Don’t Forget The Engine

A Tesla might be a stylish and stunning car, but it’s useless if the engine doesn’t work. For a startup, the core product is the engine that drives it forward. Founders sometimes get distracted by shiny features — an amazing office culture, partnerships with marquee brands, a slick marketing program — before they’ve perfected their core differentiator. Startups can’t run without an engine, and founders need to focus on perfecting that before planning anything else.

Map out your business model here. The last blank should show you how much money you have left over at the end of the transaction to re-invest in marketing, and the second-to-last blank should show how much the customer pays you. You need to ensure your model generates enough profit to continue marketing your product and acquiring new customers.