1. OSU Site I-Corps Cohort
June 2017

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. How do you succeed?

6. 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)

7. 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?

8. 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!!

9. We use Customer Discovery and follow Scientific Method

10. 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

11. The program starts…
TODAY!

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

13. Your Business Thesis - Reworked
My Team, (name of team),
is developing (defined product offering)
to help (defined audience)
(solve a problem) with (secret sauce).
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 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.

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

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

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

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

18. 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