Information SessionJason Kuruzovich

LALLY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGYlallyschool.rpi.edu

Today

• Introductions• Background – Validating a business model• The Foundry Process

– MOKR Report– Weekly Meetings/Management Report– Project Review

• Colleen – Using the Foundry Process• Brent – Execution Under Uncertainty• James Spencer – EVE and RPI Hub • Next steps

– Important dates, meeting time– Communication– Onboarding Packet

“Now is the best possible time in the history of the Universe to start a company...”

- Phil Libin, Evernote Founder

Why?

TechnologyProcess

Technology

The cost of testing a business hypothesis has been dramatically reduced

Processes

Incubation Processes

We are focused on creating entrepreneurs for life, and catalyzing economic growth. Our

approach is straightforward: each

Foundry team focuses on building their business;

each Foundry cohort coaches one another;

and Foundry leadership provides teams with

timely, useful resources and training.

Validating a business model

Business schools talk a lot about “business plans…”

What happens if you build a business plan before properly

validating your business concept?

Everyone has a plan until they

get punched in the face.- Mike Tyson

New models of entrepreneurship suggest iterative testing of business

models.

People scale flawed business models because it is easier to grow a

business than it is to discover one.

These ideas are not new..

• Minimum Viable Product

• Customer-Centered Development (4 Steps)

• Nail It/Scale It

• Lean Startup

• Product/Market Fit

A Simple Proposition

Skills &Knowledge Needed to Validate a Business Model

Skills &Knowledge Needed to Launch/Grow a Company

These are very different activities, so let’s teach them as distinct activities

What do you need to build a company?

A great product conceptHow to build itHow to distribute itHow to market itHow to hire peopleHow to manage people

•Real product knowledge•Managerial Experience•Mentors•Access to Capital and so on

Building a company is a craft learned through experience, often with mentors, over time.

What do you need to validate a business

concept?

Stuff Stuff

Stuff

…learn how to deal with the “stuff you don’t know you don’t know” problem

THE FOUNDRY PROCESS

The Foundry: Forging Entrepreneurs for Life

Foundry Processes• Execution and Management

Reporting System–MOKR/Management Report Dashboard

• Group Activities:–One-hour team meeting per week

–Project Review

• Online Instruction available 24/7 via our YouTube Channel

Execution & Management Reporting System

Problem

• Entrepreneurs must know how to execute … but most of our students have no idea how to manage a project or execute.

Solution

• Teach Students how to be effective managers by teaching them (and insisting they use) a simple, lightweight management reporting system developed at Intel, Oracle…still in use today (Google OKR)

• Management reports MUST be filed weekly 72 hours before weekly management meeting. WHY? Because every Foundry mentor and team member reviews one another’s reports (they are the basis for coaching).

MOKR System

Mission

• It captures, in a few succinct sentences, the essence of your business's goals and the philosophies underlying them.

Objectives

• Objectives provides a specific, measurable, realistic, action-oriented and time sensitive statement that, once achieved, propels the organization closer towards its mission.

Key Results

• The results that your company plans to achieve. At the end of the term, each will either be done, or not done (and thus an observer will be able to determine whether they are done, or not done).

Management Tools (Management Report)

DASHBOARD. Create a dashboard that will enable you to clearly track your progress relative to your key results. PROGRESS. What did you actually accomplish. (Not “I worked on”)

PLANS. These are the things you plan to accomplish next week.

PROBLEMS. These are things that are unresolved. Looking for resources. Unsure of a decision? A great place to get feedback.

PRIORITIES. What broad but near term areas of the business are priorities. (This is a great area to drive your plans for each week.)

USING THE TOOLS

MOKR. Helps provide an organizing vision of “where to start.” • Think what are key areas of the

business model with highest uncertainty and how do I test them

MANAGEMENT REPORT. You are your company’s biggest asset. Manage yourself well by executing with precision

Weekly Management MeetingProblem

Entrepreneurs must know how to find answers to questions that are hard to define, difficult to figure out how to find answers, and difficult to ask

Solution

• Use weekly management meeting entirely for problem-solving, where students learn to work, as a community, to help solve each others problems

• Meetings are student-led and peer-driven: Our job is to pour coffee and shut up … it is NOT to answer questions

• Taking risks in front of others generates trust, friendship, support, and provides the emotional supported needed to do what needs to be done

Business Model Canvas

Weekly Management Meeting

• APD (Assumption and Problem Diagnosis) Presentations–We ask that each of you create a 10

minute presentation regarding:• a key assumption/problem for business • how you plan to address it• Results (if available)

– Scientific Method• Hypothesis -> Experiment -> Result ->

Decision

Project Review

ProblemAll businesses need help from seasoned mentors

Solution

• We help you to put together a group of mentors who are experienced entrepreneurs.

• Hour long presentation provides a deep dive into your business.

• Your goal should be to put together a group of advisors and arrange a project review prior to the end of the semester

Provide Quality Educational Content

Problem

• Entrepreneurs need answers now, not when we are available.

• Entrepreneurs need to develop judgment about the quality of information provided

Solution

• YouTube Channel: usparkfoundrytv has short videos on entrepreneurship basics, available 24/7 and free to all

• Evening Socials featuring carefully selected guest speakers. Social time is crucial as it is when the seeds of a student-drive mentor relationships are sown

Dashboard Demo

www.edustartup.org/rpihub

Using the Tools in The Program

• An example….VITALIV• Brent – Pep Talk• James Spencer Eve

Next Steps

• Download the Foundry packet– http://goo.gl/bApSg

• Create draft MOKR in dashboard today – (You will need to be approved before it

will show up.)

• Finalize MOKR/MR by next meeting

Thanks to Rob Wuebker for content.

Acknowledgements