One of our goals for 2012 is to provide more educational offerings and practical business advice geared to our early-stage members. To accomplish this, we’ve been hard at work developing a series of in-depth workshops covering the essential business processes and terminology that startups need to get right. These programs combine some of our existing content with new practices like Lean Startup and the Business Model Canvas.
The new offerings include:
• Customer Discovery, a concentrated three-session program aimed at helping tech startups determine customer base, value proposition, market size, competition, distribution channel, revenue streams and more.
• Executive Summary Workshop, a two-session program for entrepreneurs struggling to create a captivating one-pager to describe business to potential investors and partners.
• Financial Literacy for Startups Workshop to help educate startups on the finance lingo they will need to describe the economics of their business and build a financial model.
• Investor Readiness Workshop to prep entrepreneurs for the investor pitch, equity versus debt, term sheets and due diligence.
• Sales Liftoff Workshop, a two-session program designed to help company founders get the first sale and create a repeatable sales process.
Customer Discovery and the Executive Summary Workshop have already launched to rave reviews from participants (check the Events Calendar for upcoming dates). We are now putting the finishing touches on some of the other programs, which will include more opportunities to learn from seasoned veterans. For example, we will utilize our mentors, graduates and member company CEOs, connecting them with participating companies on a specific topic to help them drill into their business/business model.
Want to meet with ATDC staff to discuss your startup? Team members have office hours available by appointment. New and prospective members are invited to attend the next information session on Feb. 14 to learn more about membership benefits and qualifications.
Jennifer Bonnett is an ATDC Community Catalyst and the Chief Chick at StartupChicks.