Schedule

This is where it all begins. During Orientation, we will review the Founder Institute - DePaul program structure, curriculum, tools, and requirements. You will start to review why you have pursued entrepreneurship, and how you will use the program to be successful. We will review the progress that you have made to date and start to build a system for your success.

All businesses require customers. The degree of desire and urgency that customers feel to adopt your solution, can cause your business to grow quickly and easily, or slowly and frustratingly. Work to identify actual customers, validate your key assumptions, and be sure you are building the best and easiest business. By the end of the week, you will have a clear sense of your ideal customer and be in a position to start building a leading technology company.

Businesses need products or services as well as customers. To make sure you are building the right product, you want to get detailed customer feedback from the minimum investment in product. The way to do this is to develop a mockup, detailed drawing or outline. Customers can then give you detailed feedback on features, helping you make sure you are building the right things in the right order ... and allowing you to further validate if you should even build the product in the first place.

The Mentor Idea Review is the first major test in the Founder Institute Program, and the culmination of the Founder Institute - DePaul Business Bootcamp. During this session, every founder presents their customer problem to a panel of CEOs who review the idea and the progress in detail. After the session, you will incorporate their feedback into your planning, and decide whether to proceed to building and growing your business in the Founder Institute - DePaul Acceleration Bootcamp.