It’s been nearly a full semester since I’ve blogged about my students…or about anything actually.  This past semester was busier than I could have ever imagined (yep, that’s my excuse) and a lot has been happening in entrepreneurship at ASU.  But instead of blogging, I’d like to think I got a lot of other stuff done and had the privilege of working with a great group of young entrepreneurs.  I want to make sure I start the summer off right by recognizing some really stinking impressive ASU students and grads.

 Yesterday the winners of the ASU Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative were announced.  Each year the ventures are more and more innovative and possess greater and greater potential (my personal opinion).  Much of this is thanks to Brent Sebold who runs the program and all of the folks who work to support him.

In addition to Brent, I think there are some other reasons the ventures keep getting better.  This year, 30% of the winners (out of a potential applicant pool of 73k+ students that attend ASU) have gone through one of ASU’s Lean/Customer Development classes or programs, offered through W. P. Carey or Rapid Startup School.  Yes, I am bragging a little.  These classes and programs are run and taught by my partner, Benson Garner, and/or me. 
But the reality is that this has nothing to do with Benson or me – this is simply a testament to the process of launching a new venture in a much smarter way: by asking your customers what ails them, attempting to solve it, and asking if what you’ve created truly solves it.  And doing this over and over in a rapid, iterative process until you get it right.

 The process is difficult, time consuming, and not always very fun (when your target market tells you they don’t want what you’ve built…that hurts).  So it’s not surprising that the entrepreneurs who take the time to do it, listen to what they are told, and act based on the feedback are the ones who are more successful time and time again.

So…who are these hard-working ASU entrepreneurs?  Drumroll, please…

Pollen-Tech

Revolt! Distillery

Repair Report

Rarus Innovations

UP by pacr (an InnovationSpace team product)

AER by Link (an InnovationSpace team product)

I would like to congratulate these winners as well as the entire 2013-14 Edson cohort.  I know these teams will be in many headlines as the year progresses and you’ll hear these names frequently.

If you are an entrepreneur, ASU student or simply in the Phoenix Metro Community, there are many options for you to explore.  Check ‘em out: 

AREA48 (Tempe, Mill Ave)

Lean Launch (ASU students, fall and spring semesters, grad and undergrad, all majors)

Rapid Startup School (ASU Venture Catalyst)

I look forward to sharing more success stories as the 2013-14 year gets underway!

I recently partnered with TK Newman on her “wed-tech” startup, Hustle Your Bustle (HYB) and have been working with her on business models and strategy.   

HustleYourBustle.com is a high-end wedding fashion resale website that enables owners of high-end wedding fashion (starting with the key ingredient, dresses) to be connected with brides who want high-end wedding fashion items at a reduced price, without having to filter through unrelated or irrelevant items.

One of the best things about it has been utilizing the Customer Development process that I teach in my classes and feeling what it is like to do it myself.  One really strong value proposition has already been identified and validated for a few of the customer segments (it is a multi-sided market: it doesn’t work without the sellers AND the buyers), so we are testing others and further testing key partners and revenue models. 

I was actually lucky enough to get to snag some time with entrepreneur Jim Hornthal last week in Berkeley after we spoke on a panel about teaching Lean Launchpad (he taught it to undergrads at Princeton…I’ll post more soon).  Jim offered nothing short of what I felt to be brilliant partner and revenue ideas…but of course, they simply need to be tested.  So I am adding them to the canvas to test!

I will post some of our learnings over the next few months and share what the process was like for me, as a co-founder, not an instructor; but for now, here are some thoughts I have about embarking on customer development with HYB: 

The good things:

•  It was not my idea…I am not an original founder; which allows me to take the process a little less personally because the idea is not as close to me.
• HYB already has a lot of customers to reach out to and test and having launched in October, there is already feedback that can be utilized.
• TK and I have great mentors to guide us through the process.
• The opportunity is growing.  The wedding industry is large (est. well over 2 million weddings per year in the US alone) and the average price paid for a dress is $1,187 (and is increasing), with 1.6 million couples using the internet to plan their weddings.

