Schedule

What are you passionate about? What is your vision? How do you translate passion and vision into a business idea? How do you brainstorm ideas? What are tools for evaluating your ideas? What are the makings of a good idea versus a bad idea? Should you pursue multiple ideas at once, and when should you focus on one?

What market are you pursuing? Is it big enough? Is it growing or shrinking? What are the other characteristics of your market, and why do you care? How do you find data on your market? How do you define your competitors? What are inexpensive tactics to do custom market research? How can you determine if you can win in your target market, and when do you decide to walk away?

What is a brand? Is it you? Is it your vision? How do you determine what you stand for, and then how do you come up with a good company name? What are the characteristics of a good company name? What do you need to do to protect your name?

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?

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?

Do you need a cofounder? How do you find and choose a cofounder? What employees do you need, and when do you need them? How do you hire and fire employees? What are important qualities to look for in employees? How do you decipher a resume? What are compensation guidelines? How do you set expectations? When is it easiest and hardest to find the best resources, and why?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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.