Miranor Startup Evaluator

1. What is the primary goal of your start-up?

• Create a new and cool piece of technology unlike anything on the market today

  Describe it in a sentence:

  Examples:

  • App that enables your phone's accelerometer to measure your body weight
  • Smart wand: a wand-shaped device that can lock/unlock doors, light the way, and more
  • Full-size umbrella that can fit in your wallet when folded

• Provide a better alternative to an existing product

  How is it different, and what is the existing product?

  Examples:

  • Search engine that returns better results than Google
  • Social network with a more user-friendly interface than Facebook
  • Smartphone battery that can work 10 days without recharging

• Solve a real and pressing problem or pain

  Does any of your team members experience this problem/pain themselves? (Select from the list)YesNo

  Describe the problem/pain in a sentence:

  Examples:

  • Dogs left home alone: neighbors suffer from endless barking/howling, and dogs suffer from loneliness, hunger, heat/cold, and inability to relieve themselves
  • Physical therapy is not as efficient as it can be, because many patients perform prescribed exercises wrongly and not on schedule
  • People who live alone are more likely to die from a heart attack, because there's no one to call 911 if they collapse

• Try out a brand new business model

  Describe this model in a sentence:

• None of the above

  Describe your goal in a sentence:

Tip: If more than one option applies, select the most important one for you, the one that made you want to start this venture in the first place.

2. Who will be your primary paying customers (select the most promising/relevant one)?

• People or businesses that will pay for using your product (even if optionally, including personal donations), or pay for its premium features, or for related services (support, tutoring, etc.)

  How much do you expect an average paying customer to pay per year?
  (Select from the list)Less than $10$10 to $99$100 to $999$1000 to $9999$10,000 to $99,999$100,000 or moreDon't know

  How many potential paying customers like this are there worldwide?
  (Select from the list)Less than 10,00010,000 to 99,999100,000 to 999,9991 to 9 million10 to 99 million100 to 999 million1 billion or moreDon't know

• Businesses or organizations that will NOT use you product, but will pay for some statistical/aggregate information about your users (behavior, preferences, social ties, etc.)

  How much do you expect each business/organization to pay per year?
  (Select from the list)Less than $1000$1000 to $9999$10,000 to $99,999$100,000 to $999,999$1 to $9 million$10 million or moreDon't know

  How many such businesses/organizations are there worldwide?
  (Select from the list)Less than 100100 to 9991000 to 999910,000 to 99,999100,000 to 999,9991 to 9 million10 million or moreDon't know

• Organizations, agencies, or wealthy individuals that will donate money so that people could enjoy your product for free, including sponsorships and government/municipal funding/subsidizing

• Suppliers/contributors, i.e. our product is a marketplace where suppliers sell something to consumers (products, services, media, content) and pay us fee/percentage from every sale

  How many potential consumers (NOT suppliers) for your marketplace are there worldwide?
  (Select from the list)Less than 10,00010,000 to 99,999100,000 to 999,9991 to 9 million10 to 99 million100 to 999 million1 billion or moreDon't know

  How much money do you expect an average consumer to spend in your marketplace per year?
  (Select from the list)Less than $10$10 to $99$100 to $999$1000 to $9999$10,000 to $99,999$100,000 or moreDon't know

• Advertisers, i.e. the money will come from advertising to users

  How many potential users (free+paying) are there worldwide?
  (Select from the list)Less than 1 million1 to 9 million10 to 99 million100 to 999 million1 billion or moreDon't know

• We don't worry about revenues at this point - we'll think about it later

• We don't care about the money - we're a non-profit

• None of the above

  Describe your paying customers:

Tip: If you don't know how much a customer is willing to pay, then find a few potential customers and ask them, or at least imagine yourself in their position and think how much you would be willing to pay for this product.

3. How and where will you find your first 1000 customers (check all that apply)?

• We have a full access to a large forum/community/group (online or offline) with thousands of members (or more), most of whom are our potential customers, and the rules of this forum allow commercial promotions

• A person of significant authority for our potential customers (thought leader, high-ranking official, celebrity, etc.) has agreed to promote our product

• A large company or organization has agreed to promote (or even market) our product using their own channels

• We will rely on organic promotion, including SEO, word-of-mouth, and posts in our blog which was created for this purpose

• We will create a viral online/email campaign

• We will ask our friends and family to use or even buy our product and spread the word

• We will rely on "door-to-door marketing", pitching potential customers in person (including during conferences/conventions)

• We will run a paid ad campaign on Google, Facebook, etc.

• Something else (instead of, or in addition to the above)

  Describe your marketing channel(s):

4. How big and dedicated is your team?

• I am a part-time solopreneur (developing and marketing the product by myself in my spare time)

• I am a full-time solopreneur (developing and marketing the product by myself at least 40 hours a week)

• I am a sole/principal full-time founder with a small team of freelancers, employees, or part-time co-founders

• We are 2, 3, or 4 founders, working on the startup in our spare time until we get funded - then we will become full-time founders

  Do you have a written founders agreement? (Select from the list)YesNoWhat's a founders agreement?

• We are 2, 3, or 4 founders, and at least two of us work on the startup full-time (no other job or startup)

  Do you have a written founders agreement? (Select from the list)YesNoWhat's a founders agreement?

• We are a team of 5 or more founders

  Do you have a written founders agreement? (Select from the list)YesNoWhat's a founders agreement?

• None of the above

  Describe your team:

Note: For this purpose, a founder is a team member with more than 10% of equity and a place on the board of directors.

5. What is your "unfair advantage" or "secret sauce" (check all that apply)?

• We are the first ones on the market because no one else has thought of our idea yet

• We have secured a substantial investment ($500K or more) for developing our product and/or business, including self-investment

• We have been accepted to an accelerator/incubator program with our idea

  How much cash do you get from them? (Select from the list)More than $20,000$5000 to $20,000$0 to $5000We have to pay them

• At least one of our founders is a serial entrepreneur that has previously made a successful "exit" (sold the company for $10M or more)

• Our team includes a foremost expert in the field in which we are working. Very few people can understand our technology as well as this expert can

• Our team is highly competent, experienced, and completely dedicated to this project

• Our product is based on technology/algorithm for which we own a patent (or, at least, patent-pending)

• Our product is based on our own technology that takes years to develop or complex data that takes years to collect, and we can keep it a secret even after the product release (e.g. a back-end algorithm/database)

• We have exclusive access to a secluded and esoteric market, unknown and hardly accessible to the outside world

• Something else (instead of, or in addition to the above)

  Describe your unfair advantage(s):

6. Who knows about your idea outside the team (select the most suitable option)?

• Only closest friends and select outsiders/beta-testers sworn to secrecy (we're in stealth mode)

• We describe the idea in general, without going into details, to anyone who asks what we do

• We actively seek any opportunity (meetups, forums, conferences, etc.) to present our idea in public and in depth

• We present our idea in public, and actively seek potential customers in order to interview them (and show them our mock-up/prototype, if available)

  How many potential customers have you interviewed already?
  (Select from the list)Less than 2020 or more