype is less effective – pick one actual individual (or a mix of two) to ground your persona in reality. This way, you’re not guessing their behaviors; you have real data.
• Gather Detailed Info: Write a fact sheet about the persona covering personal and professional details. Include things like: name, age, gender, location, education, job title, income, family status, daily routine, what they read or watch, etc. Be specific (e.g. “42-year-old project manager at a mid-size tech company, earns $85k, lives in Seattle suburbs with two kids”) to make the persona vivid. Importantly, list the persona’s purchasing criteria and priorities: what factors do they care about most when buying solutions? For example, are they more concerned with cost, or reliability, or ease of use? Rank their top priorities (e.g. “1. Reliability, 2. Price, 3. Customer support…”). This prioritized criteria list will later guide product features and competitive positioning.
• Identify Gaps and Verify: As you compile the persona’s story, you may find gaps in your knowledge. These gaps highlight what you still need to learn about your customer. Go back and interview more or re-interview the persona individual to fill in missing pieces, especially around their motivations and pain points. Ensure the persona’s profile aligns with what multiple target customers have told you, not just one anomalous person.
• Use the Persona as a Guide: Share the persona profile with your whole team and refer to it in decision-making. The persona puts a personal face on your customer and helps everyone from engineering to marketing stay aligned on who the target is. As new team members join, the persona educates them on the customer. You can update the persona over time as you learn more, or even create additional personas later if you expand to more segments. But at startup outset, focus on one primary persona to maintain clarity. All product design and marketing strategies should be tested against “Would this work for our persona, and address their top priorities?”

Step 6: Full Lifecycle Use Case

Goal: Map out, in detail, the entire experience of your persona as they become aware of, acquire, and use your product. The full lifecycle use case identifies every step from the customer’s perspective, highlighting friction points and requirements needed to support the product’s use.

• Visualize Customer Journey: Think through your persona’s journey step-by-step. How do they first learn they have a problem or need? How do they hear about your product (marketing)? What process do they go through to evaluate it? How do they purchase it (sales process)? Once bought, how do they install or begin using it? What is the user experience over time? If applicable, how do they get support? And do they share the product with others or influence others to buy (word-of-mouth/referrals)?. Documenting these stages ensures you’re addressing the entire customer experience, not just the moment of purchase.
• Identify Gaps or Barriers: By detailing the full lifecycle, you may discover important factors you hadn’t considered. For example, if your product is hard to install or requires training, that’s a barrier to adoption. If customers don’t know how to find out about your solution, marketing needs work. Explicitly outline each interaction the customer has with the product or company, from initial awareness to post-use feedback. Use flowcharts or storyboards to illustrate the sequence and any decision points. This should be “visually rich,” helping you and stakeholders literally see the customer’s experience timeline.
• Customer’s Point of View: Critically, write the use case from the customer’s viewpoint, not yours. What does the persona see, think, and feel at each stage? Avoid the trap of describing how you deliver the product; instead focus on how they go through discovering and using it. For instance, “Persona hears about the product via a colleague’s recommendation, visits the website to learn more, signs up for a free trial, experiences [X benefit] while using it, encounters [Y issue], contacts support, eventually feels [Z outcome] and tells peers.”
• Outcome: A comprehensive map of the customer lifecycle. This will highlight requirements for your business (e.g. need for a certain sales channel, or a quick-start guide, or a referral incentive). It also reveals potential pain points that could “break” the customer’s experience. By understanding these now, you can design solutions (product features, customer support, etc.) to ensure a smooth lifecycle. The full lifecycle use case sets the stage for defining your product and business processes so that nothing important is overlooked.

Step 7: High-Level Product Specification

Goal: Design a visual, high-level representation of your product that addresses the persona’s needs, without getting bogged down in technical details. This step is about crystallizing what the solution will look like and do, ensuring it aligns with the customer insights gathered so far.

• Focus on Customer Benefits: Even though this step is about the product, it deliberately comes after understanding the customer. By now, you have clarity on who the customer is and what they need. Now sketch what the product must be to delight that customer. Avoid the temptation to start with features or technology; instead, derive the product concept from the use case and persona.
• Create a Visual Spec: Develop a non-detailed prototype or diagram of the product – this could be a drawing, a storyboard, wireframes, or a simple schematic. The idea is to capture the product’s form and function at a high level. What does the user interface look like? What are the key features (in broad terms)? How will the user interact with it? For physical products, a sketch of the design or a rough model may be useful. This is not yet a working prototype, just a tangible depiction to convey the idea.
• Keep it High-Level: Do not invest in a fully built product or an overly detailed prototype at this stage. Early prototypes can be expensive and can cause founders to become emotionally attached to a specific solution. Instead, keep it simple and flexible – you will likely change the spec as you learn more. The purpose is to have something concrete enough to elicit feedback from team members and customers, without the cost of actual production.
• Use it to Get Feedback: Show this high-level product spec to target customers (e.g. in interviews or surveys) and to your team. Make sure to clarify you are not selling at this point – you just want their honest reactions. Ask if this solution would solve their problem or fit into their life, and what concerns or improvements they see. This feedback can guide refinements. The spec also aligns your team on a shared vision of the product. Remember, this is an iterative step – you will likely revisit and refine the product sketch multiple times as new information emerges.

