Category Archives: Customer Development

Customer Development, Education, mentoring, startup

Alumniportal Challenge Workshops & Mentoring

Recently I was honored and excited to be invited to teach and mentor the startups participating in the Alumniportal Challenge online. I first held an interactive online workshop on why most startups fail and what to do about it (customer development, lean startup, and all that), and then mentored the international teams over Zoom later in the month.

Alumniportal Deutschland is a non-profit online social network of “Germany Alumni” that is designed internationally for people who have studied, researched, worked or completed further training or a language course in Germany or at a German institution abroad.

The primary non-profit and non-governmental organizations responsible for creating, maintaining and promoting Alumniportal Deutschland are the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD – the world’s largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and researchers), and the Goethe-Institut. Since 2019, the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) is responsible for funding the portal.

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Customer Development, mentoring, startup

Teaching & Mentoring for Founders Institute (FI) MENA

Recently I was asked to teach the current cohort of FI MENA startups about idea validation (aka Customer Developmen), business models and revenue sources and mentor them through later sessions.

Full disclosure: I am NOT a member of FI and I am not participating in the FI participation scheme. I’m not a big FI fan and I chose to remain completely independent, but I’m a big believer in helping grow more founders and financial independence in underserved regions – so when the call comes, I tend to answer regardless.

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Customer Development, Education, entrepreneurship, Events, innovation, Lean Launchpad, Lean Startup

Lean Innovation Educators Summit 2022

Recently I was honored and excited to attend my fifth “Lean Innovation Educators Summit” and exchange best-practices and catch up with fellow educators from around the world.

The Lean Innovation Educators Summit is designed to model the methodologies we teach, as we conduct beneficiary discovery with our fellow Lean LaunchPad educators to improve our courses. A key aspect of teaching the Lean LaunchPad methodology is encouraging students to “get out of the classroom” and talk to others. That’s exactly what we as Lean educators strive to do ourselves at the Summit.

The LEan INNOVATION EDUCATORS SUMMIT

“At our fifth Lean Innovation Educators Summit, we discussed the role of the university and other important organizations in supporting the critical mission of preparing the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. Attendees gleaned insights from keynote speaker Rich Lyons, the Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer of the University of California at Berkeley, about the opportunities and challenges faced by the Lean Innovation Educators community.”

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