UzCombinator
UZ
EN
Startup School
Curriculum0/19
Module 1
Idea and problem
  1. 1What a startup is, and how it differs from a small business4 min
  2. 2Finding a real problem4 min
  3. 3Judging an idea: market, timing and team4 min
  4. 4Co-founders and the team4 min
Module 2
Customers and validation
  1. 5How to run a customer interview5 min
  2. 6Who your first users are4 min
  3. 7Testing demand cheaply5 min
Module 3
Building the MVP
  1. 8What an MVP is, and what it is not4 min
  2. 9Building fast: code, no-code and ready-made tools4 min
  3. 10Launching and collecting feedback4 min
  4. 11Signs of product-market fit4 min
Module 4
Growth and metrics
  1. 12Choosing the metric that matters4 min
  2. 13Unit economics: CAC, LTV and margin4 min
  3. 14Your first growth channels4 min
  4. 15Keeping your users4 min
Module 5
Fundraising and pitching
  1. 16Do you need funding? Stages and sources4 min
  2. 17Building a pitch deck4 min
  3. 18Meeting investors4 min
  4. 19Terms and valuation basics4 min
Module 1Lesson 14 min

What a startup is, and how it differs from a small business

Idea and problem
What sets a startup apart is its aim of rapid growth, and how that aim shapes every decision you make.
These days almost any new business gets called a startup: a new coffee shop, an online store, a mobile app. In this course we use the word more narrowly: a startup is a company whose whole purpose is rapid growth. Being new, small or technical does not make a company a startup. What makes it one is a model that can serve a very large number of customers while its costs grow much more slowly than its revenue.

Growth is the defining trait

A simple comparison. When a restaurant wants a new branch, it rents a new space, hires cooks and waiters and buys equipment. For every new stream of customers, most of the costs appear again. With a software product, serving the hundredth customer costs almost nothing more than serving the first: you build the product once and sell it many times.
That is why growth in a startup is not just a goal but a compass. What to build, whom to hire, whether to raise money: each decision is tested against one question. Does this help us grow faster?

What changes when you choose to be a startup

  • You will often lose money at the start. You are working for tomorrow's growth, not today's profit.
  • You will probably need outside investment, which means giving part of the company to investors.
  • The market has to be big enough. A field that tops out at a few hundred customers can be a fine business but is hard to turn into a fine startup.
  • There is a lot of uncertainty. You do not yet know what customers really want, so much of the early work is learning.
  • Speed matters. Competitors and time do not wait, so you learn to decide quickly and to fix mistakes quickly.

A small business is not a worse choice

For many founders a profitable small business is the better path: no investors, steady income, full control. There is nothing second-rate about it. What matters is choosing on purpose. Ask yourself: do I want to build something that could serve millions of people, and accept the large risk that comes with it? Or would a business that pays me a stable income sooner suit me better?

An example from Tashkent

Imagine two friends who both know accounting well. The first opens an accounting firm and serves thirty small companies. To grow revenue, she has to hire another accountant each time. The second builds a simple program that lets a shop owner keep their own books from a phone, and sells it for a monthly fee. The knowledge is the same; the model is completely different. The software can reach shops in Samarkand, Namangan or Andijan without opening a new office.
Both paths are good. Only the second is a startup.

Signs your idea fits a startup

  • The product can be delivered without spending your personal hours on each customer.
  • Many people or many companies have the problem, in Uzbekistan and beyond.
  • Customers can find and buy the product without a long face-to-face process, or the sales process can become a repeatable system.
  • You can learn quickly from users and change the product every week.
If most of these do not fit your idea, do not worry. Sometimes it makes sense to start as a service business and turn it into a product later. What matters is knowing which road you are on.

Common misconceptions

  • "If I build an app, I am a startup." An app is just a tool. If every new customer needs a lot of manual work from you, the model is close to a service business even with an app.
  • "A startup means raising investment." Investment is a way to speed up growth, not the goal. Some startups grow on their own revenue for a long time.
  • "To get big, you have to start big." The opposite is true. Most start with a very narrow group and expand only after they have proved themselves there.

Try this

Write one paragraph: who your customer is, how you would serve your thousandth customer, and what would have to grow to get there: people, money or time. If the answer is "I would need a thousand times more staff", you may be planning a service business. That is fine too; just know it up front.

Resources