Step 8: Quantify the Value Proposition

Goal: Rigorously calculate and articulate the tangible value your product will deliver to customers, expressed in concrete metrics. A Quantified Value Proposition demonstrates how much better the customer’s life or business will be with your product, in numbers.

• Identify the Top Benefit: Go back to your persona’s top priorities (from Step 5) – what outcome do they care about most? Your product likely has many benefits, but you need to focus on the one or two that align best with the customer’s #1 priority. For example, if your persona’s main goal is to save time, focus on how your solution saves time (even if it also saves money or improves quality). Ensure you’re addressing what truly matters to them; otherwise, even a great feature might not be compelling.
• “As-Is” vs “To-Be” Analysis: Quantifying value means comparing the customer’s situation before and after your product. Describe the status quo (“as-is” state): how are they currently solving the problem, and what does that cost in time, money, or other resources? Then describe the future with your product (“possible” state): how will those costs or metrics change with your solution? For instance, “Currently, it takes 5 hours and $500 to accomplish X. With our product, it will take 1 hour and $100.” The difference between the two is the numerical value your product provides (e.g. “saves 4 hours and $400 per occurrence”).
• Make it Visual and Simple: Present the quantified value in a clear, easy-to-grasp form – often a simple chart or graphic comparing Before vs. After works well. The point is to communicate the value to customers (and investors) in seconds. However, be realistic and credible: do not over-promise results that you can’t deliver. It’s better to slightly understate and then exceed the value than to claim huge improvements and disappoint. Exaggerated claims will hurt your credibility.
• Use the QVP Widely: A solid quantified value proposition is extremely useful. It sharpens your understanding of how your product meets customer needs, and it becomes a core part of your sales and marketing message. It also provides a basis for pricing (you can price at a fraction of the value delivered). Invest the effort now to get real data or reasonable estimates for your value metrics – this will pay off throughout your startup journey.

Step 9: Identify Your Next 10 Customers

Goal: Validate that your market is not just one person – find at least 10 prospective customers who fit your target profile and gauge their interest. This step ensures you have a scalable opportunity, not just a single-customer solution.

• List Potential Customers: Compile a list of more than ten individuals or organizations in your beachhead segment that match your end user profile and persona characteristics. Use your research, personal network, and early conversations to identify these targets. They should be independent of each other (not all from one company, for example) and ideally ones you haven’t deeply engaged with yet, to avoid bias.
• Reach Out for Feedback (Not Sales): Contact each of these 10+ potential customers. Request a conversation or meeting where you can show them your work from Steps 6–8: walk through the full lifecycle use case, the high-level product spec, and the quantified value proposition. Emphasize that you are seeking their feedback and insights, not trying to immediately sell to them. Remain in “inquiry mode” – ask questions and listen more than you pitch. For example, ask if the use case resonates, if the product concept would solve their need, and what value they’d expect or whether the value proposition seems compelling.
• Gauge Enthusiasm & Look for Patterns: Pay attention to how these prospects respond. If many express excitement or strong interest, it confirms you’re on the right track. If they merely seem lukewarm or offer polite praise, probe deeper – would they truly consider adopting it, or is something missing? It’s especially encouraging if you get signs of love for the solution rather than just mild liking. Note any common objections or suggestions that come up – these are invaluable for refining your product or messaging.
• Validate or Refine Persona & Assumptions: After these conversations, review what you’ve learned. Do these additional customers fit the persona, and do their reactions validate your key assumptions? If most of the feedback aligns with your hypotheses (they see the value, share the pain point, etc.), you gain confidence that your persona and problem definition are correct. If not, identify where the mismatches are – you may need to adjust your persona, value proposition, or even reconsider your beachhead if you can’t find 10 excited customers. In some cases, if a prospect is very interested, you might ask for a letter of intent or a pre-order commitment at this stage (still as a test of interest, not a hard sell). The end result should be evidence that a real market of multiple customers exists, which will also help convince partners or investors of your venture’s potential.

Step 10: Validate Your Core

Goal: Identify and validate your startup’s core competitive advantage – the unique thing that your company will do better than anyone else and that is hard to copy. “Core” is what allows you to deliver your value proposition in a way competitors cannot.

• Define “Core”: Your Core is often described as your “secret sauce.” It could be a proprietary technology, a unique network, a special process, or exceptional domain expertise – whatever gives you a sustainable advantage. Importantly, core is not just a feature; it’s usually something fundamental that others would struggle to replicate quickly. It enables you to deliver on the top two priorities of your persona better than anyone else. For example, maybe you have an algorithm that is significantly more accurate, or your team has a patent or know-how that others lack, or you’ve achieved a network of users that newcomers can’t match.
• Examples of Core: Aulet gives examples like the network effect (your product becomes more valuable as more users join, making you dominant – think of social networks), world-class customer service (delivering satisfaction competitors don’t match, leading to loyalty and referrals), lowest cost (through efficiencies or scale that let you underprice others), or superior user experience/design as potential cores. Note that some things aren’t true cores: for instance, simply “being first to market” or having a temporary technology lead might not last. A core should be something you can continue to build on and maintain.
• Test the Core Hypothesis: By this step, propose what you believe your venture’s core is. Then evaluate: does this core truly allow you to deliver the benefits your customers care about much better than the competition? If you claim a certain technology is your core, is it protected or constantly improving so others can’t easily catch up? If customer intimacy is your core, how will you maintain that as you scale? Seek feedback from mentors or industry experts on whether your supposed core is compelling and defensible. If you’re not sure, list multiple possible cores and see which aligns best with customer needs and your team’s strengths.
• Commit to the Core: Once identified, your core should guide strategic decisions. The whole team must be aware of it and work on reinforcing it. Everything you do should strengthen your core advantage, and you should be wary of shifting away from it. Aulet advises that changing your core later on is risky – it’s better to refine and bolster your core rather than pivot it drastically. In summary, Step 10 is about crystallizing what makes you special in the eyes of the customer and ensuring that advantage is real and sustainable.

