Why Startups Work with Us

Most startups fail, and the number one reason is something most founders have a hard time accepting: indifference. Customers can be indifferent to a new product because it doesn’t solve their problem, or solves but creates new problems, or raises issues they don’t want to face, or fixes something they’ve otherwise learned to live with. In contrast, authentic demand creates a situation where customers default to buying and using a new innovation, and fail to buy only when there are extenuating circumstances. DDG works with founders to uncover authentic demand and to center their companies around offering what customer’s cannot not buy.

We select companies to work with using a careful, bias-reducing process that has historically led to an extraordinarily diverse array of founders.  We look for domain expertise, creativity, and appropriate technology chops. But above all, we look for founders with the drive to be the protagonists in their own story and at the same time the confidence and discipline to question their assumptions and manage their cognitive illusions.

Working with DDG is unlike any accelerator or mentorship program. Founders are trained in methods to manage their assumptions and gather in-depth, un-biased information about potential customers and the situations they inhabit. Then they are supported through a four-month sprint that involves conducting hundreds of customer interactions, and refining customer situation maps and grip-to-grip maps. These activities are all aimed at uncovering an opportunity to meet unmet authentic demand.

Founders are busy, and many believe they already understand their customers. They worry that they don’t have time for a program like DDG. However, VCs tell us that our program accelerates startups, one senior VC told us that he likes investing in our alumni because our program makes them better entrepreneurs. Another said that our program helped startups focus on customer demand early (avoiding a later pivot) and effectively allowed them to skip a whole round of funding.

If the main problem your startup faces is getting enough product built and out the door to meet the demands of your customers, then you don’t need DDG. Otherwise, we can help you build a successful startup.

Our Approach

Discover Demand

The first phase is the search for Authentic Demand. We train Co-creators in foundational concepts of Deliberate Innovation that are distinct from how anyone else thinks about startups and are not taught in business schools. Building on this foundation, we then coach and support Co-creators through hundreds of Documented Primary Interactions (DPIs) - a new and more rigorous way of understanding customers. In contrast to typical interviews, DPIs are better thought of as data collection for scientific research. DPI planning involves hypothesis generation, implementation, recording, and analysis. A single DPI is one sample in a research study.

Address Demand

After hundreds of DPIs, if Authentic Demand is found and presents a compelling market opportunity, the project matures into a startup and enters the next phase. A clear understanding of Authentic Demand serves as a bright north star for product road map, and, in fact, the architecture of the company. The startup develops their leadership team, builds product, markets and sells the product, and raises financing. Investors we worked with have said startups utilizing Deliberate Innovation are able to skip a round of funding.

Ongoing Support

We continually check in and support the founders we work with. Every business is a trend. Customer identities, demands, and “not nots” are perpetually evolving. Deliberate Innovation tools continue to be valuable to startups as they scale, build new products, and explore new market opportunities.

Community

While DDG focuses on building businesses with EIRs, independent companies and their founders are an important part of our community of practice. We have a lot of experience working with founders to help them think more clearly about their business.

Demand First

DDG builds demand into the product; before the marketing goes in.

If you have more demand than you can handle, you need a different kind of support. But history shows that most startups face another problem: their potential customers are mostly indifferent to their offerings, are hard to reach, and have lots of questions and objections. Selling to them is like pulling teeth. The majority of startups fail because the market doesn’t authentically demand their product. This is where we make a big difference.

We partner with experienced founders who care about their customers and recognize that understanding what motivates them is essential to creating a successful business. One founder we worked with said: “I’ve built enough successful companies and divisions of companies to know something. At Flashpoint I learned to think and understand things in a new way. It’s changed how we’re building our current company and how I’ll build companies in the future.”. They are eager to understand the distortions in the lens through which they see themselves and their customers.

How do founders work with DDG?

Founders work with our Deliberate Innovation experts in a sprint process. Together, they interact (in a highly structured way) with potential customers and stakeholders to uncover Authentic Demand. Our sprints are four months long and involve workshops to learn DI, office hours with experts, and hundreds of conversations. Founders also gain access to our network of potential advisors and investors. DDG usually invests the capital necessary to support a startup taking the time and effort to participate in a sprint, and may also invest at the end of the sprint on a case-by-case basis.

How do I learn more about partnering with DDG?

Email us at hello@demanddiscoverygroup.com.