A practical, opinionated guide from the team at Innovation Works to help you with everything from validating your entrepreneurial idea to launching an MVP. This is the "how" that's missing from other entrepreneurial resources. Each recipe below pairs an important task in the journey from idea to launching your startup, paired with one or more tools that show you how to accomplish that task. These are aimed at first-time founders, but there's likely something here for companies of every size.
We’ve divided the Recipes into four stages of the startup journey:
Research
You keep seeing the same problems and inefficiencies in a market you know well. You’ve got an idea for a unique solution. Before you go out and build an expensive product to test your idea, you can use the recipes in this section to do market research and understand your customer without spending a lot of money.
Every startup idea makes perfect sense to its creator, but the only way to know if it's viable is to test it with users. This Recipe gives you a way to test your concept with the right audience and get unbiased feedback.
In this Recipe we'll use Protolabs free, rapid quote tool to get a quick idea of costs for your budget/BOM/unit economics.
One way to assess the market size for your startup idea is by measuring the level of searches for the problem you are trying to solve. In this Recipe you'll use the free Google Ads Keyword Planner to validate the interest in your product.
One way to determine customer demand before building product is to build a pre-launch website with an email signup form. In this Recipe we'll use Carrd and Mailchimp to launch a landing page and test market demand.
Getting quality customer feedback is a critical part of finding product-market fit. In this Recipe you'll use Typeform to design an embeddable feedback form.
Knowing what alternatives your potential customers have and how you compare against them is critical. In this Recipe you'll use Crunchbase, Pitchbook, and Product Hunt to identify existing competitors and understand how they compare to you.
Before you launch your startup you'll need to come up with a company (and potentially a product) name. In this Recipe you'll use the USPTO TESS database to research names that may have conflicts.
While you don't need a domain name at the concept stage, you'll need one for your startup eventually. In this Recipe we'll review the factors you should consider in a domain name and register one with Namecheap.
In this Recipe you'll build a brand positioning statement to help you effectively communicate your unique value proposition to customers, investors, and other stakeholders.
User personas can be an extremely helpful tool in helping you as a founder understand who your customers are. In this Recipe we'll use the free Make My Persona tool from Hubspot to help you generate personas for your startup.
Create
Your market research and customer discover has confirmed the problem. Now it’s time to build. You’ll need more than just a product to launch your startup. You’ll need a web presence, a logo, brand identity, social media accounts, launch videos, and more. These Recipes will walk you through these critical but often overlooked steps.
Having a unique logo that reflects your brand can make a huge impact in how potential customers perceive you. In this Recipe we'll use the freelance marketplace Fiverr to source a logo for your startup.
Many entrepreneurs can express the content of their pitch deck effectively, but struggle with the visual design. In this Recipe you'll make your deck's visuals match your vision.
Seeing your product in the real world helps potential customers connect with it, and it'll make it more real for you. In this Recipe we'll use PlaceIt to generate images that feature your product.
A product overview video is a key tool in your product kit. In this Recipe we'll use Biteable to generate a product overview video that you can use on your website or to enter pitch competitions.
Canva is an enormously popular browser based visual design tool with a generous free tier. In this Recipe you’ll use it to generate social media graphics to use in your social media channels.
In this Recipe you'll use the free tier of Pixlr to do some basic cropping and editing of images, and you'll use Squoosh to reduce the file size of the images to improve SEO scores.
Periodic communication with your startup's supporters is an excellent way to both keep them engaged and invested in your success. In this Recipe we'll use Mailchimp to set up and send a newsletter to your supporters.
Instagram's focus on photo and video content make it an ideal platform for businesses that sell physical products. In this Recipe you'll set up an Instagram Page for your startup.
As one of the largest social media networks, Twitter can provide a powerful platform for outreach for your business. In this Recipe we'll walk through setting up an account so you can leverage Twitter's global reach.
Launch
No startup product survives first contact with users. When you launch you’ll need to be ready to adapt quickly to market feedback as you search for fit. In this section you’ll find Recipes to help you on that path; everything from implementing analytics to get market feedback, to pricing your product, to implementing practical cybersecurity to keep you safe as you grow.
