Nanyang Accelerator Program

Introduction

The Agenda

• The mentoring team• Programme objectives• Mentoring team philosophy• Our expectations of you

Steve Blank

8 startups in Silicon Valley• Semiconductors• Supercomputers• Consumer electronics• Video games• Enterprise software• Military intelligence

sblank@stanford.edu@sgblank

www.steveblank.com

Facilitating team: Kee, YY, Sha

Mentors• Mentors are people with real-world experience• Mentors role is to:– Help you “Get you out of the building”– Share contacts– Offer “Real-world” entrepreneurial advice– Critical feedback

• You arrange your schedule for the mentors, not the other way around

Some of the Mentors

Programme Objective: Idea to a Business

• What does it take to go from idea/MVP to a business?– Business Model + Customer Development– Hypotheses testing of the business models– Get “out of the building”

Programme Objective: Helping startups

• Experience the same pressures, uncertainty, and challenges of a real startup– We expect iterations and Pivots– Class is a “lab” - books/lectures are tools, not answers– Fail fast, learn quick, push you outside your comfort

zone

Mentoring team philosophy• This class is taught using the “Startup Culture”– Mentors are tough, direct, fair - you need to be the same– Startup culture has no hierarchy - in this class you are an

entrepreneur – treat us like your peers, not your bosses or supervisors

– We’re your biggest supporters – we want you to succeed• Question us, challenge us, push us as hard as we push

you• We don’t pretend to be domain experts, we know you

are smarter and know your domain better than we do

Getting Out of The Building

• This class is not only about the lectures• The class is about the work you do outside the

building• It’s the difference between a vision and a

hallucination

Our Expectations of You

• This is a full-contact, immersive class– All of you will be full participants – here and

remotely– You will spend lots of time outside classroom– You all will do the work assigned

• Commitment of time is required

What Will you Learn?

• Opportunity evaluation• Search for Business Models• Customer Discovery and Validation• Operating and decision making in chaos with

insufficient data• Ruthless pursuit of an objective by a team

The Programme ‘By the Numbers’

• 2 facilitators, 1 TA, 10 + Mentors • 9 sessions of evening class• 1 session of 15-minute sharing as graduation

presentation

10-15 hours of work a week outside the classroom

Class Logistics

Course Reading

• Business Model Generation• The Startup Owner's Manual•www.steveblank.com

Class Schedule10 (3 hour) Class Sessions: • 1: Introduction, Business Models, Customer Development• 2: Value Proposition• 3: Customer Segment• 4: Channels• 5: Demand Creation (Customer Relationships)• 6: Revenue Model• 7: Key Resources and Activities• 8: Cost Structure • 9: Key Resource• 10: Graduation Day

New ventures

• Team size of up to 5 people• Any for-profit scalable startup• If you are a domain expert, that’s your best bet (but

not required)• If you pick a web project, you have to build it (and

there needs to be some novelty)• If you have the MVP or just got funded, that is even

better

Team Deliverables - Presentation• Each Week– Lessons Learned presentation 5 minutes– Updated business model canvas– Update blog/wiki– 10’s of hours of “outside the building” progress

• Graduation Presentation– 15 minute demo and sharing

Team Deliverables - Blog• Each Week– Business model canvas updates– Interviews– Photos/Videos– A/B tests– Strategy

Class Disclosure/NDA’s• Successful startups are not about the original idea – It’s about learning, discovery and execution– You will not be presenting your IP/technical details

• You get to see how previous teams solved problems by looking at their slides, notes and blogsTherefore:– Your slides, notes and blogs will be shared with other teams– This is an open class. No non-disclosures

To sign up for the programme, please visit:www.ntuventures.com/accelerator.html