Introduction - Start Here
- About PRIMER by EIT InnoEnergy
- Introduction
Section 1: Planning Your Business

In the first section, Planning Your Business, you will learn how to find your customers, how to create a value proposition (a product that customers want) and how to build a business model around it. You will also learn how to use your startup to test your business model quickly and cheaply, and how to make necessary changes.
- 1.0 Introduction – An idea is not a business
- Exercise 1: Think problems, not solutions
- 1.1 Meet your customer
- Exercise 2: Problem brainstorming
- Exercise 3: Find your first customers
- Case study: Enervalis
- Exercise 4: Online research
- Exercise 5: Pick your problem
- Exercise 6: Is your problem validated?
- 1.2 From idea to solution
- Exercise 7: Mind maps
- Exercise 8: Creating a customer profile
- Exercise 9: Ranking customer problems
- Exercise 10: Creating a value map
- Exercise 11: Ranking value propositions
- Exercise 12: Finding fit
- 1.3 What’s a business model
- DELIVERABLE: no. 1 – Letter of intent (LOI) or softer letter of support
- 1.4 Types of business models
- 1.5 Make your own business model
- Exercise 13: Make your own business model
- Case study: Tecnoturbines
- DELIVERABLE: no 2 – Business Model Canvas
- 1.6 Test your business model
- Exercise 14: Creating a hypothesis
- Exercise 15: Creating experiments
- Exercise 16: Create your MVP
- Exercise 17: Pivot or proceed?
- Case study: EOLOS
- 1.7 From startup to business
- DELIVERABLE: no. 3 – Competitive landscape
Section 2: FUNDING Your Business

In the second section, Funding Your Business, you’ll learn how to test your startup like an investor. You’ll also better understand how venture capital works.
- 2.0 Introduction
- 2.1 Opportunity assessment
- Exercise 18: How an investor sees your startup
- 2.2 Road test your startup
- Exercise 19: Road test your startup
- DELIVERABLES: no. 4 – Go-to-market strategy
- 2.3 Exploring funding options
- Case study: Skeleton Technologies
- 2.4 Setting up your business
- DELIVERABLES: no. 5 – Roadmap
Section 3: PRESENTING Your Business

In the third section, Presenting Your Business, you’ll learn how to present your startup to investors and customers.
- 3.0 Introduction
- 3.1 Telling stories
- 3.2 How to pitch to investors
- Exercise 20: The elevator pitch
- Case study: Hygen
- 3.3 The pitch deck
- DELIVERABLES: no. 6 – Pitchdeck
- 3.4 Putting it all together
Resources

Finally, the Resources section at the end contains a glossary and reading list to help you on your journey from an idea to a profitable business.
- Glossary
- Further reading
Primer Demo Day
- Presentations from Demo Day

PRIMER by InnoEnergy – Helping European startups build a sustainable future

1.6 Test your business model

1.6 Test (and change) your business model

We hope you’re now starting to realize that creating a successful business is simple but not easy. To be successful and to avoid ending up like the 90% of startups that fail, you need to understand and follow three simple principles:

1. People only buy things they need. So, you first need to figure out what people need that they aren’t getting.
2. The main reason startups fail is because they spend their time and money perfecting and trying to sell a solution that no one actually needs.
3. As a startup, the only thing you need to do is learn what people need and create something that’s better than what they’re currently buying. Doing anything else is a waste of time and money.

This section will teach you how to test your theories as quickly and cheaply as possible, so that you can successfully make the transition from startup to business. This is the philosophy behind the book The Lean Startup and what is now called lean methodology.

Lean Thinking is a methodology for improving cycle times and quality through the elimination of waste.
Lean Startup is the application of lean thinking to the process of innovation.