The challenges:

• I am not the original founder – I cannot simply perform the customer development and then tell the TK…she must participate.
• Customers are almost all virtual…and a big potential market is international (makes face-to-face a little more challenging).
• The startup launched in October…so it is beyond idea concept (pivots become more challenging to swallow…see my last post).

I’ll keep you updated!  Until then, check out our site and if you are in one of our customer segments (bride, former bride, hopeful bride, boutique owner, indie dress designer), or another segment that sees value please reach out and give me your feedback! sp@hustleyourbustle.com

I’ll also blog about the January LLP conference shortly.  It was an incredible experience…as always, and met some great entrepreneurs and educators, including this fella.

Twitter: @HYBDresses

@skpeck

The customer development process can be painful.  You can develop a business idea that you think has significant value…you can fall in love with it…only to be told by potential customers that it does not solve a problem or meet a need enough for them to pay for it.

I have seen many students handle this lack of product-market fit in a variety of ways.  I find there to be a correlation (unscientific, mind you) between the length of time he has had the idea or how many hours he has already spent developing it, and the degree to which he will rationalize, manipulate, and ignore the data received.

Students who have been working on an idea for more than a year, especially if they have invested money or significant free time into it, can really struggle with the news that their idea stinks. 

These are the ones that need to be saved the most.

These are the ones that will continue to invest money and time into a bad idea.

These are the ones who will fail…years down the road…instead of over a few weeks.

What does this tell me? Customer development is most helpful and most efficient as early in the ideation and new venture creation process as possible. To achieve this, I, we, can continue to spread the word about the value of the process and hope that more people try it sooner.

But…

There are many entrepreneurs who will not learn about the customer development process until much farther down the line…or worse, they hear it but without a persistent teacher like me cracking a whip, they write it off as something they can do after they have a product built. (Those of you familiar with customer development are cringing as you read this I’m sure, just as I did when I typed it.)

What’s a girl to do?

I am still learning the right way to help transform the mindset of hopeful entrepreneurs who are in love with their ideas, who consider their concepts to be their “baby”.  Who knows, I may resort to shouting “Your baby is UGLY!” at them until they listen. 

There are different approaches I’ve used with different personalities, but at the end of the day, it is up to the entrepreneur.  At some point, they will see that what they are doing is not working.  They will notice that they are not getting positive feedback…while their classmates are evolving and getting mere excitement…maybe even earning revenue!

The good news is that even the worst-case scenarios end up in a moment of enlightenment at the end of the Lean Launchpad process (it brought a tear to my eye when it happened last year).  This is why I strongly believe in the Lean Launch class I teach at ASU.  While an entrepreneur may have visions of grandeur as she builds a business in her garage, when she is placed in a room with others going through the same process…it can force a much-needed gut-check.  It can highlight that she sure as heck better start listening to her customers if she wants to build something that people will buy.

Even if she’s been working on it for a year.  Even if she has already sunk her savings into it. 

If she can start listening, she can launch a company that matters.

Do you think you might be over-committed? Admitting it is the first step. 

Check out Udacity.com and start exploring the process.  Get others to join you, support you, mentor you.  And if you live in Arizona, take my class. 

If you have not yet taken notice of Infusionsoft, you sure as heck better.  Yesterday it was made public that the company raised $54 million from Goldman Sachs (via Tech Crunch) to bring total venture money raised to $71 million.  

In Arizona, we are building a lot of HGPS (high growth potential startups) and even more GLC (Great Little Companies), and Infusionsoft is a shining rockstar example of what can be done in a rich environment of brilliant, collaborative, hard-working people.  

Infusionsoft has built and grown a company that revolves around its customer: seeking significant feedback and input as new products and services are created.  I had the luxury of getting 30 minutes with Richard Tripp, the company’s Chief Product Officer (formerly of Intuit), a few weeks ago, and listening to his passion about the product development process they use was spellbinding and fascinating.  This is a killer example of the power of putting your customer in the driver’s seat every, single day.  The company builds things that people need and want, and that produce results…it’s as simple as that.  Oh, and by the way, they create jobs and wealth along the way, too.

