We had a great set of entrepreneurs at our “Idea to Revenue” this afternoon. The class was sponsored by CINA,the Chinese Information and Networking Association and held at Fenwick & West in Mountain View. Here are some of the comments from the feedback form:
- “Great overview of the early stage entrepreneurial process. I liked the interaction & open brainstorming.”
- “Some part are too high level, need more details.”
- “The face to face discussions went well.”
- “I would like more time on individual business discussions, ideas, and difficulties.”
- “Offered a good outline of startup business strategy.”
The format for this class involves an extended interactive session on goals and how the entrepreneur will monitor progress toward them. Everyone left with two one page worksheets filled out with a specific focus on their business. The first was a set of goals for the balance of 2008 and 2009, with two key objectives for 2008 identified and an additional four goals for 2009. The second was a description of their customer’s pain points, how they are addressing them today, and a list of key assumptions in their business plan.
It was a lot of fun but we were drained after it was over. We are offering it again in December.