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How to build fast and efficiently your startup?

Name: How to build fast and efficiently your startup?
Rating: 4.6 (101 reviews)

Learn how to build fast and efficiently your lean startup and how to avoid most common mistakes

Created byAsen Gyczew

Last updated 6/2026

English

What you'll learn

Built your startup fast and cheap
Conduct market research for your startup with little money
Analyze the data and to make educated guess what is your competition doing
Understand your business model and pick the right KPIs to concentrate on
Pick the right MVP for your startup
Pick the right growth model and hacks that you should apply in your business
You will get additional resources (examples of analyses, growth hacks, business models in Excel)

Course content

19 sections • 91 lectures • 5h 32m total length

Introduction4:57
This will be a short introduction into the course in which I will show you what you will get out of this
How to deal with Blurry image2:04
Here I will show you what to do if a blurry image appears
How to reach additional resources1:06
Here I will show you how to find additional resources attached to the coruse like Excel files, presentations, links etc.

Market research methods for startups - introduction4:16
We start with a short introduction to the 3 groups of methods we will cover in this section: consulting, on-line and off-line
Bottom-up aproach7:53
In this lecture you will get to know our favorite method for first rough estimation – the bottom-up method. We give you also 2 examples with Excel calculation how to use it.
Top-down approach3:46
Top-down is the little brother of bottom-up approach – not used that often but still very useful for resegmenting the market (niche an low cost strategy)

Offline research introduction1:49
Reality still bites. Here you will be given short overview of the off-line research methods with suggestion what to be used when
Offline interviews14:19
In this lecture we show you how to conduct the off-line interviews, how to draw conclusions out of it and where to find respondents
Being where your customer is3:17
In this lecture we show you how to map and read the daily life of your customer and how it can help your marketing efforts
Store checks7:09
Store Check come in handy whenever you are talking about B2C physical products, services and retail. This methods gives you solid facts on which you can build your business
Mystery shopping3:09
Service level is time and again your opportunity to disrupt markets. Therefore, check on your own the customer experience with mystery shopping

Online research introduction1:00
On-line research is cheap and insightful. We will go through all nice methods how to get to know the market, customer and competitors
Facebook Audience Insight5:48
Facebook Audience Insight is the perfect tool to check different segments without the necessity to do any interviews. For first estimation it is the perfect tool
Customer profiles on facebook1:58
Facebook allows you to have a look at social profiles of your potential customers. If you want to understand them better have a look at this as well
SimilarWeb - tool to spy on your competition6:41
You want to know what do your competitors do? Where they get the traffic from? Check this lecture on SimilarWeb.
Keyword Planner by Google4:44
Google is so nice to tell you through search results where is the market. Use the Keyword Planner to see whether you are able to make money on your ideas and how much you have to spend to get the trafffic
Slideshare and Youtube2:22
Google is nice but Youtube and Slideshare are the places to go if you look for more advance info faster. Check this lecture to know what to use when.
Markets for mobile applications1:52
Mobile is the new black ;). Even if you are not into mobile applications check the markets for applications to see what are the worries of people and what they like
Overview of segmentation methods0:19

Introduction into business models3:37
In this section we will discuss in detail modeling of businesses in Excel
E-commerce20:58
In this lecture we will explain you how e-commerce business model works and what you should concentrate on
SaaS19:08
In this lecture we will explain SaaS business model works and what you should concentrate on. We will show you many examples of this business.
2-sided market14:49
In this lecture we will explain how 2-sided market business model works and what you should concentrate on. We will show you many examples of this business.
Media site18:26
In this lecture we will explain how media site business model works and what you should concentrate on. We will show you many examples of this business.