Beyond what the company has done for the Valley (not to be confused with that other valley…), the leadership is committed to its Arizona community.  I get to see this first hand as I have been fortunate to have the Chief Marketing Officer, Greg Head, in my ASU MGT 360 entrepreneurship and value creation class every semester for the past few years.  He shares his brilliance with the students, giving them his version of what it takes to launch a successful business (he’s had some experience with that…) and openly conversing with them as though they are the most important part of his day.  It is impressive.  It is companies and leadership like this that will continue to help us build a strong entrepreneurial community…starting with education and awareness, and continuing through venture-funded companies like Infusionsoft that make the decision to build and grow right here in Arizona.

I’m pretty pumped for 2013. 

You’re not trying hard enough.

This is what I assured Jamison and Chelsea as they prepared to take the stage at Gangplank’s Extreme Pitch Night…the perfect conclusion to a killer GEW. 

GEW (Global Entrepreneurship Week) is celebrated by entrepreneurs far and wide, and we made sure to make the most of it here in Arizona. 

On Tuesday of GEW we were lucky to host Don Valentine (he was incredible!), Wednesday local incubator, MAC6, officially launched, Thursday ASU SkySong held Techiepalooza, and Friday Furnace announced the first cohort of winners and Gangplank hosted Extreme Pitch.  An exhilarating week highlighting all that is good and growing in Arizona.

At Extreme Pitch Chelsea was first to take the stage and was a ball of nerves as she prepared to present her cake company, Iced for Life.  She got up in front of the crowd and gave a confident presentation of her business and why she is going to be successful.  She still has room for improvement in the pitch category (she admittedly left out a few key points), but where she really shined was in the Q&A session.  Every single question that was asked was followed by a strong and educated answer - she demonstrated that she knows her business inside and out and her passion was obvious. This is where the Lean LaunchPad work really paid off.

Chelsea could site specific evidence and resources for all of her answers. 

She had done the work and it showed.

Next was Jamison…and while he was much less visibly anxious, he admitted to me that he was quite nervous just before he pitched.  Jamison delivered one of the most polished and poised pitches I have ever seen.  He is excellent at telling the user’s story…making you feel the pain…and explaining how his product, Repair Report, solves the problem.

His slides were clean and his message was clear.  And then he was confronted with a Q&A session that was much more challenging: One of the judges did not believe that shops (one if his customer segments in a multi-sided model) would post repairs - a key aspect of the value proposition.

Jamison confidently reasoned his way through the Q&A and presented well-supported answers to the challenges - again…the customer development work provided specific answers and plenty of data to show that he had done the work and had tested his model.

In the end, Jamison won 3rd place and Chelsea was voted “Most Likely to Succeed” and was able to make two potential partnership connections and at least a handful of new cake customers.  All in all, a big win for two new entrepreneurs. I was very proud of them for getting up in front of a crowd and putting themselves and their businesses out for critique.  After all, you should feel scared and uncomfortable on a regular basis as an entrepreneur, right?

Key Learning Points

1.  Pitches are important, but an average, concise pitch (you still need to communicate well) followed by questions answered well, with conviction, and with supporting data can be even more valuable.  If you give a well-rehearsed and polished pitch, but fall short in Q&A, nothing you said in your pitch matters any longer.  The Q&A is where the cream rises…

2.  Customer Development truly makes you a better investment.  Watching these two explain with confidence why and how they had validated an assumption was magical.  First-hand data is really powerful…empowering for the entrepreneur to use in a presentation and powerful for the potential investor to hear and gain confidence.

3.  The age-old rule is true: Practice Makes Perfect. Pitch constantly…pitch at every competition or event possible.  Put yourself out there when the stakes are low, and then when the stakes are high you will dominate.