Step 11: Chart Your Competitive Position

Goal: Visually map how your product compares to alternatives on the dimensions that matter most to your customers. This is done using a competitive position chart focusing on the top two priorities of your persona.

• Identify Top Two Priorities: Recall the persona’s top purchase criteria (from Step 5). Take the two most important benefits or attributes that your target customer values (for example, perhaps they care most about “time savings” and second-most about “cost”). These will form the axes of your chart. The X-axis can represent the degree to which a solution provides priority #1, and the Y-axis represents how well it provides priority #2. Closer to the origin (0,0) means a poor outcome on that priority; farther out means a better outcome.
• Plot Your Product vs. Alternatives: On this graph, plot a point for your product, and points for key competitor products or the current solution (including the “do nothing/status quo” option). For example, if priority #1 is “time to market” and priority #2 is “cost savings”, maybe your product is very strong on time (far right) and moderately good on cost (mid-high on Y), whereas a competitor might save more cost but take longer time (so high Y, more middle on X). The ideal place to be is the top-right corner – meaning you excel on both top priorities. If your product isn’t in the top-right relative to others, that’s a warning sign that you may need to adjust your product or even re-check if you’re targeting the right segment/core.
• Refine with Customer Feedback: Show this competitive positioning chart to some target customers (it can be part of your ongoing interviews). Ask if it accurately reflects how they see the options. Adjust the chart if customers indicate you missed an important competitor or misjudged an attribute’s value. The final chart should be a credible depiction of the market landscape in terms of what customers value. It’s a great communication tool – at a glance, anyone (investors, team) can see why your solution is superior and different.
• Use the Insights: This exercise forces you to articulate why your value proposition is better than the rest, in qualitative terms. If you cannot place yourself clearly ahead on the most important metrics, either you need to sharpen your value proposition or reconsider segment/core. Also, by understanding competitors’ positions, you can plan how to message your strengths against their weaknesses. Remember not to get obsessed with competitors; focus on customers’ needs. But knowing the competitive position ensures you have a winning story in the market.

Step 12: Determine the Customer’s Decision-Making Unit (DMU)

Goal: Identify all the key players who have a say in the purchase decision for your product within your target customer’s organization or household. The Decision-Making Unit (DMU) can include the end user and others who influence or authorize the buying decision.

• Primary Roles in the DMU: Typically, there are three primary roles to account for:

  • Champion: The person who wants the product to be purchased – often the end user or someone who feels the pain point strongly and advocates for the solution.
  • End User: The person who will actually use the product. In a consumer context, the end user may also be the buyer; in a business context, the end user might be an employee while the purchase decision is made higher up.
  • Primary Economic Buyer: The person with the authority to approve spending the money. This is the decision-maker who controls the budget. It could be a manager, an executive, a procurement officer, or a parent in a household purchase – it varies, but this role holds the purse strings.

• Additional Influencers: Beyond the main three, consider other influences in the decision. Common ones include secondary influencers (industry experts, colleagues, or friends whose opinions sway the decision), people with veto power (e.g. an IT department that could block a software due to security concerns, or a spouse in a home purchase), and the formal purchasing department or legal/compliance if those are involved in vetting suppliers. Essentially, map out anyone who can push the decision toward a “Yes” or “No.”

• Research the DMU: Through customer interviews and observation, ask questions to uncover the process. For instance, you might ask your champion/end user: “If you wanted to adopt this product, how would the decision be made? Who would need to sign off or who might object?”. Questions like who controls the budget, who else needs to approve, and who might feel threatened by this solution will draw out the DMU members. Once identified, map the relationships (e.g. org chart or influence diagram) to visualize how a purchase would navigate through this group.

• Appeal to Each Player: If the champion or end user is not the economic buyer, you may need to create mini “personas” or fact sheets for those other roles as well. Understand their motivations: the CFO cares about ROI, the IT manager cares about security, etc. Your sales strategy should address each stakeholder’s concerns. By the end of this step, you should clearly know whose approval is needed to close a sale and what each of those people needs in order to say yes.

Step 13: Map the Process to Acquire a Paying Customer

Goal: Detail the step-by-step process of making a sale in your target market – from first contact with a lead all the way to the customer paying and receiving value. This sales process map ensures you understand the journey through the DMU and any operational hurdles, so you can design your sales and marketing approach realistically.

