Monday, March 12, 2012

What lies ahead

We have a few quick updates for you.

First, we have updated a few of the fields in the forms at http://venture-lab.org  If you've already signed up and filled in some information, you can log back in and update or revise your information there.

Second, if you have not yet signed up at http://venture-lab.org, please do so by March 18th. You have to sign up for the first time, that is, your old username/password will not work. There is no use looking for it, the first time you have to create a new username / password and sign up.

Next, an update on how we plan to use the team formation tool. We will have a two-step process to facilitate team building. You can also go through the videos individually, but we believe you will learn much more within a team.

Step 1:
We will introduce a set of 6-8 teammates to you in a week or two (they will get your name, email and paragraph). This will be your team for the first assignment which is to get together and brainstorm an initial set of 5-10 "worst business ideas" followed by 5-10 "best business ideas". You'll map out the business model (using something called the business model canvas) for each of them. This will be due 2 weeks later (we'll let you know when exactly). Alongside team building, this assignment helps you practice brainstorming (a topic covered in one of the lecture videos) and working with business models (also covered in detail).

Step 2:
We'll have you come back to venture-lab.org for a final round of teambuilding where we aim for smaller teams of 3-4 people. Here we will only share certain information with suggested teammates that you provide, such as a LinkedIn profile. If you're happy with your existing group, you can stay together and split into two teams of 3-4. Those who would like to change or adjust teams will have an opportunity to select new teammates for the remainder of the team startup projects. After the initial brainstorming assignment, for the first project, you'll have a month to work on it and the top teams will be paired with mentors. Then the final project will be due a month after that.