Transcript Mentors
Nanyang Accelerator
Program
Introduction
The Agenda
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The mentoring team
Programme objectives
Mentoring team philosophy
Our expectations of you
Steve Blank
8 startups in Silicon Valley
• Semiconductors
• Supercomputers
• Consumer electronics
• Video games
• Enterprise software
• Military intelligence
[email protected]
@sgblank
www.steveblank.com
Facilitating team: Kee, YY, Sha
Mentors
• Mentors are people with real-world experience
• Mentors role is to:
– Help you “Get you out of the building”
– Share contacts
– Offer “Real-world” entrepreneurial advice
– Critical feedback
• You arrange your schedule for the mentors, not
the other way around
Some of the Mentors
Programme Objective: Idea to a
Business
• What does it take to go from idea/MVP to a
business?
– Business Model + Customer Development
– Hypotheses testing of the business models
– Get “out of the building”
Programme Objective: Helping startups
• Experience the same pressures, uncertainty, and
challenges of a real startup
– We expect iterations and Pivots
– Class is a “lab” - books/lectures are tools, not answers
– Fail fast, learn quick, push you outside your comfort
zone
Mentoring team philosophy
• This class is taught using the “Startup Culture”
– Mentors are tough, direct, fair - you need to be the same
– Startup culture has no hierarchy - in this class you are an
entrepreneur – treat us like your peers, not your bosses or
supervisors
– We’re your biggest supporters – we want you to succeed
• Question us, challenge us, push us as hard as we
push you
• We don’t pretend to be domain experts, we know
you are smarter and know your domain better than
we do
Getting Out of The Building
• This class is not only about the lectures
• The class is about the work you do outside the
building
• It’s the difference between a vision and a
hallucination
Our Expectations of You
• This is a full-contact, immersive class
– All of you will be full participants – here and
remotely
– You will spend lots of time outside classroom
– You all will do the work assigned
• Commitment of time is required
What Will you Learn?
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Opportunity evaluation
Search for Business Models
Customer Discovery and Validation
Operating and decision making in chaos with
insufficient data
• Ruthless pursuit of an objective by a team
The Programme ‘By the Numbers’
• 2 facilitators, 1 TA, 10 + Mentors
• 9 sessions of evening class
• 1 session of 15-minute sharing as graduation
presentation
10-15 hours of work a week outside the
classroom
Class Logistics
Course Reading
• Business Model Generation
• The Startup Owner's Manual
• www.steveblank.com
Class Schedule
10 (3 hour) Class Sessions:
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1: Introduction, Business Models, Customer Development
2: Value Proposition
3: Customer Segment
4: Channels
5: Demand Creation (Customer Relationships)
6: Revenue Model
7: Key Resources and Activities
8: Cost Structure
9: Key Resource
10: Graduation Day
New ventures
• Team size of up to 5 people
• Any for-profit scalable startup
• If you are a domain expert, that’s your best bet (but
not required)
• If you pick a web project, you have to build it (and
there needs to be some novelty)
• If you have the MVP or just got funded, that is even
better
Team Deliverables - Presentation
• Each Week
– Lessons Learned presentation 5 minutes
– Updated business model canvas
– Update blog/wiki
– 10’s of hours of “outside the building” progress
• Graduation Presentation
– 15 minute demo and sharing
Team Deliverables - Blog
• Each Week
– Business model canvas updates
– Interviews
– Photos/Videos
– A/B tests
– Strategy
Class Disclosure/NDA’s
• Successful startups are not about the original idea
– It’s about learning, discovery and execution
– You will not be presenting your IP/technical details
• You get to see how previous teams solved problems by looking
at their slides, notes and blogs
Therefore:
– Your slides, notes and blogs will be shared with other teams
– This is an open class. No non-disclosures
To sign up for the programme,
please visit:
www.ntuventures.com/accelerator.html