• Outline the Sales Steps: Based on what you’ve learned about the DMU and customer journey, list out each stage a prospect goes through to become a paying customer. This often includes stages like lead generation (how you find or attract initial interest), qualification (determining the prospect’s need and fit), demonstration or trial, proposal/quote, negotiation, closing the deal, and post-sale installation or onboarding. In B2B scenarios, also factor in formal processes such as RFPs, vendor approvals, or contracting. For each stage, note how long it takes (sales cycle timing) and who is involved from the DMU side.
• Include Marketing & Influencer Touchpoints: Incorporate how the customer first hears about you (marketing channels) and any steps where influencers come into play. For instance, your map might show that after initial awareness (perhaps via an ad or word-of-mouth), the customer seeks reviews or consultant advice, then contacts your sales rep, etc. Also consider regulatory or compliance checkpoints if relevant (e.g. healthcare or finance products might require certifications or legal reviews in the sales process).
• Budget and Authority Checks: At what point does the economic buyer step in? When is budget allocated? Understand if the purchase would come from an operating budget or capital budget on the customer side, as this affects timing and process (capital expenditures might need yearly budget approval, for example). Knowing this helps you plan the timing of sales (e.g. aligning with budget cycles).
• Identify Bottlenecks & Costs: Mark any potential bottlenecks or friction points – perhaps a certain approval takes 3 months, or a technical integration test is needed before purchase. Also think about the costs to you at each stage (this feeds into the next steps). For example, how much effort from your sales team is needed to go from demo to close? Are there expensive steps like attending trade shows or lengthy pilots? By mapping the full process, you can later assess how much each sale costs and where to streamline.
• Use the Map: This sales process map will be critical for training your sales team, planning marketing strategy, and calculating the Cost of Customer Acquisition. It also impresses investors if you can clearly articulate the path to revenue. Ensure you reality-check the map with someone experienced in the industry – they can validate if the steps and timelines are reasonable. Revise as needed, aiming for a clear, realistic depiction of how you will acquire customers step by step.

Step 14: Calculate the Total Addressable Market for Follow-on Markets

Goal: Look beyond the beachhead and estimate the TAM for future markets you might tackle after conquering your initial segment. This step is a scalability check – it shows long-term growth potential and informs investors that your startup can become much bigger.

• Identify Follow-on Markets: There are two basic types of expansion markets to consider:

  1. Upselling/Cross-selling to the Same Customers: New products or services you could sell to your existing customer base (once you have them). This leverages the fact that you’ll build trust and data from your beachhead customers – perhaps you can solve additional related problems for them (think of it as deepening the relationship).
  2. Adjacent Customer Segments: Taking your current product (or a slightly adapted version) to a different customer segment with similar needs. For instance, after dominating one niche, you might go after a neighboring niche or a new geography or a different industry that has a comparable pain point. This is akin to a “bowling pin” strategy – knock over one pin, then move to the next closest pin.

• List 5–10 Potential Markets: Brainstorm a list of plausible follow-on markets. They should be ones where your core strengths and product would also apply, even if some tweaks are needed. You don’t need to deeply research them now, but have an idea like “After software developers (beachhead), we could target IT project managers, then maybe other knowledge workers, etc.” Aim for around five or more follow-on markets; if you aspire to attract big venture capital, the cumulative TAM of beachhead + follow-ons should ideally exceed $1 billion to show a “unicorn” potential.

• Estimate TAMs Roughly: Do a quick TAM calculation for each follow-on market (like you did in Step 4 for the beachhead). This can be higher-level (top-down estimates are okay here) since you won’t have as much detail. The idea is to size the overall opportunity. Perhaps each follow-on is another $100M market, or you identify one adjacent market that’s huge. These numbers are mostly for strategic direction and for showing the future vision, rather than immediate action.

• Stay Focused on Beachhead: It’s crucial to note that this step is a brief research and thought exercise – you still should keep almost all your focus on winning the beachhead first. A common mistake is to prematurely chase multiple markets. Use the follow-on TAM analysis to ensure you won’t be stuck in a small market long-term and to communicate a growth story to investors. But operationally, don’t get distracted: success in the initial market will make follow-ons easier to conquer when the time comes.

Step 15: Design a Business Model

Goal: Determine how your startup will make money – i.e. choose a suitable business model for capturing the value you create. This involves deciding what exactly you will sell, to whom, and how (one-time sales, subscription, licensing, etc.), and ensuring it aligns with customer needs and your company’s capabilities.

