Network Startup School - Week 2 - – Team Building & Product Development!
Network Startup School
Fellow Enn-Essers!!
Get ready for week two of then four-week Network Startup School - an awesome opportunity to sharpen your pitch ahead of Balaji’s office hours!
We’re running a mini accelerator every Tuesday from 2 pm to 4 pm, starting October 1st and running until October 22nd. Over the next weeks, we’ll dive into:
Entrepreneurial Mindset
High-Impact Pitching and Storytelling
Team Building
Product Development
Go-To-Market Strategies
Funding
The program will wrap up in Week 4 with an epic Network Shark Tank / Pitch Contest! (We will also talk with Balaji to see if we can arrange some prizes for the winner and runners-up!)
Four Sessions, Four Weeks:
Week 1 (Tue, Oct 1) – Start with the End in Mind! Entrepreneurial Mindset, High-Impact Pitching & Storytelling.
Week 2 (Tue, Oct 8) – Team Building & Product Development!
Week 3 (Tue, Oct 15) – Go-To-Market Strategies & Funding!
Week 4 (Tue, Oct 22) – Network Shark Tank! Pitch Contest – Game Time!
Who’s this for?
Got a startup you’re just starting to start up? Network Startup School is for you!
Looking to launch a bold, new startup? Right this way, we’ve been waiting for you!
Thinking about starting a startup but haven't started yet? Ka-BOOM! You're in the right place!
No idea yet or not ready to start? No worries! Join us anyway to learn for the future. Collaborate with a team, participate in a group pitch, and step outside your comfort zone during the Shark Tank pitch session!
Here's the rundown and more detailed info about your Startup Sherpas pulling this all together:
Week 1, Sesh 1: Tue Oct 1st 2pm to 4pm
Start with the End in Mind: Entrepreneurial Mindset! High Impact Pitching and Storytelling
This will set the stage for the Network School and introduce your Startup Sherpas Rich Robinson, Brett Petersen, Shara, Sterlin (bios at the end of this).
We'll delve into the what, why's and how's of entrepreneurship and establishing a resilient and optimistic entrepreneurial mindset (yeah, Stoicism!) then give a deep overview of how to pitch your startup for fun and funding. We start with the end in mind so that, as you go through the Network Startup School, you have Shark Tank Pitching Contest in mind to help you build your startup story, business model, compelling pitch deck and give you the mindset and tools to pitch like a pro!
Week 2 - Tue Oct 8th - Team Building! Product Development!
Startup ideas are brought to life and forged into products through people. We take a look at how to build teams, manage and motivate teams.
Then we'll dive into product creation with the Business Model Canvas framework and workshop your product vision and message.
On the product side, we'll be doing a lot of learning by doing, so please bring a laptop or notebook so you can participate!
We'll start by creating user personas, and then we'll work through our current understanding of those users through the lens of pains, gains, and jobs to be done. We'll briefly cover the four types of product, and ideate some potential solutions to your selected user persona's needs.
At the conclusion of all these activities, you'll complete your business model canvas, where you chart out your target customer, why they want to buy from you, and how you will make money as a business from them doing so.
We'll end with the methods you can use to validate or invalidate everything you've put together thus far, and then send you off into the internet to go find that data!
Bonus: if we have time, we'll do a fast discussion and exercise on working with engineers via user stories to help get your product built.
Week 3 - Tue Oct 15th: Go-To-Market Strategies & Funding!
Alta: So what? Now what? Creating a product is exciting, but turning it into a growth engine is challenging. From launch to acquiring and retaining users, we'll explore how to go to market thoughtfully and effectively—combining the art and science of scaling from experts in the field.
Shara: Then comes funding. Securing pre-seed, seed, institutional, and follow-on funding can be daunting, even for veterans. We’ll hear from two active investors to understand what they are looking for and how to crack the code to open their wallets.
Ends with a Q&A and an open session
Week 4 - Tue Oct 22nd - Network Shark Tank!! Pitch Contest!
Our favorite sport! A competitive, high energy and friendly Shark Tank style pitching contest!
Show time! Game Time!
You'll take the guidance, materials and skills learned along the way that will culminate in safe space where everyone will pitch. like. crazy.
This is a SHOW. You times TWO! The birthing of your baby!
Super high energy, fun, compelling stories based on a 10-12 slide deck template.
You will pitch solo or with your team in 7 minutes with 3 min of feedback/questions from the judges. There will be prizes but the real rewards are the skill sets and progress along the way.
Startup Sherpa Bios
Seven-time founder and seven-time bootstrapper
Former mentor for the US National Science Foundation I-CORPS program
Current Director of Product with Manifold Group, and COO of PowerNotes (powernotes.com)
Seasoned entrepreneur, exec, investor, advisor, mentor & professor.
Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship @ Peking University's Guanghua Int'l MBA
Mentor to nearly 400 startups, Professional Public Speaker
Outlier Ventures, Investment Associate - Focusing on late and early-stage startups
IX Swap (IXS), Prev Founding Member and BD Lead - atm 100M+ Market Cap
Manmi Capital Management (My own fund), secondary and primary investments within web3, and directly helping founders that I invest in with fundraising, tokenomics, GTM, PMF, and bla bla.
Kenan Flagler Business School at University of North Carolina BSBA
Sterlin Lujan
Author, futurist, public speaker, nomad, and crypto-anarchist. He has worked in the cryptocurrency industry for over eight years and has written about anarchist political ideas and technology for 15 years.
Sterlin is an avid Toastmaster and is a professional public speaker has also spoken at many technology events on topics ranging from voluntaryism, communication, cryptocurrency, agorism, cypherpunks, and the future of technology. These events include Blockshow, the Texas Bitcoin Conference, Anarchopulco, and the Greater Reset.