As a business-focused network, LinkedIn should be part of your startup's social media strategy. In this Recipe we'll walk through registering a company page on LinkedIn for your startup and show how to list it on your profile.
In this Recipe we'll walk through factors that influence pricing for B2C companies, including value-based pricing, competitive positioning, customer segmenting, psychological factors, tiering, and discounting.
With a user base in the billions, Facebook is a potentially powerful channel for your startup to leverage as it grows. In this Recipe we'll walk through setting up a Facebook Page for your startup.
In this Recipe you’ll register a Google Analytics account and connect it to your website so you can better understand your customers and prospects, and measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
In this Recipe you'll learn how to implement the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) email security protocol for your startup to reduce the risk that your emails will be caught in spam filters or outright rejected.
Along with centralized password management and whole-disk encryption, implementing two-factor authentication is one of the best ways you can protect your business from online threats. In this Recipe we'll use Google Authenticator to enable two-factor authentication for an organization and walk through using it as part of the Google Login process.
Using a password manager is one of the best cybersecurity practices your business can undertake. In this Recipe we'll use Bitwarden to set up a password vault and store passwords.
Secure management of user personally-identifiable information (PII) is one of the most pressing topics in cybersecurity today. In this Recipe you'll set up whole-disk encryption to better protect yourself from unintended disclosure of PII.
All entrepreneurs hope for organic, viral growth but the reality is online advertising is a key tool for getting early traction. In this Recipe you’ll create and launch a paid search campaign on the Google Ads platform.
Ranking highly in search engines for keywords and search phrases can be transformative to your business. In this Recipe we’ll use both GPT-3 and Jasper AI to generate title and description tags for your product.
Scale
Getting a startup to this phase is an incredible accomplishment, but it comes with its own new set of challenges. In this section you’ll find Recipes to help you with hiring, with going after Enterprise customers, and with scaling your sales and marketing efforts.
If your startup plans to raise money from investors you’ll want to manage that process like a sales funnel. In this Recipe you’ll combine several lists of Angel and VC investors to build a list for outreach, and use a Google Sheet to keep track of your progress.
This Recipe focuses on strategies and important things to consider before beginning a social media marketing campaign, regardless of the platform you choose or the goal of your campaign.
If you need to augment your current team or are interested in exploring leveraging offshore software development talent, this Recipe will show you how to build a shortlist of qualified firms to save time in your selection process.
Selling to enterprise customers is a unique process that has significant impact on how you price your product. In this Recipe we'll review strategies for optimizing price for this customer segment.
Ensuring your pricing is competitive in enterprise sales situations is critical for larger businesses. In this Recipe you'll use the GSA Schedule to benchmark your competitors' prices and product offerings.
In this Recipe you'll use the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Survey technique to use data to optimize product pricing based on your customers' input.
Ready to hire for your startup? Make sure your offers are based on market levels. In this Recipe you'll use benchmark sources for salary and equity compensation to land your next hire.
Venture-backed startups compete for fundraising attention from a relatively small pool of investors. In this Recipe you’ll learn how to leverage introduction emails to stand out from the crowd.
Since its launch on November 30 2022, ChatGPT has amazed users with its versatility and the quality of the questions and scenarios it can handle. In this Recipe you’ll use ChatGPT to generate a list of search keywords relevant to your business or product. These can be used to build SEO or paid search campaigns to build a customer acquisition funnel.
Generating quality traffic to your website is critical for a startup. Content marketing is a great strategy but the effort can overwhelm a small team. In this Recipe we’ll use copy.ai to generate blog posts that you can put to work in your marketing strategy immediately.
If your startup uses search engine marketing you can use the new generation of AI-powered marketing tools to generate high quality ad copy. In this Recipe we’ll use Copy.ai to generate Google Ads copy for targeted keywords.
Site Map
About this guideHow we choose tools for the RecipesDIY Tools, Documents, and Best PracticesHow you can get involvedThe full list of recipes (includes Recipes still in development)
Recipes