• Customer-Centric Thinking: Start from the perspective of your customer and the DMU. Given how they prefer to buy and use solutions, what business model makes sense? Revisit information from Step 12 (DMU) and Step 13 (sales process). For example, does your customer expect to pay a one-time fee, or is a recurring charge acceptable? Are they more likely to rent/lease a service or buy a product outright? Consider how the distribution channel (direct, online, distributors, etc.) might affect your model (some channels lend themselves to subscription or usage-based models).
• Explore Model Options: Be creative; there are many possible models. Aulet provides 17 example models in the book, including common ones like: one-time upfront purchase (with possible maintenance fees), cost-plus (price = cost + margin), subscription or SaaS (pay per month/year), licensing (pay to use IP), consumables/razor-blade (sell base cheap, make money on refills), advertising-supported, data resale, transaction fees (e.g. take a cut of each transaction), freemium (free basic product, charge for premium features), and so on. List all models that could apply to your product and market. Don’t restrict yourself to how competitors do it – an innovative business model can disrupt a market.
• No “Free” without a Plan: A key warning – “free” is not a business model by itself. Simply hoping to get users and monetize later (without a clear idea how) is dangerous. If you consider a freemium or ad-supported approach, explicitly plan how it leads to revenue (e.g. advertising model requires achieving large user base in a niche attractive to advertisers, data model requires data that others will pay for, etc.).
• Select and Refine: Pick the model that best fits your situation and test it conceptually. Ensure that with this model, you can eventually make more money from a customer (LTV) than it costs to acquire them (COCA) – upcoming steps will quantify that. It may take some trial and error: you could even pilot multiple models in small scale to see what customers respond to (e.g. try both subscription and one-time pricing with different beta customers). But by the end of this step, have a primary business model outlined that you will carry forward. Remember, once you have paying customers, pivoting your model is hard, so think it through now. The model design sets the stage for pricing in the next step.

Step 16: Set Your Pricing Framework

Goal: Establish a preliminary pricing strategy for your product, rooted in the value it delivers and consistent with your business model. This is about defining how you will price (high-level), not the exact price point yet.

• Value-Based Pricing: The fundamental rule is to price based on customer value, not your cost. Calculate how much monetary value your product provides (from the Quantified Value Proposition in Step 8) – then typically set your price to give the customer a strong ROI. A common approach: ensure the customer gets, say, 4–5 times the value of what they pay (i.e. if you save them $1000, you might charge $200) so they feel it’s a great deal. Never simply do “cost-plus” pricing for an innovative product; customers don’t care about your costs, only their own gain. In fact, keep your costs confidential (even your sales team doesn’t need to know the exact margins).
• Consider Customer Budget and Alternatives: Look at how your target customers budget for this kind of solution (info from DMU research). If your price is above typical budget thresholds (e.g. a department head might sign off purchases under $10k, beyond that needs higher approval), you might adjust to stay within an easier buy range. Also research competitor or alternative solution pricing. If you offer significantly more value, you might command a premium; if entering a market with established price expectations, you might price in line initially. Different customer segments also have different willingness to pay – early adopters might pay more for a new solution, whereas mainstream customers demand lower prices.
• High Price First, Then Adjust: It’s generally easier to start with a higher price and offer discounts than to start low and later raise prices. Early in a product’s life, you might have fewer customers who are desperate for a solution (tech enthusiasts, etc.), and they might tolerate a higher price. You can reward initial customers with special deals without publicly setting a low list price. Over time, you can lower prices or introduce cheaper tiers if needed (scaling up volume can offset lower prices). But if you start too low, raising prices on existing customers can create backlash. So set an aspirational price point initially and be flexible to negotiate down case-by-case.
• Iterate as You Learn: This step sets a framework, but expect your pricing to evolve through experimentation. You might not finalize exact dollar amounts until you test with real customers (some startups even A/B test pricing). The main objective now is to ensure your pricing logic is sound and tied to value – so when you later calculate metrics like Lifetime Value, they’re based on rational pricing assumptions. Pricing is a powerful lever: done right, it maximizes your revenue; done wrong, it can stifle adoption or leave money on the table. Keep revisiting pricing as you proceed.

Step 17: Calculate the Lifetime Value (LTV) of an Acquired Customer

Goal: Compute the Lifetime Value (LTV) – the total profit you expect to earn from an average customer over a reasonable lifetime (often 5 years for a startup projection). This helps determine if the business is financially viable when compared to acquisition costs.

• Time Horizon: Use a standard period (Aulet suggests 5 years) to project customer value. A customer might stay longer, but 5 years is a practical horizon for calculations given uncertainties. For each year from 0 to 5, you’ll estimate the cash flows from a single customer.
• Revenue Streams: List all sources of revenue from one customer over time. This includes the primary product sales (one-time or subscription fees), any recurring maintenance or subscription payments, upsells to premium features or add-ons, cross-sells of related products, etc. Map out when these occur (e.g. initial purchase in year 0, renewals in years 1–4, additional purchase in year 2, etc.).
• Gross Margin and Costs: For each revenue, determine the gross margin (revenue minus the direct cost to serve that customer for that revenue). Gross margin is used rather than raw revenue because it reflects profit contribution. Include any cost of goods, servicing, or support that scales with that customer’s use. Fixed overhead is not included here. Also consider retention – e.g. if you have a subscription, maybe only 80% renew each year, so factor in a drop-off (retention rate) to your revenue stream beyond year 1.
• Present Value Adjustment: Because money in the future is worth less than money now, discount future profits to present value. Choose a cost of capital (discount) rate that reflects startup risk – often quite high (Aulet suggests something like 30–75% for startups). For each year’s profit from the customer, apply the discount factor (e.g. Year 1 profit discounted by factor (1+rate)^1, etc.). Sum these discounted profits for years 0 through 4 (if year 0 is the initial sale and years 1–4 follow). That sum is the LTV per customer.
• Interpretation: This LTV is a key number. Investors often want LTV to be at least 3 times the Cost of Customer Acquisition (calculated next). That 3x rule of thumb provides buffer for unaccounted costs and indicates you can earn back your marketing/sales investment in a customer with profit. If your LTV is too low relative to COCA, you either need to increase customer value (maybe via pricing or more sales per customer) or reduce costs. This calculation may seem complex, but it’s vital to understanding your unit economics; Aulet emphasizes going through it carefully (and he explains it clearly in the book). If math isn’t your strength, get help or use templates – but know your LTV.