My MGT 494 class (minus Sharon and Edgar)

This may look like a business card to you. Something you see and exchange on a regular basis that often ends up at the bottom of your purse or in your car cup holder.  This, however, this is not a business card. This is a symbol of a true success story out of Semester to Launch at ASU.

Chelsea Mellor demonstrated her passion for baking cakes in my Entrepreneurship and Value Creation class in the fall of 2011.  She was passionate to the point of being emotional when she would discuss it and even struggled a little to make it through her in-class pitch.  Her passion was obvious, and as she brought in cupcakes during finals, her skills were obvious.  She is an artist. She is self-trained, motivated, and confident.  

Unfortunately, she left my first class seeming to have let go of her dream for the time being; perhaps having decided she should wait and work for a while.  

I couldn’t have been more pleased when she showed up in my office a semester later saying she wanted to take my Semester to Launch class and was ready to get her cake business off the ground.

When the class began in late August, she was a bit timid and unsure of what she could actually accomplish…unsure of when she could realistically launch.  She never downplayed her abilities: she is skilled and she knows that.  The intimidation came from actually taking the risks to launch her business.  

Week after week she went through the business model canvas and the customer development process…earning mentors and customers as she moved along.  There were days when she was overwhelmed with the steps it takes to launch and days when she seemed downright exhausted.

And then there was today.

Today Chelsea marched into class and gave her final business model canvas presentation.  She summarized her progress from the last 14 days:

She made and delivered two specialty cakes (at full price)

Her LLC had been processed

Her website was up and had over 700 visits

She received her commercial kitchen license

She filed her trademark

She set up her liability insurance

She created her operating agreement with her partner 

And she got her business cards in the mail.

Chelsea has gone from enjoying a hobby and a passion to creating a viable business.  She has preorders lined up for birthdays and weddings and will be announcing her official launch on November 16th at Gangplank Chandler.

Entrepreneurship is not easy.  It is not pretty most of the time.  And it can be the most emotional experience of your life.  But on days like today, when a bright, passionate woman has put in the blood, sweat, and tears to build something and launches her first business…it is all worth it.

I am honored to have had the opportunity to help guide Chelsea and be a part of her journey.  I look forward to watching her business take off.  She is going to be beyond successful…and because she is pursuing her passion, she will never work a day in her life.

May Chelsea inspire you as she has inspired me.

http://www.icedforlife.com/

We are getting to that point in the semester where students (and sometimes instructors…) are losing a little steam…and as a result losing the ability to creatively solve problems or perform work.  They’ve been pushing hard for ten weeks straight and now the road blocks or dead ends are creating a much stronger impact mentally and emotionally than they did in the beginning.

This is where some give up; but even more important, this is where some get stronger. 

The past two weeks in Semester to Launch have demonstrated the proverbial “roller coaster ride” of entrepreneurship in an overwhelming way.  Class two weeks ago brought a day of incredible victory:

·      Speak Toomey, a social media service company earned 2 new clients while performing customer discovery and was faced with the opportunity to create a strategic partnership or joint venture.

·      Repair Report, an online tool to get multiple quotes for auto repairs, gained its first tow truck company partnership.

·      All Societies United, a clothing company aimed at increasing awareness and action with non-profits FINALLY nailed its value proposition!

·      MOCA Spot, an off-campus housing company for community colleges, got its first lease signed!

·      Iced for Life, a specialty cake company, secured a retail partner to sell cakes from its pastry counter.

·      Little Black Dress, a clothing design and manufacturing company, secured a meeting with an idol…a very motivational milestone.

There were other small victories as well; safe to say I couldn’t have been more proud and I was thrilled for how much progress had materialized in eight short weeks. Customer Development was working! I was on cloud 9…they were on cloud 9…it was magical.

Until it wasn’t.

I had my greatest number of absent students during class last week.  It was one short week from the Day of Victory and they had dropped like flies.  One needed a mental break, three were late with looks of sheer exhaustion on their faces, and two more were just MIA.

