Session 1:
Introduction: Most Startups Fail; How To Improve Your Odds;
Marketing and Sales: Finding Your Customer
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
6:00pm to 9:00pm Eastern Time, Room: 10-250

Part 1: Introduction: Most Startups Fail; How To Improve Your Odds

There are lots of great ideas.   The reality is that most startups fail.   They often fail because the founders don't know the nuts and bolts of execution.

This course is about the nuts and bolts of New Ventures.   What are the common mistakes that entrepreneurs make?   What can they do to increase the probability of success?

This introductory session will provide an overview of the skills you will need to have or find in order to succeed.   We will provide an overview of the sessions that follow:

• Finding your customer
• How Will You Make Money? Business models
• Basics of sales and presenting
• Hiring, inspiring and firing
• How to Stay Out of Trouble - Legal issues
• Negotiating - with Co-Founders, employees, partners etc
• Finance and financial projections
• Getting the Resources You Will Need, including Raising Capital

Read the interview with the Jensen Huang, the founder of Nvidia: He Built a Trillion-Dollar Company. He Wouldn't Do It Again

Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management Serial Entrepreneur, Mentor and Investor. Joe has been involved with over 120 new ventures over the last 30 years as an entrepreneur, lawyer, board member and venture capitalist.

Video of Presentation:
Presentation Slides:	Introduction to New Ventures

Part 2: Marketing and Sales: Finding Your Customer

Many entrepreneurs, especially technology based entrepreneurs, are accused of being too in love with their technology or concept. They rationalize that if they develop a better mousetrap then the product will sell itself. However, a good technology or product idea is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to establishing and growing a successful business venture. Who will buy the product? How will you reach buyers? How much will they pay?

If you have an idea for a product or service how do you determine whether there is a market for it? How do you develop a marketing strategy? How do you turn your idea and market research into sales? What do you need to do to convince potential investors that there is a market and that your idea is viable? If you don't have a specific product or service idea but you see a potential need, how do you turn the need into a product or service?

This session will discuss these issues and provide guidance on how to approach the marketing section of your business plan.

• Moore, Geoffrey A., Crossing the Chasm, Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers, HarperBusiness 1991, Chapters 1 and 2.   Students Registered For Credit See, Course Reader for Chapter 1 and 2 excerpts.   See also, YouTube: The Technology Adoption Curve and YouTube: BigData Conference.

Author, Start-up advisor; Serial Healthcare Industry Entrepreneur Bob has started four companies and served as CEO of a company that's publicly traded on the Hong Kong exchange.  His book The Start-Up Starter Kit: How to Avoid Failing in the Crucial First Two Years is available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Video of Presentation:
Presentation Slides:	Finding your Customer