AcceleRagin' - Lean Startup Method Session for Entrepreneurs

Be more innovative.

Stop wasting people's time.

Be more successful.

Join the Moody College of Business Entrepreneur-in-Residence Zachary Barker, Executive Director of The Opportunity Machine, as he he guides budding entrepreneurs through the Lean Startup method.

The event will be Tuesday, October 6th from 3:30-4:30pm in Moody Hall, Room 103. As part of the AcceleRagin' business accelerator program, this free event is open to all UL Lafayette students.

Overview:

Too many startups (entrepreneurs, artists, inventors, etc.) begin with an idea for a product that they think people want. They then spend months, sometimes years, perfecting that product without ever showing the product, even in a very rudimentary form, to the prospective customer. When they fail to reach broad uptake from customers, it is often because they never spoke to prospective customers and determined whether or not the product was interesting. When customers ultimately communicate, through their indifference, that they don't care about the idea, the startup fails.

The Lean Startup methodology has as a premise that every startup is a grand experiment that attempts to answer a question. The question is not "Can this product be built?" Instead, the questions are "Should this product be built?" and "Can we build a sustainable business around this set of products and services?"

The first step is figuring out the problem that needs to be solved and then developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to begin the process of learning as quickly as possible. Once the MVP is established, a startup can work on tuning the engine. This will involve measurement and learning and must include actionable metrics that can demonstrate cause and effect question.

For more information on Ragin' Business Week, visit business.louisiana.edu/rbw.