What is MVP?3:00
In this lecture we remind you what is MVP and are the characteristics of perfect (for us) MVP
MVP for restaurant8:00
We start with showing you how you can test the restaurant concept. We provide you 6 different MVPs, show you how much it would cost to build and how much time it would take you. We show you also what hypotheses / features you can test with them and when to choose which MVP
MVP for webpage earning from ads5:38
We present you what kind of MVP you can use to test webpages earning from ads
MVP for online shop6:28
We go to on-line shop and show you how you can test whether you will be a successful on-line retailer. The MVPs we present can be done with very small budget
MVP for offline shop3:59
Having discuss the on-line shops we check what can be done to test the off-line shops
MVP for SaaS3:47
If you are into SaaS you will learn he what MVPs are at your disposals and what do they give you
MVP for a book3:48
We give you some tips how to prepare to write a good book and earn money at the same time

E-commerce business model translated in Excel9:11
In this lecture I will show you how you can build the model in Excel and what conclusions can you draw from it.
SaaS business model translated to Excel8:06
In this lecture I will show you how you can build the model in Excel and what conclusions can you draw from it.
2-sided market business model translated to Excel9:42
In this lecture I will show you how you can build the model in Excel and what conclusions can you draw from it.
Media Site business model translated to Excel4:53
In this lecture I will show you how you can build the model in Excel and what conclusions can you draw from it.

Pirate Metrics1:36
Here I will explain you the basics about Pirate Metrics (AARRR approach) that we will use in the course to show what the metric influences
Behavioral contracts - introduction5:08
I will show you how you can motivate others to do what you want them to do. By building proper referral program, loyalty scheme or customer on-boarding you can change totally your business
Dropbox1:36
In this lecture I will show you how Dropbox is using behavior contract in referral programs as well as customer on-boarding. Dropbox was also offering additional space if you performed actions that increase his reach and help Word of Mouth. It had its referral program – you could get up to 1 for referring your friend. They have also defined tasks that made you more likely to stay with them and that they were showing you how to use the product
Bobby Burger1:47
Bobby Burger is a chain of slow burgers that has used behavioral contract to grow their chain rapidly. Bobby Burger was giving discounts and rewards for actions: Contest on facebook, Discount for check-ins, Discount for events organized at their site, Free products for first customers in new place

Non-standard advertising space.2:35
Next section will show you how, in innovative way, you can promote your business without spending much on advertising
Spotify1:20
I show how Spotify was creating non-standard advertising space. In 2011 Spotify has struck I deal with Facebook that enabled them to grow via referrals and Word of Mouth
Piktochart1:13
We will show how Piktochart is using non-standard advertising space
Kekemeke2:08
Kekemeke is a SaaS software for managing brand loyalty programs (based on collecting stamps) for restaurants. Kekemeke has bee using its partners to promote its programs. I will explain you how they achieved this
Powtoon1:28
PowToon is a freemium SaaS for creating animation movie that was very creative in putting their logo in front of the potential customers
Udemy1:27
Udemy is using every opportunity to cross-sell courses: course langing pages, emails, purchasing process. I will show you how it works in practice

Stand on the shoulder of a giant - Introduction1:11
In fifth section you will learn how to leverage 3-rd party platforms to get fast and cheap access to crucial resources (i.e. market)
Airbnb0:56
Airbnb has written a script that was uploading automatically to Craigslist profiles of the available rent I will show you want was the impact of this on the business.
Brand241:33
Brand24 is a software for social listening (you can check who and what was talking about you in social media). Brand24 has been leveraging small communities

Requirements

Basic or intermediate Excel

Description

Why did we decide to create this course?

We work with startups on a daily basis within our accelerator (StartupAkademia), and we have noticed that despite the tonnes of very good books on lean methods (i.e., Lean Analytics, Running Lean, etc.), startups have problems with applying this knowledge in practice. We have also noticed some consistent problems that we felt needed more pragmatic solutions. The first problem that we spotted was the fact that startups do not know how to do market research, spy on the competition, and analyze data. The second thing we have noticed is that, especially first-time startups, do not really understand their business model (which is totally understandable). That's why it is very difficult for them to know what they should concentrate on. The third problem, which was probably the biggest source of failure, was not sufficient creativity when it came to acquiring customers. Startups have no problems with naming (not always applying efficiently), how to acquire customers through ads (Facebook, AdWords, display ads), but they would have problems with finding the right set of non-standard, yet very efficient moves that would work in their market (you can call them growth hacks, tricks, or simply tactics)

The interesting thing was that those problems were pretty universal regardless of the industry, business model, or even whether they were run independently or supported by big corporations.