The lack of energy and excitement in the room could almost be felt.  The weather had started to cool down and the demands on the students to get outstanding work completed for other classes or put in a few more hours at work before the holidays had grown.  Not to mention that the process of customer development was getting more challenging…they needed more substantial validation to make it to the next level.   And getting to these points of validation requires energy and truly commands creativity. 

Steve Blank’s guidance and handbook have provided a lot of helpful information for getting through some of the struggles that students in these classes face.  Exhaustion is not necessarily one of them.  It happens to all of us in various facets of our lives…we push and push until there is nothing left to propel us forward.  Putting in those extra hours and dedicating our lives to our startup is what separates from those who “just hold day jobs,” but at some point at this speed, a crash is inevitable.

So how do we pull from within and make it past the point of no return to the place where we do actually get stronger…get better…and make it back to that euphoric entrepreneurial ecstasy once again?

Honestly? I think you go for a walk.

I think you give your body and your mind what each needs. 

We are no good to our business, or to anyone else’s, if we are sick and exhausted. 

If we are angry at our customers or disenchanted with the process. 

If we are over it.

If we give up.

While it is harder than it sounds to stop working (especially when you feel like your to-do list will never be eliminated) I personally find that when there is a proven scientific reason behind something, I can buy into it much easier.  As such, there are multiple articles and interviews that support the biological impact of exercise such as walking on a person’s creativity and on the brain overall.  I have linked a few at the end of this post for you to explore for yourself.  And there are tons more.

In general, walking helps your mind wander, and as your mind wanders it can connect seemingly unconnected things (things you won’t allow it to connect when you’re thinking so darn hard!), and lead to “ah-ha” or innovation moments (check out Where Good Ideas Come From video or book).  These can be big “ah-has” or teeny tiny “ah-has” that you need to merely make it past that task staring you in the face.

Some entrepreneurs think that if they are awake, they should be working.  I like to think of exercise as a part of the entire process.  More blood and oxygen to the brain, more innovation, more sanity.  Simple enough.

Recently I’ve been making sure to get a good hike in once a week (ASU’s A Mountain at sunset, above and Albuquerque’s La Luz trail, below) and I try to get a 2 mile walk in on a (somewhat) daily basis.  I can’t speak for you…but for me, it works.

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/04/133498136/growing-a-bigger-brain-is-a-walk-in-the-park

http://www.squidoo.com/walking-and-brain

 http://voices.yahoo.com/how-walking-increase-creativity-4130473.html

http://zenhabits.net/how-simplicity-can-help-creativity-briefly/

This week is a big football week at ASU.  We will take on the #3 Oregon Ducks and do our very best to continue to have an impressive season (currently 5-1).  Our students, faculty, and community are all ready to “Blackout the Duck” and support our team…exciting stuff.

But what about our team? As I get geared up for the game tonight, I find myself reflecting on the recent history of Sun Devil football, mostly the last 5 – 10 years to which I have been paying attention. I always have high hopes…and then face the disappointment of just not cutting it.  And what I realized as I thought about this is how much being an average team with a new coach is like being a startup.

The Sun Devils (just like many other football teams) have had a pretty strong start most seasons, but since 2001 have ended up with a 71:65 record.  This is, of course, eerily similar to the scenario a startup faces.  They all start strong with expectations of grandeur…and a strong following of supporters encouraging, defending, and showing up to cheer them on.  Just like football, when you’re winning, everyone is there for you.  It is easy to back up a team or a venture when they are winning and taunting other teams.  But once reality hits and a few failures occur, the story changes.  How can teams and startups change this scenario?

For ASU, we are entering a “startup” season with a new coach.  While he may not be starting from scratch, he is certainly trying to build and run a different team than was here before.

Imagine being Todd Graham when he arrived.  He’s had decent success in his past, at times coaching teams to a winning season and winning bowl games.  As the coach of a new team, he brings with him a style and tactics that have worked with other teams in different conferences. He has confidence in his track record and reason to believe he can coach ASU to victory.

But now he has a new venture, a new brand, different resources, and a different environment.    