Step 18: Map the Sales Process to Acquire a Customer

Goal: Develop a detailed Sales Roadmap or “Revenue Engine” for how you will reach, sell to, and service customers over time. This builds on Step 13’s process map, incorporating how the process and cost might evolve in short, medium, and long term as you scale.

• Short-Term (Customer Acquisition Phase): Early on, your focus is on acquiring your first customers and validating the model. Typically, this involves high-touch, direct sales efforts. You might have a few salespeople (or the founders themselves) reaching out directly, doing demos, and hand-holding customers through adoption. This is resource-intensive – expect your Cost of Customer Acquisition to be high initially – but necessary to get traction. Also invest in demand generation: early marketing might include attending conferences, running targeted campaigns, engaging on social media, etc., to create awareness and leads for the sales team.
• Medium-Term (Scaling Sales): Once you have initial customers, focus shifts to increasing efficiency and starting to scale. You’ll still be fulfilling orders and aggressively bringing in new customers, but you can begin adding more scalable channels. For example, you might bring on distribution partners or resellers to widen reach, especially for smaller accounts, while your costly direct sales team focuses on the largest, most valuable customers. You’ll also emphasize customer success and upselling – managing existing clients to ensure they’re happy (retention) and possibly buying more (expansion revenue). Marketing efforts might broaden (content marketing, referral programs, etc.) to reduce reliance on one-to-one sales.
• Long-Term (Sustaining Growth): In the long run, you want a repeatable, scalable sales process. Likely you’ll have a more mature mix of channels: perhaps a self-serve online option for smaller customers, a partner network, and a refined direct sales org for enterprise deals. You’ll also face competition by now, so expect to adapt your process as needed (differentiating with better service or more efficient marketing). Continuously refine how you target and convert leads, aiming to lower COCA and keep LTV > COCA.
• Document and Vet the Plan: Lay all this out in a sales funnel or pipeline diagram with metrics (e.g. conversion rates, sales cycle length in each phase). Identify costs at each stage: e.g. sales staff salaries, commissions, marketing spend per channel, support costs, etc.. Once drafted, review this sales model with an industry veteran or mentor to catch any overly optimistic assumptions. This living plan will guide how you allocate resources to sales/marketing and sets expectations for customer growth.

Step 19: Calculate the Cost of Customer Acquisition (COCA)

Goal: Determine, for each phase (short, medium, long term), how much it costs to acquire one customer on average. COCA (also known as CAC) is derived from your sales and marketing expense forecasts, and it’s crucial to ensure your COCA will become lower than your LTV for a profitable business.

• Use Aggregate Costs and Customers: To find COCA, take the total sales and marketing costs for a given period and divide by the number of new customers acquired in that period. Do this for short-term (e.g. first year), medium-term (next couple years), and longer term (years 4–5). Early on, your COCA may be very high (it could even exceed LTV initially) because you’re investing a lot to get early adopters. Over time, as word-of-mouth grows and processes improve, COCA should drop significantly.
• Include All Sales & Marketing Expenses: Be comprehensive in tallying costs: sales salaries, commissions, travel, the time founders spend selling (yes, that has an opportunity cost), marketing spend (ads, content creation, PR, trade shows, website, consultants) – basically any expense aimed at acquiring new customers. Note: exclude costs related to serving existing customers (customer support or retention costs) – COCA is specifically about acquiring new ones. For example, if you spend $100k on marketing in a quarter and $200k on sales personnel (fully loaded) in that quarter, and you signed 100 new customers in that time, your COCA = ($300k / 100) = $3,000 per customer.
• Use Realistic Forecasts: Base your numbers on the sales process mapped in Step 18. Forecast how many customers you realistically expect to close in each period (get input from experienced sales people to avoid naive projections). Likewise, forecast expenses by listing all required activities (from Step 18’s plan) and their costs. It’s easy to underestimate COCA – founders often are too optimistic about how fast sales will come or forget certain costs. To counter this, follow the rule “under-promise and over-deliver” in projections – be conservative in estimating sales and generous in counting costs.
• Analyze and Improve: Once you have COCA figures, compare them to LTV. If in later years COCA is not comfortably lower than LTV (remember the 3x LTV:COCA guideline), rethink your strategy. Brainstorm how to reduce COCA: can you automate some marketing, leverage cheaper channels (social media, email) instead of expensive direct sales, improve conversion rates in the funnel, generate more word-of-mouth referrals to get free leads, etc.? All of these can lower COCA. The goal is a path to profitability where acquiring customers yields net value. By understanding COCA, you’re grounding your business in economic reality – a necessary step before scaling up.

Step 20: Identify Key Assumptions

Goal: List and acknowledge the critical assumptions you have made so far in your business plan. These could be assumptions about customer behavior, costs, technology, market growth, etc. that must be true for your venture to succeed. Identifying them explicitly allows you to test them in the next step.

