By Larry Chiang
Planning to be a future “accidental entrepreneur” is street smart and book smart. Purposefully setting the intention to be an accidental entrepreneur mitigates your risk exposure. Lets set an intention to audaciously become a successful accidental entrepreneur with little or no downside risk.
If you were thinking about taking baby steps post SXSW, I am your biatch. Err mentor. Umm, both? Accidental Austinpreneurs of-the-future, leverage the great SXSW keynotes and panels en route to purposefully preparing to be founders.
Promote or sell something that is in the ‘Mainstream Markets’ portion of the “Tech Product Adoption Cycle”.

Yes, you focus on pragmatists buying.
Yes, you focus on conservatives buying.
There is little or no risk. Heck, you are selling someone else’s product so if they say no to you, they’re saying someone else’s product sucks. You just suck at selling đ Jk. Lets look at a Stanford Engineering Live Action Case Study from Stanford Engineering ENGR145. Its on Sales Force founded by Marc Benioff.
Pattern replicate Marc Benioff my padawan.
Mr Benioff crossed the chasm from the right. He started an entity that had late adopters salivating for it. He developed a market in the hashtagged area that is literally a vertical.

He used to work at Oracle as a salesperson selling CRM. He started SalesForce to put CRM in the cloud. Do you know who Clara Shih is?! She did the same move when she started Hearsay after directly working for Marc Benioff.

According to my calculations, she has very little at risk cuz its awesome and it crosses the chasm from the right.
Closer to home, Jason Cohen founded WP Engine. He now sells hosting services for wordpress blogs. Although I don’t think he worked at WordPress, neither did you while you practiced selling for blank- blank company.

– Practice EUBM
Engineer Up a Business Model is EUBM.
Engineers can Engineer Up a Business Model. It works super simply.
Find an old dude executive who doesnât understand tech that is rich and has a $300k problem.
Again, we want to clearly identify an old dude also known as a âseasoned executiveâ and get him to reveal a $300k problem. Old rich people can be whispered to like how Cesar Milan, dog whisperer, trains old dogs.
This is what my mentor, Mark McCormack taught me. He taught me how to do deals with old men. He taught me how to structure the risky deal at no risk to them. I will mentor you in a recipe of minutiae as to how to EUBM up a baby business. Baby, Lemonade stand business are technically now “LCMCC” (Larry Chiang Mini Company Concept).
As soon as I said EUBM up a LCMCC, I could literally feel 98+% of all yâall check out.
For the 2% still tuned in, here is my cell phone to write down (650-283-8008) and the 23 step recipe EUBM up a LCMCC
************** Recipe for EUBM-ing up a LCMCC **************

EUBM up a LCMCC is open-source. Feel free to execute all 27 steps without attribution.
1- Gather up two other engineers as co-founders.
2- Crash an industry party or conference convention (Recipe =
3- Buy a moleskin for each co-founder
4- Meet old people at VC parties
5- When said old person talks, whip out your moleskin
6- Put pen to paper and scream CAN YOU REPEAT THAT often
7- Remember that old people literally are deaf.
8- Take notes of every little thing they say.
9- Ask “CAN YOU THINK OF A MILLION DOLLAR PROBLEM??!?”
10- Talk to at least 35 old rich people here in Silicon Valley. Meet 2-10 later at my YCSS / LCSASU afterparty 9:50pm at 125 Third St, SF CA
11- Follow up via email w all by emailing: SUBJ: your name / 630-705-5555 / VC BBQ invite : Body: âhi PG, Iâd this your best email addressâ
12- Confirm the $300k problem via a request for a 7-10 minute phone call week after next. Old people like phone. Old people like week after next Rich old people are always on âpacked before their vacation next week.
13- Execute LCRRM
14- Step one of LCRRM is to reclarify basic uber simple problem
15- Old people are majorly retarded when it comes to tech.
16- Step two of LCRRM is to do a one-way letter of intent. (THIS ENTREPRENEUR TIP IS WORTH THE COST OF ONE YEAR OF TUITION BITCHES. YOUâRE WELCOME)
One way letter of intent leverages
17- Internal Escrow. The money never leaves the old persons hands until their $300k problem is solved
18- Explain what internal escrow is.
19- Re-Explain what internal escrow is but louder. Expect old person to be massively impressed that an engineer can engineer up a solution with zero risk
20- Execute the milestones associated to your one-way letter of intent and internal escrow. Youâve now mastered LCRRM
21- Draft up and Slideshare up a preso called âHow to do what Duck9 does without having to hire Duck9âł and speak at conferences
22- Old rich people make decisions in packs and once an old dude has paid you for a tech solution, the next old dude you donât have to do âinternal escrowâ
23- Get a waitlist of people wanting to buy your retarded simple solution.
24- Cash checks
25- Talk smack yes, but do not go full douchebag and pass the mentorship along. So yes, teach EUBM up a LCMCC.
BONUS #26. Remember, EUBM up a LCMCC is open-source. Feel free to execute without attribution.
NOTE: Execute only 15-17 of the 26 steps at your own peril because I will fire you as a founder before I am even on your board. I will rehire you back but hate hearing people say, “I didn’t know that was THAT IMPORTANT” đ I told you now so I don’t have to tell you to tell yourself I told you so)
Start and Stop a Startupie, Lemonade Stand, Baby Business like Lisa Falzone, Stanford athlete CEO @Stanford Entrepreneurship Week. I call these things LCMCC’s. You will call them awesome and thank me for it in 12 years when you see me finally getting my MBA, honorarily.
Blog using the MVBP system (a minimum viable blog post and 12 sentences, two pictures and one focus)
Buy my mentors book: “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. It’s used on Amazon for 1c.
If you liked this, you may also check: ![]() Larry’s mentor Mark McCormack wrote this in 1983.His own book came out 09-09-09. It is called ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘. Harvard wrote about it in an article called “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford–The HARBUS“ ![]() |
This post was drafted in an hour and needs your edits… email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… chiang9 –AT–@Duck9 dot com
Larry Chiang started his first company UCMS in college. He mimicked his mentor, Mark McCormack, founder of IMG who wrote the book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. Chiang is a keynote speaker and bestselling author and has testified before Congress, World Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank about credit.
Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. Due to the volume of calls, he may place you on hold like a Scottsdale Arizona customer service rep. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line. If you want him to email you his new articles…, ask him in an email đ