The Structured Start-up Course
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Our Curriculum
An overview of the course, so you can decide which topics to tackle first.
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Why? The Mission and Purpose of a Company
The importance of a mission/mission statement and values, both to the start-up itself, and to customers and investors.
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Identifying Customer Pain Points and Solutions
Understanding your customers’ perspectives, needs, and status-quo solutions.
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Market Sizing, Go-To Market Strategy, and Defensibility
Understanding your market perspective, including knowing where your company fits in the larger market, what your target market should be, and whether or not your company’s position in the market is defensible.
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Finding Your Entrepreneurial Story and Narrative Arc
The importance of crafting a compelling company narrative and the connection between a founder’s brand and their company’s brand.
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Product Design, Minimum Viable Product, and Proof of Concept
How MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) can benefit start-ups.
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Initial Customer Relationships and Retention, Alpha and Beta Customers, Finding and Attracting New Customers
How initial customers can help you to test your MVP and give insight into how your company needs to grow.
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Customer Experience, Customer Development, and Customer Personas
How developing customer personas can help you understand your customers, what you can offer them, and how/if your customer base can scale.
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Distribution, the Buyer's Journey, and the Sales Process
The importance of affecting the sales channel to change purchasers’ behavior.
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Guerilla Marketing, Growth Hacking, and Other Sales Techniques
How trust is important to the sales process and the importance of studying how other companies build trust through their go-to market strategies.
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Operating Your Business, Best Practices, and Building Culture
How the purpose and type of business can tell you what you need to operate and scale the business.
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Understanding the Industry Ecosystem
How to understand your industry ecosystem as well as how your company is positioned in that ecosystem.
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Leadership and Team Dynamics, Building the Team, Co-Founders, and C-Level
Building a successful leadership team, key traits of helpful early-stage contributors, and the benefits of finding a co-founder.
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First Hires and Headcount
How to find the right full-time employees to take your business where it needs to go.
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Bootstrapping the Gaps: Contractors, Advisors, and Industry Experts
Essential functions of an advisory board and how early-stage companies can use bootstrapping techniques to fulfill those functions until they can have a structured board.
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Culture and Values
The importance of a good company culture and how the founder establishes that culture.
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Revenue Forecasting
Techniques for making a revenue forecast (and pitfalls that founders fall into).
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Unit Economics
How to perform a unit economic analysis, including a discussion of recurring revenue and scale.
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Metrics
The necessity of objective financial measurements and how to develop Objectives and Key Results.
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Identifying Assumptions and Biases
How to test one’s business plans for blind spots and weaknesses.
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Formation, Funding, and Financing
How to approach investors and other sources of capital to explore your options.
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Final Project: Getting Your Business Where You Need It To Go
Putting your company's “why” into words and developing a plan to achieve your goals.