• Review Each Step for Assumptions: Go back through your work in Steps 1–19 and pinpoint where you’re relying on things that aren’t yet proven. For example: “We assume customers will be willing to pay $X for our product,” or “We assume a sales cycle of 3 months,” or “We assume our churn rate will be 20%,” or “We assume feature A is essential to users”. Pay special attention to any rosy projections (e.g., high gross margins, rapid customer growth) – those are often assumptions worth testing.
• Focus on the Crucial Ones: Not all assumptions are equal; prioritize the top 5–10 “leap of faith” assumptions that really matter. A key assumption typically is one that, if it’s wrong, would fundamentally change your business’s viability or strategy. For instance, if your whole model assumes a $1000 price point, what if the market will only pay $100? That’s critical. If you assume a certain technology can be developed by June, or that 10% of users will share the product with others (virality), those are big assumptions too. List these out clearly.
• Document Assumptions Without Judgment: At this stage, don’t worry about how you will test them or whether you’re sure – just get them on paper. Sometimes teams avoid writing down assumptions because implicit optimism biases them. But being honest about assumptions is healthy; it doesn’t make you pessimistic, it makes you rigorous. It can help to phrase them as questions: “Will X% of website visitors sign up for a trial?” or “Can we produce the product at <$Y cost per unit?”
• Prepare for Testing: These assumptions will directly feed into Step 21, where you design tests. By the end of Step 20, you should have a prioritized list of uncertainties that need validation. This list becomes your checklist of risks to mitigate. In essence, Step 20 is about moving from “We believe…” to “Let’s verify if…” for each key aspect of the business model.

Step 21: Test Key Assumptions

Goal: Design and execute experiments to validate or refute your key assumptions as quickly and cheaply as possible. This step is about getting real data to replace guesswork, thereby de-risking your venture.

• Prioritize Tests: Take the list from Step 20 and decide which assumptions to test first. Usually, you tackle the assumptions that carry the highest risk or uncertainty (the ones that could kill the business if wrong). You may not have time or resources to test everything at once, so sequence the tests intelligently.
• Design Minimal Experiments: For each assumption, figure out the simplest way to get evidence. You don’t need a full product to test a concept. For example: if you assume customers will pay a certain price, you could test by asking for pre-orders or letters of intent at that price. If you assume a certain cost, call suppliers for quotes (a quick RFQ). If you doubt a feature’s importance, create a simple demo or even a mockup and see if customers get excited about it. The key is empirical data over opinions.
• Engage Customers in Testing: Many assumptions revolve around customer behavior (willingness to pay, feature preferences, etc.). The best tests involve actual or potential customers. For instance, to test demand, you might build a landing page describing the product and see if people sign up or click “Buy” (smoke test). To test if they’ll take a certain action, ask them directly in a scenario or have them try a manual concierge version of your service. If possible, meet customers face-to-face during tests (like presenting a prototype and gauging reaction) – you’ll get richer feedback including body language and tone.
• Iterate and Learn: If a test confirms an assumption, great – one less uncertainty. If it invalidates an assumption (e.g. customers balk at the price, or a feature doesn’t entice interest), treat it as a valuable learning. You can now adjust: maybe modify the product, target a different customer segment, or tweak your pricing or business model. The process of disciplined entrepreneurship is iterative; as Aulet notes, you often have to refine earlier steps with new knowledge. Testing assumptions complements all the market research you did – it bridges the gap between theory and practice. By the end of Step 21, you should have evidence-backed answers for your most critical unknowns, giving you confidence to move forward with building the business (or pivot if the tests reveal a fatal flaw).

Step 22: Define the Minimum Viable Business Product (MVBP)

Goal: Combine everything learned into creating the Minimum Viable Business Product, the simplest version of your product that customers will pay for and use, thereby validating your business on a small scale. MVBP is an extension of the MVP concept (Minimum Viable Product) with an emphasis that customers get value, pay money, and provide feedback.

• Core Requirements of MVBP: Aulet defines three must-haves for an MVBP:

  1. The customer gets value from using it – i.e. it actually solves the key problem or delivers the main benefit (even if in a limited way).
  2. The customer pays for it – this proves that the value is worth money to them (could be actual payment or a strong commitment to pay).
  3. It’s sufficient to start the feedback loop – the product is good enough that customers will actively use it and you can learn from their usage to improve it.

• Build Just Enough Product: Using the results of your assumption tests, decide on the minimal feature set that delivers the primary value proposition. List your key assumptions again and ensure the MVBP is designed to test the most important ones as a whole system. For example, if your product requires a mobile app and a backend service, you might launch with only one core function implemented, no frills, just to see if people use and pay. Resist scope creep – no extra “nice to have” features at this stage. Every additional feature is another variable that can muddy your learning or delay getting to market.

• Special Cases (Two-Sided Markets): If your business model involves two different customer groups (e.g. a marketplace with buyers and sellers, or an ad-supported model with users and advertisers), you need to ensure the MVBP addresses both. Often one side is free (users) and the other side pays (advertisers, etc.). In such cases, Aulet suggests: for the primary (free) user, the MVBP must deliver value and encourage continued use (requirements #1 and #3), and for the paying customer, it must deliver value and they pay (#1, #2, #3). In other words, the overall system needs to demonstrate a working mini-version of the business model (e.g. enough users to interest one advertiser who pays – proving the concept).

