Join us for a new program brought to you by Startup Weekend, Steve Blank, Udacity and LaunchPad Central: SWNext.
Problem: What happens after a Startup Weekend? Maybe a few team members want to continue working on their Startup Weekend idea. Perhaps you met someone at Startup Weekend and you would like to test launching a new idea with them. Where can you go after a Startup Weekend to continue the momentum? Maybe you have a completely new idea, or possibly have a potential co-founder you want to test out. How do you know if the idea is good or if you really can work with that person?
Solution: SWNext. One of the most immersive and effective learning experiences that will hone your skills as a founding team. It comes in the form of a 3 week program that is a week after SW Seattle.
Program led by:
Andy Sack (Lead facilitator)
Shauna Causey (Mentor)
Greg Gottesman (Mentor)
Bill Bryant (Mentor)
Julie Sandler (Mentor)
Bob Crimmins (Mentor)
Marc Nager (Organizer/Mentor)
Franck Nouyrigat (Organizer/Mentor)
Who: Individuals and nascent teams looking to truly learn the customer development methodology and further test the ability to work together as a team. You must have attended Startup Weekend in order to attend SWNEXT. Teammates of SW teams are the only exception to this.
What: SWNext is the epitome of the “flipped classroom” style of education. We are taking Steve Blank’s world class Lean Launch Pad curriculum (proven and taught at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, Princeton, National Science Foundation, etc.) and making it accessible to all teams through Udacity’s online learning platform. Then we have created in person meetups for your SWNext community cohort to enhance the lessons learned outside of the building. Consider it the first community based, world class education for entrepreneurs.
Expectations: - 8 in person meetups
Kickoff: Thursday 9/20 6-10pm
Week #1 Meetups: (Wed) 9/26 & (Sat) 9/29
Week #2 Meetups: (Wed) 10/3 & (Sat) 10/6
Week #3 Meetups: (Wed) 10/10 & (Sat) 10/13
Presentation/Demo Day: Wed 10/17
*Weekday events will be held from 6pm-10ish, Weekends will be held 10am-2pm
There will be:
- 15-20 hours of work outside of the “classroom” each week.
- Customer interviews (at least 10/wk)
- Mentor session (min 1x/wk)
- Online videos (3 – 30 min. videos/wk)
Cost: Includes drinks & food for the kick-off and demo day. Just like Startup Weekend, we are barely covering our costs…. Just think, you’re getting a Stanford/Berkley graduate level course ($4-5k), connections to the amazing coaches and facilitators, a chohort of new startup friends, vetted co-founder(s), and the liklihood that you’ll be less likely to fail at your next startup adventure. Not bad!
Pre-requisite: At least one person on your team MUST have attended Startup Weekend sometime in the past.
This isn’t traditional education. This is about entrepreneurship and creating real companies. This is about do-ing. The time commitment is less than an MBA evening course. If you can’t be serious and commit to the time it will take, you probably shouldn’t be thinking about starting a company.