Imagine he shows up at the beginning of the summer, hands out playbooks that have worked in the past and asks the team to read, memorize, and be ready to execute the plays at the first game.  

Seems silly, right? 

Immediately we know that a team should practice…should be in the gym, should run plays, and should be watching footage of other teams, looking at the schedule, and making adjustments as they fit.  As football fans, players, coaches this is obvious.

But as startup founders, we do this all of the time.  It’s called a business plan.  We sit down with our current knowledge of the industry and our venture idea and we write out our “playbook.”  Then we execute.  We show up at our first game ready to play based on what we have written (based on historical knowledge and a little Googling).

Graham is essentially a serial entrepreneur; he certainly has some great experience and can bring a lot to the table.  But with a new team, or a new venture/new market, testing (practice) must occur.  There’s no other way to know if his methods will work in this new environment.

This is the core of Customer Development.  It is the “fail fast, fail less” concept that really works with startups.  I think it works with football teams, too.  Those teams who can try new, innovative approaches on the field…see how they work, and adjust in a speedy fashion can win games.  Those who continue to run the same plays that don’t work and coach in the same manner that fails to motivate won’t win championships.  Nor will they keep customers.  But a crappy 2^nd quarter is easily forgiven if a team can fail, learn, and adjust after halftime.  This is what great teams do.  This is what great entrepreneurs do.

As entrepreneurs and football teams, the only reason we show up is because we think we are going to make it to the championship, or have a business success.  We wouldn’t bother if we didn’t think we were going to win.  So it makes sense that we hold summer practice two-a-days and we take the time to test our business model “on the field” before the game.

Sure, we may lose a game or two and our fans may stop showing up during our struggle.  But that’s when we put in a different quarterback. We pivot. We fight.

Those are the defining moments that separate good teams and smart founders from those who give up at the halftime show.

No team in its right mind would show up to a game without a practice.  And no startup founder should either.

I hope the Sun Devils can be that team…one that doesn’t lose the fight…once that pays attention to the “customer development” feedback and adjusts as necessary to win. 

And this is of course what I hope for my students. Heck, they could even go on to win a bowl game or make millions.

Go Devils!

Last week was a big week in Phoenix-metro entrepreneurship.  SEED SPOT, a socially-focused incubator opened its doors officially and held a rock star event as a kickoff to the eight month incubation period for their first cohort of companies. A brilliant woman and my dear friend, Courtney Klein-Johnson and wicked-smart co-founder Chris Petroff hosted 550 of their closest friends and collaborators at the Levine Machine in downtown Phoenix. It was one of those days you realize that as long as we keep our momentum as an entrepreneurship community, our economy is going to be just fine.  And thanks to SEED SPOT’s mission, so will our communities.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (photo) and Scott Case of Startup America spoke to the excited crowd of incredible people, including other incubators like MAC^6, local resources like the Arizona Commerce Authority, and lots of local startups, including Endless Entertainment who created a light and sound show that was nothing short of perfection for this event.

Earlier that Thursday, our LLP class met at 10:30 as we always do and discussed customer relationship development and feedback the students had experienced.  We had a mixed understanding of Steve Blank’s “Get, Keep, Grow” (note to self that this needs to be covered more deeply next term) and had a wide range of achievement ranging from a new prototype and a rough dead end. 

Here you can see advisor, Benson Garner, trying on a prototype soon to be used in some active testing.

Three big things were made apparent for me last week:

1.      Remember to Actively Address Risk - We were lucky to have Sean Tierney of Grid7 and Scratch Audio as a guest advisor, as he has strong experience in LLP and as a startup founder.  One thing he kept mentioning that I had not been addressing well enough was “Where is the biggest risk?” which often flipped the conversation on its head.  When addressed with this question, some students knew right away…others had not really thought about it that way and needed time to reflect.  This is a huge element to be included in the LLP process – it can trigger a pivot all on its own as it may just have last week.  The concept of risk is an underlying factor throughout the entire process, but it needs to be specifically addressed on a regular basis.