• Get It to Customers Quickly: The MVBP should be developed and delivered to at least a subset of your target customers as soon as possible. The goal is to see in real conditions if “the dogs will eat the dog food” (Step 23) – i.e. will people actually use this solution and pay for it. Treat the MVBP like an experiment: it’s not your final product, but it’s a test of your integrated assumptions in the market. Once it’s in customers’ hands, gather feedback and be ready to iterate rapidly.

Step 23: Show That “the Dogs Will Eat the Dog Food”

Goal: Prove that real customers will buy and use your MVBP in a real-world setting. This step is about obtaining evidence of customer traction – that your solution solves a problem so well that customers are willing to pay for it and actually adopt it.

• Launch and Observe: Release your MVBP to your early customers (this could be through a pilot program, beta launch, or selling your first few units). Observe what happens: Are customers indeed paying for it (even at a small scale or discounted price)? Are they using it as anticipated? The colloquial phrase “dogs eating the dog food” means your target users (the “dogs”) are devouring the product you put out (the “food”), confirming product-market fit at a small scale.
• Collect Data on Usage and Engagement: Now is the time to measure everything. How many users actually use the product regularly? How often? Which features do they use or ignore? Do they come back (retention)? Also monitor advocacy: do they tell others about it or invite colleagues (word-of-mouth)? High engagement and referral are strong signals of genuine value and can even help lower your COCA via viral effects.
• Validate Willingness to Pay: It’s critical to confirm that the exchange of value (payment) happens. If you offered the MVBP for free to test usage, now try to start charging, even a little. The ultimate proof is revenue – even a handful of real sales or paid subscriptions show that the business model works. If people love the product but won’t pay, you may need to adjust the model or pricing. Aulet notes that where you set the price at this stage is less important than the fact that they will pay something – you can fine-tune price later. Early customers paying is a huge validation.
• Analyze Feedback Honestly: Not everything will be perfect. Gather qualitative feedback: what do customers like or dislike? Any unmet needs or suggestions? Identify any trends in the feedback or usage data. Crucially, be honest with yourself about the results. If engagement is low or customers are hesitant to pay, resist rationalizing it away – instead, figure out why. Maybe the product needs improvement, or you targeted the wrong customer segment, etc. The purpose of this step is to confront reality: ensure there is genuine demand and satisfaction. If “the dogs are not eating the dog food,” it’s far better to find out now and iterate than to scale up a flawed offering. When you do see strong uptake, you can move forward confidently.

Step 24: Develop a Product Plan

Goal: With proof of concept in hand, lay out a plan for scaling the product beyond the MVBP – adding features, improving quality, and expanding to follow-on markets. This final step is about charting the future development roadmap while maintaining focus.

• Enhance the Product (Beachhead Focused): Review all the features and ideas you purposely held back from the MVBP. Now decide which ones to implement next to make the product more complete for the beachhead market. Prioritize features that address feedback from the MVBP users or that are necessary to stay ahead of competitors. Ensure quality – as you add features, maintain a high standard because early users’ perception will shape your reputation. Fix any bugs or UX issues discovered in the MVBP round. The goal is to turn the MVBP into a fully robust product that can satisfy the broader beachhead market (not just early adopters).
• Plan for Follow-on Markets: Revisit your Step 14 analysis. Based on current success, choose what the next target market (or product extension) should be and outline how to approach it. This could involve slight product modifications, new marketing strategies, or additional features specific to that segment. For each follow-on market, draft a mini-plan: what’s the value proposition and persona there, and does it require changes to the product or business model? However, stagger these expansions – you may decide to nail one follow-on at a time. Use the same disciplined approach for each new segment (many of the 24 steps can be repeated for new markets).
• Balance Growth and Current Customers: One caution: as you plan forward, don’t neglect your beachhead customers who got you here. Continue servicing them excellently, as they are the foundation (and a source of cash flow and credibility) that will fund and support expansion. It’s a tricky balance – you must simultaneously keep your first market happy and operationally healthy, and drive towards future opportunities. The product plan should include how you’ll allocate resources to ensure the beachhead remains strong while new development occurs.
• Iterate the Plan: Recognize that any long-term plan is subject to change. Aulet reminds us that you will likely revise your plans multiple times as you grow. The market might evolve, new competitors appear, or customer needs shift. Thus, treat this product and market expansion plan as a living document. It provides direction and milestones (e.g. “By Q4, release Version 2.0 with X features, enter Market B in next year”), but remain agile. The discipline you applied in these 24 steps should continue as a cycle of learning and iterating. In essence, Step 24 is not an “end” but the beginning of execution at scale – armed with a comprehensive understanding of your business, you are now ready to grow methodically and successfully.

Each of these 24 steps builds on the previous ones, forming a comprehensive roadmap from idea to a thriving startup. By following this disciplined approach – from identifying a focused customer and quantifying your solution’s value, through designing a viable business model and testing it in the market – entrepreneurs can dramatically improve their chances of success. The process is iterative; learning in later steps often loops back to refine earlier assumptions. But with this framework, you have a toolkit to systematically create, refine, and scale an innovative product, transforming an initial idea into a sustainable business.