Katherine Olives
This past weekend, ninety-some CCNY students joined us at Grand Central Tech in Midtown for a two-day retreat to kick off our 2018 Lean Startup Bootcamp. Here's a recap of the weekend:
We kicked off Saturday with inspiring words from Joe Barba, Director of Entrepreneurship at CCNY. He spoke about the journey to come and shared: “Each and every one of you is going to struggle at some point, have setbacks, but that's okay. We'll be with you every step of the way. By the end of this program, you'll leave with much more than any other student gets to experience.”
From there, we moved right into the “Five Whys” workshop, a technique that peels away the layers of symptoms which can lead to the root cause of a problem. Our startups were forced to think like children who constantly ask “why”, and in turn, realized a lot about the problems behind their solutions.
After, startups completed a critical path worksheet to identify their bootcamp goals. And then, they heard from entrepreneur Bishoy Ghobryal, Co-Founder and CEO of Veripad. Bishoy shared tips for learning how to work with your team. He stressed the importance of trusting your business partners and celebrating their individual expertise, because “your co-founder relationship will be one of the most important relationships of your life.”
Then, Standard Chartered Bank human resources experts presented on team management and managing conflict. And for the afternoon, startups worked with Standard Chartered mentors and staff at the Zahn Center to put their project plans into motion by completing a RACI chart and organizing roles & responsibilities.
Sunday was all about the customer. While we started off completing the Business Model Canvas, most of the day was dedicated to customer discovery. Startups discovered how to create a value proposition based on your customer's wants, needs, and objections, and conducted a fact finding exercise to discover what they knew and didn't know about their potential customers. Teams also put together customer personae to understand the ins and outs of their customers. Then, they learned how to interview customers to get the most accurate information.
After lunch, entrepreneur and Founder of My Money My Future, Ramona Ortega, joined us to talk about product market fit, and share her best marketing practices.
The day wrapped up with a User Based Design workshop, and finally, we heard all of the teams pitch!
Overall, startups thought the retreat prepared them for what's to come! Although it was a lot to learn in one day, they pushed through the weekend with determination. We can't wait to get started.