A huge thank you to Sean for his time with us and for opening some doors that students had closed, or had not yet even seen.

2.      Keep Emotion out of It - Prompted by Sean’s thoughtful questioning, student S.F. identified an entirely new value proposition that may be worth pursuing (this may be a second pivot for her…she has been having incredible “ah-ha” moments this term).  S.F. is a student who is really passionate about one particular application of her technology…but there is such significant application potential for her idea and IP that she is faced with new opportunities almost weekly.  She is in a solid, but conflicting position.  Significant opportunity for incredible market adoption, but a major struggle for the avenue to which she is emotionally attached.

3.      Some Weeks Suck – Another student, one who works very hard every week (he’s got a killer MVP and receives a good deal of applause in the classroom), hit a wall last week and found himself in a frustrating time crunch.  He had plans to begin to sell his product, but could not get approval for the set-up.  He gave up.  Worse, he started testing something just for testing’s sake…not focused at all on what he really wanted to learn.  It was a rough presentation.  He knew he was going to get some tough feedback…and I believe he got even more than he expected.  But at the end of the day, all of the elevated voices told him what he already knew…and he stood up in the front of the class and took the feedback.  This Thursday is the true test.  He hasn’t given up or given in, and I know he really wants to take the next step…I think the reality is that last week was just a week that sucked.  And it’s the individuals who can make it through those weeks and come back stronger that survive this game.

We shall see if he is one of those survivors.

This was yet another amazing week in the classroom.  I had student after student show up with their MVP testing done…and done very well in most cases.  One student who is working on a college housing model has an actual house and a sales portfolio of the amenities.  Incredible.  Couldn’t ask for more.  Another shows up to class in his business logo-branded polo shirt each week, something he wears to speak with potential customers in order to enhance trust in the interactions.

 The students are proving their desire to truly better their businesses and launch something valuable.  They are working diligently “in” their startup and actually moving their ideas forward.

 Some of the takeaways from the MVP testing this past week?

 “Don’t give up on this first market segment if it doesn’t fit perfectly in an instant”

“My customers don’t care if I personally deliver, they only care that it is personal when I make the sale and take their order”

“I’ve been ignoring deals and a lot of money that is already on the table because I have been too attached to my retail store model.”

“The only way nursing homes will buy this is if it is really inexpensive”

“The shop owners only want to pay for results…they do not see value in a subscription.”

Each week the insights and learning points are getting stronger and are having a greater impact on the value proposition and strategy for each venture.

I anxiously await 10:30 each Thursday morning to see and hear all that these incredible ASU student entrepreneurs have learned.  They are not only motivated personally, but are becoming invested in each others’ ideas and helping each other glean insight from gathered data. 

Finally…a personal story of one specific student.  This student came to me last week letting me know that he was going to stop working on his startup (a social venture, likely non-profit) and wanted to know how he might be able to stay in the course and keep learning without this startup – he wanted to stay, but certain circumstances told him he had to quit pursuing his current venture.  I pushed, but his reasoning had family ties…and there was a sort of ultimatum on the table.  Benson and I worked with him to try to identify another route he could take, another startup idea that could be for-profit and would satisfy the boundaries of his situation. 

He seemed somewhat hopeful that he would come up with something.  He was to let me know by Sunday night if he had an idea and would continue with the course.

I got an email Friday.  In conversation with some peers he had identified a pivot.  The exact pivot he needed – one that turned his social, non-profit model into a working for-profit business.  He would stick with it and push forward.

I do not know what this pivot is…we will all find out in class this week, but the experience he had of being told he could not do something, giving up for a moment, and coming back stronger and more motivated is something I cannot teach in the classroom.  It was an experience in grit and perseverance and I am so thankful he endured it.  He now knows that what may feel like the end does not have to be the end, he just has to push through.

Teaching the LLP course is a dynamic process and opens instructors and students up to experiences that cannot be predicted.  I look forward to the coming weeks and sharing more incredible learning experiences like this.

 Next week - Photos!