January 4, 2007
Entrepreneurship series begins Jan. 9
This quarter’s seminar series, “From Invention to Start-Up,” begins Jan. 9 with 10 Reasons Why Companies Fail. This seminar will explore why many brilliant ideas never make it to market and why many seemingly fail-safe business ventures never take off. The presenter will be Peter Higgins of Second Avenue Partners. All seminars are 3:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays in 231 Mary Gates Hall.
This series is a continuation of the Fall Quarter series, which focused on the entrepreneurial process. This quarter’s presentations explore more deeply the elements of the start-up and examine how an entrepreneur does market research, puts together the financial reports and makes an “elevator pitch.” The series also includes case studies from the entrepreneurial “trenches.”
More than 100 people attended the seminars last quarter and many attended regularly. Many more viewed the on-line video and Powerpoint presentations posted for each seminar. During the final weeks of the quarter, attendees were surveyed to see if the seminar had met their needs, to gauge interest in specific activities and content and to guide this quarter’s seminars. All found the seminar helpful; several sought more hands-on activities and a “pitch clinic,” and nearly all respondents requested sessions devoted to market research.
Others requested topics include: Success and failure stories from the trenches, ten reasons businesses fail, case studies, exit strategies, intellectual property and technology transfer, funding strategies, conflict of interest, and regional resources available for start-ups. This quarter’s schedule focuses on the requested content and provides greater depth to the material covered last quarter.
The preliminary schedule includes the following topics:
Jan. 16: Case Study I: Inventor + Entrepreneur = Success. Inventors can partner with entrepreneurs to create exciting new companies. Here’s the story of one successful new venture.
Jan. 23: Market Research. Every successful entrepreneur says that you’ve got to listen to your customer. But what if your customer sends you in a new direction? Or what if your start-up relies on a yet-to-be created market?
Jan. 20: Challenges and Dynamics of Entrepreneurship at the UW. Navigating the landscape as a UW inventor/entrepreneur/faculty member can involve forays into unfamiliar territory such as filing disclosures, the new state ethics act and other important issues.
Feb. 6: Case Study II: Works in Progress. Two UW-based entrepreneurs talk about their new companies and the pitfalls and practical issues they’ve encountered thus far.
Feb. 13: Cash Flow — More Important than Your Mother. How to preserve your hard-earned cash while you gain traction is one of the key lessons of being a successful entrepreneur.
Feb. 20: Money — Angels Investors. Angel investors are often seen as a precursor to venture capital, but some technology companies do well by working only with angel investors — and end up owning more of their companies in the process.
Feb. 27: Case Study III: Business Plans. Experienced entrepreneurs talk about their original business plans, how they evolved over time, and how vastly different the results have been.
March 6: Perfect Pitch. Can you give a three-minute explanation of what your new start-up does? The “elevator pitch” gets you in the door of any investor for a full presentation, so your pitch had better be compelling.
For more information, and to view last quarter’s presentations (both video and Powerpoint slides), go to http://inventiontostartup.washington.edu.
