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15.390: Cachet aka Akamai. Opportunities in the Internet Age. The Team. One Professor, One PhD student, One Sloan 1 st year, and several advisors Very Technical and very Academic? Very smart, driven and aggressive? Not much market knowledge. Good domain knowledge getting better every day.
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15.390: Cachet aka Akamai Opportunities in the Internet Age
The Team • One Professor, One PhD student, One Sloan 1st year, and several advisors • Very Technical and very Academic? • Very smart, driven and aggressive? • Not much market knowledge. • Good domain knowledge getting better every day.
The Idea • Big, hairy problem to solve. • Current solutions expensive and inadequate. • Not a technology looking for a problem.
The Opportunity • Who are the customers? • What will we sell them? • What is our clear value proposition? • What is the optimal business model? • How do we size the opportunity?
Opportunity Assessment • Talk to experts and stake-holders. • Talk to customers. • Look at the current market and size what exists today. • Take the leap to estimate the size of your market segment both top down and bottoms up.
Sizing the Market • Cache team looked at current hosting and isp market • They looked at current systems players serving the market • They established boundaries for their market segment • They established comparables for their company. • They used comparables data to estimate their revenue based on units shipped, pricing, and costs associated with building the products and the business.
Development of the Plan • There is no substitute for knowledge of the customers, market, and competition. • Start with the hypothesis that you are on to a major market opportunity. • Prove the hypothesis. • Make sure you have the back-up data and solid assumptions.
The Competition • Know your enemy well. • Choose your competitors carefully. • Define your market segment. • Establish the rules of engagement.
Cache Lessons Learned • Why did Cache lose out in the $50k competition? • Did it matter? • What lessons can we learn from Cache’s experience? • What did Cache do in its early stages to lay the groundwork for the success of Akamai?
Cache Success Factors • Team • Technology • Product/Service • Market Positioning • Funding • Execution