think-smarter.com Blog

How to start a company with a blank presentation?

December 3rd, 2006

We (the think-smarter crew) are going to introduce you to a novel technique called the “blank presentation method” which will enable you to identify 70% of what should be built with 10 blank sheets of paper. No kidding. The following parable brings out the basics of how this gets done.

A story is told of a tourist in Paris in a bar one night. He got talking to a young Parisian and they hit it off. As it got late, the tourist said “I must go now”. The Parisian replied, “Let me walk you home”. “You don’t even know where I’m staying”, said the tourist. “You don’t need to tell me, I’ll take you there”, said the Parisian. Intrigued, the tourist accepted the offer. The Parisian took the tourist’s elbow and led him out of the bar. He then proceeded to walk the tourist home by exactly the same route that the tourist had walked home the previous two nights. The bemused tourist asked. “How did you know where to lead me? Have you been following me?” “I didn’t lead you” replied the Parisian. “You led me”.

How did the Parisian take the tourist home? What he did was actually quite simple. After exiting the bar, he applied slight pressure on the tourist’s arm as if to turn left. The tourist’s home was to the right, however. The tourist reflexively reacted to the pressure negatively by pulling his arm slightly away, and the Parisian was able to correct his course and turn right instead. Similarly, at each intersection, he guessed which way to go, and was able to correct his course based on the tourist’s reaction to the pressure he applied on his elbow.

Thus, through a simple process of hypothesizing where to go, validating the hypothesis, and correcting his course, the Parisian was seemingly able to lead the tourist home.

Lead, listen, learn, iterate.

Entry Filed under: Startup Scar Tissue