Week 3: Summer Venture Program 2018
Meeting with SVP Advisors
Despite the rainy and gloomy weather, our entrepreneurs were enthusiastic and excited to get to work during our third week of the Summer Venture Program.
As usual, we kicked off the week with some team updates and a delicious meal from a local restaurant.
Something that always seems to amaze me about this cohort is how willing they are to help out one another. Whether it be Shaymaa Gaafar (Shay Jaffar) and Maya Mutalik (Hope Sews) sharing fabric suppliers or Ralph Haddad (TastePal) and Jake Maude (BikeLord) working to improve BikeLord’s user experience, our teams are constantly collaborating.
After updating each other on their teams’ successes and goals for the week, our entrepreneurs learned all about Customer Discovery in a Lunch and Learn led by Eric Braun (blog post to come).
Customer Discovery with Eric Braun
Here, they practiced tactics on approaching their customers to receive feedback on their products. Our startups found the practice customer interviews to be extremely helpful and applicable to their businesses right now. Later on in the day, some of our startups met with Will Manidis from Dorm Room Fund to learn all about fundraising for their venture.
The next day, we headed back to the Boston Babson campus to do yet another Hot Seat. Jake Maude of BikeLord pitched his business and Marion Benitez (Gaido), Brett Wagner (Waec), and Larissa Moreira (ignitED) all assisted Jake in rebuilding his pitch. They focused specifically on finding the right words to express BikeLord’s value proposition.
Wednesday of Week 3 was a productive day for our entrepreneurs. All day long our teams were driven and focused to get work done. Some groups met with Andy Tollison from Babson’s Speech Center to perfect their speaking styles and practice their pitches. Other groups met with Greg Gomer, the co-founder of HqO, to get advice from a successful Boston entrepreneur. All of the startups met with their advisors to gain insight on how to improve their business. On top of all this, David Chang led an open brainstorming and problem solving session to work through the challenges our entrepreneurs face with market research and testing their assumptions. This workshop took place at the co-working space WeWork.
We ended the week off with Gaido’s hot seat. Emily Cronin (Frostbite Face-off), Larissa Moreira (ignitED), and April Chen (Gentle) provided useful feedback in rebuilding Gaido’s pitch.
SVP Teams at Google Rooftop Party
Throughout the week, many of our startups attended various entrepreneurial events throughout Boston. Some of which included a Google Rooftop Party, the MassChallenge Pulse Finale, the Babson Business of Vice workshop, and a breakfast with Village Health Works. Through these events, our teams made valuable connections with the Boston entrepreneurship ecosystem. Overall, it is nice to see our cohort taking advantage of all that the city has to offer.
Save the date for the Summer Venture Showcase: Thursday July 26. Follow all SVP happenings on Twitter and Instagram with #babsonsvp!