OSU Site I-Corps Cohort June 2017

Program Logistics OSU Site Program Opening Workshop: Tuesday, June 6 Course Instruction Group Review1: Thursday, June 16, 2 pm Auto-Correct! Group Review2: Wednesday, June 22, 3 pm Closing Workshop: Wednesday, June 27, 8:30 am Present Lessons Learned

I-Corps Outcomes Commercialization Strategy Decision New Start-up Business Creation Technology Licensing Strategy Abandon Increase your chances for funding Refine and strengthen your research agenda

Each week, your team will… Learn elements of a business model Business Model Canvas is a framework Practice Lean principles Talking to customers Process & pace Present your learnings to your peers Accountability & Birds of a feather Repeat for 3 weeks

How do you succeed?

The Business Model Canvas It’s a tool, not a report! You have to use a tool for it to be useful Every entry is a Guess (Hypothesis)

The Business Model Canvas It’s a tool, not a report! You have to use a tool for it to be useful Every entry is a Guess (Hypothesis) How do you turn Guesses into Facts?

The Business Model Canvas It’s a tool, not a report! You have to use a tool for it to be useful Every entry is a Guess (Hypothesis) How do you turn Guesses into Facts? Collect Data!!

We use Customer Discovery and follow Scientific Method

The Process Hypothesize (Guess!) Experiment (Interview!) Learn (Analyze the data!) Iterate (Adjust / Pivot!) This is the key point of the BMC. Regardless of the ‘box’ in the BMC this is the process for identifying what needs to be addressed and how customers want to interact with you. Reinforce: IT IS OK TO MAKE MISTAKES IN HYPOTHESES!!! GUESS-ASK-LISTEN-ADJUST

The program starts… TODAY!

Your Business Thesis Who are you? What is it that you do? Who is your customer? Why would they buy it?

Your Business Thesis - Reworked My Team, (name of team), is developing (defined product offering) to help (defined audience) (solve a problem) with (secret sauce). http://fi.co/madlibs The "defined offering" needs to be short, simple and capable of being understood by everyone, like "a website," "a mobile application," "hardware," or "desktop software." The "defined audience" is the initial group of people that you will market your offering to. In the case of consumer applications, it is usually a demographic, such as "women age 25 to 35 years old." In the case of business applications, it is usually a job function at a type of corporation, such as "system administrators at medium sized technology businesses." Now that you have an offering helping an audience, you need to "solve a problem." The problem needs to be something that everyone understands, such as "reduce the time collecting bill payments" or "engage in an immersive entertainment experience." The final component, the "secret sauce," adds your unique approach to solving the problem and demonstrates a mastery of the market. Some examples are "by sending automated email alerts based on analysis of highest response times" or "with virtual worlds constructed in reaction to the movements of the players." Here are some more pointers; First, avoid using adjectives, particularly superlatives. Never say "first," "only," "huge" or "best," as these words signal inexperience. Second, properly define your target market. For example, "women" or "small businesses" are way too large and not nearly targeted enough. Third, eliminate any buzzwords, acronyms or industry jargon from your pitch. Finally, keep it short. It's easy to write a long sentence, but the right thing is to be concise.

Your Business Thesis - Reworked My Team, (name of team), is developing (defined product offering) to help (defined audience) (solve a problem) with (secret sauce). http://fi.co/madlibs Introduce yourself…

Your Business Thesis - Reworked My Team, (name of team), is developing (defined product offering) to help (defined audience) (solve a problem) with (secret sauce). http://fi.co/madlibs Tell us what you do…

Your Business Thesis - Reworked My Team, (name of team), is developing (defined product offering) to help (defined audience) (solve a problem) with (secret sauce). http://fi.co/madlibs Tell us who will buy it…

Your Business Thesis - Reworked My Team, (name of team), is developing (defined product offering) to help (defined audience) (solve a problem) with (secret sauce). http://fi.co/madlibs …and WHY?

READ Talking to Humans This book will create a competitive advantage for you. This will prepare you to overcome common obstacles faced when speaking to customers!   A free download of the book is available at http://www.talkingtohumans.com/