Curriculum

Spring 2010 Paris

Le Founder Institute consiste en une série de sessions hebdomadaires d'aide à la création de startups. Elles ont été concues pour aider les entrepreneurs à prendre en compte et à travailler tous les aspects de leur projet, de l'idée initiale jusqu'aux modèles de revenus et de financements. Chaque session est conduite par trois Mentors CEOs, qui partagent leurs expériences sur le sujet, souvent uniques et parfois même contradictoires. Les Fondateurs participants doivent également accomplir des travaux et des activités en groupe entre chaque session pour faire avancer la mise en place de leur société.

Toutes les sessions ont lieu le soir apres les heures habituelles de travail.

Program Sessions

Vision & Idees

March 20, 2010, at 10:00 AM: Develop ideas for your business.

Qu'est ce qui vous passionne? Quelle est votre vision? Comment convertir cette passion et vision en un business? Comment trouver des idees? Avec quels outils evaluer vos idees? Qu'est ce qui separe une bonne d'une mauvaise idee? Faut-il essayer plusieurs idees en parallele, et quand se concentrer sur une seule?

Le Marche

March 27, 2010, at 10:00 AM: Validate your idea and target market

Quel marche visez-vous? Est-il assez important? En croissance ou pas? Quelles autres caracteristiques a-t-il, et pourquoi est-ce important? Comment trouver ces informations? Qui sont vos concurrents et comment les definir? Quelles sont des methodes abordables pour trouver ce genre d'information? Comment savoir si vous pouvez devenir leader sur votre marche, et quand il vaut mieux essayer autre chose?

Nom et Marque

March 30, 2010, at 06:00 PM: Name and brand your business.

Quelle est l'importance d'avoir le bon nom? Quels sont les differents types de nom et comment choisir le bon? Quelles sont les meilleures methodes pour chercher, evaluer et selectionner un nom parmi une longue liste de possibilites? Ensuite, comment proteger son nom et sa marque? Comment le nom influence la perception de la marque? Quelle est votre marque?

Company Roadmap

April 13, 2010, at 06:00 PM: Develop a plan to build your idea.

How do you get from an idea to an offering? How do you build an offering? What tactics should you use to ensure success? What is the plan to develop your offering? What are tips and tricks to make that plan accurate? What are common mistakes that every founder makes? What are the best practices? How do you navigate competition, and how do you win?

Earning Revenue

April 27, 2010, at 06:00 PM: Build a revenue model for your business.

How do you get revenue, grow revenue, and track revenue? How do you scale your business from the first dollar earned to the millionth? How important is early revenue versus long-term potential? What are symmetrical versus asymmetrical models, and which type of model holds the most promise for your business? What are the various routes to market that you can take? How do you set your revenue goals, and how do you go about meeting them?

Hiring and Firing

May 04, 2010, at 06:00 PM: How to find the best people.

What are the right mix of skills that you need to launch a world-class technology company? Should you be looking for cofounders, team members, freelancers or interns? When should you plan to bring on people to help? How do you recruit and interview to find the best resources? What are the compensation guidelines in the beginning for cofounders and other various roles? How do you set expectations, measure results and remove or fire under performing resources?

Intellectual Property

May 11, 2010, at 06:00 PM: File your provisional patents.

What is the intellectual property of your business? What types of protections are available, and what are the costs? How do you manage your intellectual property using confidentiality, copyrights, and patents? What can and what should you do on your own, and what do you need a lawyer for? What are common intellectual property problems, and how do you deal with them cost effectively?

Startup Legal and Incorporation

May 25, 2010, at 06:00 PM: Build a legal strategy and incorporate.

Why incorporate? What are the basic legal concepts that you need to know to run a successful company? What are the key legal terms that you need to care about in contracts, with your team, and with your Board? What are common legal mistakes in startups? What are the key legal documents that a startup needs to operate? When do you need to use a lawyer, and when can you handle things on your own? How do you manage a law firm efficiently to get the best work?

Outsourcing, Partners and Suppliers

June 01, 2010, at 06:00 PM: Select key vendors.

What should you outsource, and what do you need to do in-house? What is the core competency of your team, and what should it to be? What vendors do you need? How do you select the best vendors for your business on the best terms? How do you evaluate the economics? What are some horror stories to avoid?

Marketing and Sales

June 16, 2010, at 06:00 PM: Create a message that resonates.

Who are your customers? What audience are you trying to reach? How do you tell the story of your company? How do you create the right messages? What are the best tactics for your outreach: publicity, guerrilla marketing, advertising? How much should you spend on outreach? How do you measure success?

Presentation and Publicity

June 22, 2010, at 06:00 PM: Get the world to take notice.

How do you get the world to take notice of your company? What tools and materials do you need to start doing outreach? How do you identify media to write about your company? What are newsworthy stories? How do you craft a story? What are effective tactics to get social media, blog and press coverage? What tactics should be avoided?

Fundraising

June 29, 2010, at 06:00 PM: Plan to raise your first round.

What is the right amount of money to raise from investors? How do you raise capital for a brand new company? How do you identify angels and other seed-stage investors? What do investors expect from the company? What are typical investment structures and deal terms for seed-stage financings? How do you negotiate terms?

Graduation

June 30, 2010, at 06:30 PM: Time to celebrate!

The Graduation is the beginning of an exciting period for Founders, where the seed of an idea becomes reality. Graduating Founders are invited to bring one guest of their choosing to the session and to the after party. The Institute will continue to provide office hours, add special service provider deals, assist with fundraising, and give guidance on publicity and launch strategies for Graduated Founders.