So one day, to make our life easier (repeating the same staff on and over is not that fun ;)), we have decided it is time to create a tool that will help our startups and any others to get going faster and more efficiently. We started with the do-it-yourself StartupAkademia (half of the info is also available in English, so go and check that). We have seen that this is still not enough, so we proceeded to make online courses supplemented with simple yet very powerful tools.

This course is based on my 15 years of experience as a consultant in top consulting firms and as a Board Member responsible for strategy, performance improvement, and turn-arounds in the biggest firms from the Retail, FMCG, SMG, B2B, and services sectors that I worked for. I have carried out or supervised over 90 different performance improvement projects in different industries that generated a total of 2 billion in additional EBITDA. On the basis of what you will find in this course, I have trained in person over 100 consultants, business analysts, and managers who are now Partners in PE and VC funds, Investment Directors and Business Analysts in PE and VC, Operational Directors, COO, CRO, CEO, Directors in Consulting Companies, Board Members, etc. On top of that, my courses on Udemy were already taken by more than 350 000 students, including people working in EY, Walmart, Booz Allen Hamilton, Adidas, Naspers, Alvarez & Marsal, PwC, Dell, Walgreens, Orange, and many others.

What will this course give you?

The course is a practical, step-by-step guide loaded with tons of simple tools that will help you significantly speed up your startup. There is little theory – mainly examples, a lot of tips from our own experience, as well as other notable examples worth mentioning. Our intention is that, thanks to the course, you will know:

What your business model is about, what to concentrate on, and what are the key KPIs for you?
How to research your market, competition, and your customers, draw conclusions from the data, and apply them in your business?
What Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to choose to test your business, and what will it give you, and how much will it cost?
How to model your business in Excel
What growth hacks will help you grow your business

How is the course organized?

The course is currently divided into the following sections:

Market research - effective and cheap - advanced version. In this section, you will learn what kind of methods you can use to get to know your customers and competitors better
Startup Business Models. At the end of the section, you will have a good understanding of different business models, and you will know what KPIs are important depending on the business and what you should concentrate on. You should also be able to guess which business model your startup has the biggest resemblance to
What should be the MVP of your business? In this section, you will see some examples of MVP. We start with a reminder of what MVP is, and then we move to examples of MVP for restaurants, online stores, offline stores, SaaS, books, and others
Financial modeling of startups. In this section, we show you how to model different online businesses in Excel. You will also get templates that will help you model your own startups
Growth Hacks. In the last few sections, we discussed different methods that will help you grow your business.

You will be able also to download many additional resources

Links to free presentations and movies showing examples of research
Links to books worth reading
Excels with calculations, showing you how you can do the market research
Excels with useful analysis showing you how you can draw conclusions
Presentations of different business models and MVPs

Who this course is for:

Startup founders
Startup employees
Small and medium business owners
Analysts in Venture Capitals and Private Equities
Management / Business Consultants

How to build fast and efficiently your startup?

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction3 lectures • 8min

Introduction to Market Research for Startups3 lectures • 16min

Market research - off-line methods5 lectures • 30min

Market research - online methods8 lectures • 25min

Startup Business Models5 lectures • 1hr 17min

What should be the MVP of your business?7 lectures • 35min

Business models translated to Excel4 lectures • 32min

Growth Hacks - Introduction and Behavioral contracts4 lectures • 10min

Growth Hacks - non-standard advertising space6 lectures • 10min

Growth Hacks - Stand on the shoulder of a giant3 lectures • 4min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: