We’re teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Health Care (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists. The class has talked to 2,056 customers to date. Part 1: issues in the therapeutics drug discovery pipeline Part 2: medical devices and digital health Part 3: described what we’re going to … Continue reading »
Lean LaunchPad
Well, they ‘should’ be our customers
When scientists and engineers who’ve been working in the lab for years try to commercialize their technology, they often get trapped by their own beliefs – including who the customers are, what features are important, pricing etc. One the key tenets of the Lean LaunchPad class is that every week each team gets out of … Continue reading »
300 Teams in 2 Years
This is the start of the third year teaching teams of scientists (professors and their graduate students) in the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps). This month we’ve crossed ~300 teams in the first two years through the program. I-Corps is the accelerator that helps scientists bridge the commercialization gap between their research in their labs and wide-scale commercial … Continue reading »
This will save us years — Lean LaunchPad for Life Science
We’re deep into week 2 of teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Health Care (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) this October at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists. Part 1 of this post described the issues in the drug discovery. Part 2 covered medical devices and digital health. Part 3 described what we’re going … Continue reading »
The Air Force Academy gets lean
I can always tell when one of my students has been in the military. They’re focused, they’re world-wise past their years, and they don’t break a sweat in the fast pace and chaotic nature of the class and entrepreneurship. Todd Branchflower took my Lean LaunchPad class having been entrepreneurial enough to convince the Air Force send him … Continue reading »
Why real learning is outside the building, not demo day
Over the last three years our Lean LaunchPad / NSF Innovation Corps classes have been teaching hundreds of entrepreneurial teams a year how to build their startups by getting out of the building and testing their hypotheses behind their business model. While our teams have mentors, socialize a lot and give great demos, the goal of our class final presentations is … Continue reading »
Reinventing life science startups – medical devices and digital health
What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? We’re going to test this hypothesis by teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Healthcare (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) this October at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists. In this three … Continue reading »
Reinventing life science startups – therapeutics and diagnostics
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it … Continue reading »
The Lean LaunchPad Educators Class
There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come — Victor Hugo The Lean LaunchPad entrepreneurship curriculum has caught fire. This week 100 educators from around the world will come to Stanford to learn how to teach it. —– Life is full of unintended consequences. Ten years ago I started thinking about why … Continue reading »
Who’s doing the learning?
In a startup, instead of paying consultants to tell you what they learned, you want to pay them to teach you how to learn. Roominate, one of my favorite Lean LaunchPad teams, came out to the ranch last week for a strategy session. Alice and Bettina had taken an idea they had tested in the class – building toys for young girls to have fun … Continue reading »
Fly high
Todd Branchflower was one my Lean LaunchPad students entrepreneurial enough to convince the Air Force send him to Stanford to get his graduate engineering degree. After watching my Secret History of Silicon Valley talk, he became fascinated by how serendipity created both weapon systems and entrepreneurship in World War II – and brought us federal support of science and Silicon Valley. … Continue reading »
Crazy enough to change the world
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow … Continue reading »
Entrepreneurs Experience — do it and learn it
In 2012, in partnership with Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley and NCIIA, Jerry Engel and I first offered the Lean LaunchPad Educators Class. The class was designed to teach educators (and the adjunct entrepreneurs that support them) the Lean LaunchPad approach (Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering) for teaching entrepreneurship. In addition the class offers a suggested “Lean Entrepreneurship” curriculum and the details … Continue reading »
Qualcomm’s corporate entrepreneurship program — lessons learned (part 2)
I ran into Ricardo Dos Santos and his amazing Qualcomm Venture Fest a few years ago and was astonished with its breath and depth. From that day on, when I got asked about which corporate innovation program had the best process for idea selection, I started my list with Qualcomm. This is part 2 of … Continue reading »
Back to Colombia: Vive La Revolución Emprendedora!
My co-author and business Partner Bob Dorf spends much of his time traveling the world teaching countries and companies how to run the Lean LaunchPad program. He’s back to Bogota, Colombia this week for round two. —– Back to Colombia: Vive La Revolución Emprendedora! Lean LaunchPad Colombia starts again today in Bogota with 25 more … Continue reading »
Don’t underestimate the undergraduates
Jim Hornthal splits his time between venture capital, entrepreneurship and education. Jim has founded six companies, including Preview Travel, one of the first online travel agencies, which went public in 1997 and subsequently merged to createTravelocity.com as an independent company. Today he is the co-founder and Chairman of Triporati, LaunchPad Central. And Zignal Labs. Jim co-taught classes with … Continue reading »
Developing a 21st-century entrepreneurship curriculum
In 2012, in partnership with Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley and NCIIA, Jerry Engel and I first offered the Lean LaunchPad Educators Class. The class was designed to teach educators (and the entrepreneurs that support them) the Lean LaunchPad approach (Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering) for teaching entrepreneurship. In addition the class offers a suggested “Lean Entrepreneurship” curriculum and the details of … Continue reading »
Open-source entrepreneurship
One of the great things about being a retired entrepreneur is that I get to give back to the community that helped me. I assembled this collection of free and almost free tools, class syllabi, presentations, books, lectures, videos in the hope that it can make your path as an entrepreneur or educator easier. Free: Startup … Continue reading »
Customer development in Japan: A history lesson
The Japanese edition of The Startup Owner’s Manual hit the bookstores in Japan this week. The book has been shepherded and edited by a great Japanese VC at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, Takashi Tsutsumi, with help from Masato Iino. I asked Tsutsumi-san to write a guest post for my blog to describe his experience with Customer … Continue reading »
10,000 startups — Startup Weekend Next
Today we are announcing the biggest entrepreneurial program ever launched – Startup Weekend Next. A partnership of Startup Weekend, Startup America, TechStars and Udacity, Startup Weekend Next brings four weeks of amazing hands-on training learning to build your startup to cities around the world. Our goal– to inspire, educate and empower hundred’s of thousands of entrepreneurs and help create 10,000 startups. The Lean LaunchPad Class You may … Continue reading »