12 Months Later…How the Disciplined Entrepreneurship Model Changed the Way I Approach Building Businesses

Can entrepreneurship be taught? This question stirs quite the debate. Some will say entrepreneurs are born, not made. It’s easy to see why because many of the most successful founders of the past century did not graduate from college.

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg both dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft and Facebook, respectively; Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College to start Apple after just six months; Michael Dell left the University of Texas to create Dell, and the list goes on and on.

If I’m honest, I used to fall into this category. I believed entrepreneurship was all about hustle, tenacity and the relentless pursuit of your vision in the face and adversity and doubters.

I believed this was the winning formula and I used it to fuel the growth of my first startup, PawedIn. After average success, I knew I had a lot to learn and decided to enroll at the MIT Sloan founded Asia School of Business.

It was during my studies with Bill Aulet, I learned a new framework which shifted my mental model for entrepreneurship: The 24 Steps of Disciplined Entrepreneurship.

The model takes the innate drivers of success in entrepreneurship (the relentlessness, tenacity, etc) and provides a systematic approach to creating a business. I completed the course 12 months ago, so what real-world impact has it had on me?

It’s fundamentally changed the way I approach building businesses. Right now, I am using the framework to build my newest startup, D2G Brands. At D2G, we build the most unique, single product e-commerce brands for the social media driven world of today.

I’d like to highlight three of the steps in the Disciplined Entrepreneurship model and how they’re playing a defining role in the early stages of the business.

• Step 2: Select a Beachhead Market
  When starting PawedIn, we tried to go after the entire pet industry across the United States with no beachhead market. It was way too broad. This time around with D2G, we’re very intentioned about who we’re targeting. We’re focused on small niches, inside of large consumer categories. Once we win in the niche, we have mapped out how we can expand and increase the lifetime value (Step 17) of each of our customers.
• Step 10: Define Your Core
  What do we deliver to our customers better than anyone else and how do we protect ourselves from the competition? At D2G, each single-product brand is built with its core at the forefront. It’s in the name of the product. We lead with our core. For example, our first brand, LAVLAVLUV, is “The Before Bedtime Face Mask” made of New Zealand Lavender (LAV) and Moroccan Lava Clay (LAV) with cruelty-free and vegan production practices (LUV).
  The experience the customer gets when buying can’t be mimicked by a large skincare producer because they offer broad product portfolios. They can’t say they’re the best at one thing. Our brands being single-product, on the other hand, allow us to focus all our time, attention and marketing in making one product the absolute best. No large company can match that experience and peace of mind we can give the consumer.
• Step 19: Calculate the Cost of Acquisition
  One of the big ways D2G wins is through online advertising on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. To acquire a customer profitably, knowing our unit economics like the back of our hand is vital. Through reverse engineering and knowing average CAC of comparable products, we build brands profitably from day one.

In conclusion, I can truly go down each of the 24 steps and share the positive impact they are having on D2G. Thanks to Bill and the entire Disciplined Entrepreneur team, I’m proud to say I’m no longer just an entrepreneur, but a Disciplined Entrepreneur.