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Startup Secrets Sandbox
  • Pages
    • Welcome to YOUR Startup Secrets Sandbox
      • icon picker
        About Startup Secrets
      • About this Sandbox
      • FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
      • Creative Commons Attribution
    • Customer Value Proposition
      • Synopsis: Customer Value Proposition
      • Frameworks
        • DEFINE the Problem or Opportunity
          • MVS - Minimum Viable Segment
            • Beware: Don't Overlook Your MVS
            • Demandware case study & video
            • MVS compared to a beachhead
          • 4U
          • BLAC and White
            • BLAC and White moves
              • Market timing
            • YouTube: A Case Example of BLAC and White
            • Netflix, Spotify and JioCinemas in India
          • Whole Problem
        • EVALUATE the Solution
          • 3D
          • Gain/Pain
          • DEBT
            • Apple Pay case example from WSJ
          • Whole Product
            • Tesla DEBT
          • Partnerships
            • Strategic partners
        • Assemble Your Value Proposition
        • YOU: Founder-Market Fit
        • Applying Your Value Proposition
      • Customer Value Proposition AI
      • Slides
      • Video Recording
      • Articles
      • Worksheet / Canvases
      • Example Tools
        • Customer Discovery & Interview Script
    • Customer-Centric Business Model
      • Frameworks
        • Business Model as a Disruptor
        • CORE
        • Multipliers and Levers
          • Products that SLIP
          • Package for Pull
            • Bundling
              • 4 Myths of Bundling
              • Bundling Tooklit
              • Podcast
          • Co-Create a Win-Win
            • Acquia's Story
          • 3Up
        • Customer-Centric Models
        • RSVPD
      • Workshop Slide Deck
      • Video Recording
      • Business Model Examples
        • Stories and a Startup Secret from decades of business model innovation
    • Build a Product That Scales Into a Company
      • Perspective: Building Products into Companies
      • Frameworks
        • The Product-Company Gap
        • Design for Product-GTM Fit
          • Value Proposition
          • Minimum Viable Segment
          • Repeatable Products
        • Architect Your Business Model
          • Products that SLIP
            • Simple to Install and Use
            • Low to No Initial Cost
            • Instant and Ongoing Value
            • Play Well in the Ecosystem
          • Package for Pull
          • Whole Product Partnerships
      • Slides
      • Video Recordings
      • SLIPPERY related to PLG
    • Vision, Mission & Values: Create an Authentic Culture
      • Frameworks
        • Founder-Market Fit
          • What are you uniquely qualified for?
        • Elements of Culture
          • Vision
          • Mission
          • Culture
            • Values
        • Operationalize Your Culture
          • Communicate
          • Reinforce
          • Evolve
      • Slides
      • Video - What It Takes: Vision, Mission, Culture
    • Hiring and team building
    • Go to Market
      • Framework - GTM overview
      • Video and Slides - GTM
    • Perfect Your Fundraising Pitch
      • Workbook: Perfect Your Fundraising Pitch
      • Frameworks
        • Business Overview
        • Team
        • Key Problem & Opportunity
        • Solution
        • Vision: Why Now? AND For The Future.
          • Balancing Vision and Execution
        • Traction & Proof Points
        • Business Model
        • Market Size
        • Competitive Landscape
        • Fundraising Needs & Milestones
      • Slides: Getting Behind The Perfect Pitch
      • Video: Getting Behind The Perfect Pitch
      • Article: Elevator question
    • Funding strategies to go the distance
      • Funding Market Fit
      • Questions arising
    • Personal Entrepreneurship
      • Problem solving
        • Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX
      • Are you curious what mindset it takes to be a successful founder?
      • Have you got what it takes?
      • Roadmap to success
      • People First
      • Mutual Mentorship
        • Peer Mentoring (Founder-to-Founder)
        • Mutual Mentorship (Mentor–Mentee Relationships)
        • Master Mentorship (Mentoring the Mentors)
        • Mentorship Resources for Startups
      • Founders Can't Scale: Fact or Fiction?
      • 3 Examples of Why You CAN Afford to Fail
    • Glossary for learning
    • How to comment in Coda
      • What is Coda?

About Startup Secrets

A not for profit dedicated to bringing resources to underserved entrepreneurs

A personal note from Michael Skok

In many ways Startup Secrets is a startup itself! Created for the Harvard i Lab in 2012, it was born out of a need to provide a basic understanding of what it takes to start a company and build a business. Based on my own experience of what I wished I’d known when I started my first company, I humbly began to just share everything I could. The team running the iLab at the time suggested we needed a stronger calling card and came up with the name Startup Secrets. I quipped at the time that my job would be to ensure there were no secrets by the time we’d finished!
Over a decade later, with over 10 million views on YouTube alone, we’re humbled by the reach of the program, and people’s response to it. Given how much the entrepreneurial world is changing and how much we all have to learn, I’m continuing to engage with even more ventures; working to expose more and more Startup Secrets, from the great founders I’m lucky enough to connect with, invest in, work with, and mentor. They are generously responding and if you’re one of them I hope you’ll also share your real world case examples to enrich us all. You are the real stars of Startup Secrets and I’m very grateful to you for sharing you learnings with us all and not just from success but also the inevitable failures we all learn from. I celebrate you all for the challenges you’ve overcome and for sharing them with us.

Mission driven

Since Startup Secrets was founded in 2012, I’ve been mission driven not content ownership driven. (See ). All the while, more and more has been written about startups. There is a lot that is truly excellent and it causes me to keep raising the bar to ensure we’re adding value and not just confusing potential entrepreneurs. And so I’ve done my best to
stay humble and keep learning
be inclusive of other’s thinking where it’s consistent - or learn from it and adapt my own, always giving credit where it is due, as I have no pride of authorship, just a mission to provide the best learning experience
be deferential and acknowledging of other great startup material that is out there that is original and incorporate it or reference it. (Your help will be appreciated by commenting to bring my attention to it!)
keep open minded and curious and constantly seek to improve as I focus on the mission of inspiring entrepreneurs like you to solve real world problems
expand the content to cover more and more use cases such as not for profit, for cause and impact oriented ventures in areas like tough tech.
(My personal operating experience was mainly B2B and B2B2C tech. Accordingly, I apologize in advance if any bias comes through based on the limits of what I’ve learned personally. Just know I’m constantly striving to learn from every entrepreneur I encounter in every field in which they operate to be more inclusive.)
Thanks in advance for participating and bringing whatever you can to Startup Secrets for others to learn from.
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